Radio 4 Podcast: Calories

[James]

Is a calorie a calorie... yes bringing it back up.. again!

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/...1024-1630a.mp3

Good history lesson for some, too!

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Listening to this now...

One quote that stands out is by a calorie counter who comments that when consulting her calorie counting book for the caloric value of a banana, she becomes confused because bananas vary in size and weight and therefore in total calorie content, whereas her book gives one count for (presumably) an 'average banana'! Ultimately, she says, she would rather avoid eating a banana then try to work out how many calories the banana she is about to eat contains! Then the real kicker: she would rather eat a 'ready meal' (junk food) because it has a nutritional panel on the side of the box that tells her exactly how much it weighs and how many calories it contains!

This is just one of the dangers of reducing everything about food and diet to 'calories' - people become so fixated on calorie content and how that relates to body weight that any consideration of the actual nutritional quality of food becomes secondary if not completely thrown out of the window! No wonder that a good deal of the revenue generated by organisations like Weight Watchers comes from their packaged foods aimed at dieters who want a quick and easy way to control their caloric intake with everything pre-measured and counted for them - even if the product is no better nutritionally than any other pre-packaged 'junk' food.

This is where the notion of calorie counting has got us - that the energy content of what we put in our mouth is more important than how nourishing it is and how our body actually reacts to it based on that nutritional profile rather than the calories it contains.

[James]

It's a shame that the world is in such a rush nowadays, everything has to be a quick FIX or it just won't fly, the obvious becomes a confusing mystery and the logical and healthy becomes near unreachable as the norm.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

The sad fact is that humans are the only animal on the planet that seem unable to control their food intake and body weight/composition without resorting to intellectual gymnastics like calorie counting! Did we develop a huge brain and intellect to enable us to quantify and count every morsel we put into our mouth? Or do we quantify and count because we have an intellect that allows - even demands - that we should? It seems by deifying the human intellect we have lost touch with how our bodies' feel and react to stimuli, like food, and have to rely on observation and mental gymnastics to manage something pretty much 'auto-regulated' by every other 'dumb animal' on the planet!

[James]

Although, not for domesticated pets/animals - makes sense I guess!

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Exactly - we feed them based on our intellectualised concepts of what their diet should be rather than how/what/when they would eat in the wild. Look at the ingredients on any pack of proprietary pet food and it is evident we feed them the same 'crap in a box' we feed ourselves!

[elmo322]

Quote

The sad fact is that humans are the only animal on the planet that seem unable to control their food intake and body weight/composition without resorting to intellectual gymnastics like calorie counting! Did we develop a huge brain and intellect to enable us to quantify and count every morsel we put into our mouth? Or do we quantify and count because we have an intellect that allows - even demands - that we should? It seems by deifying the human intellect we have lost touch with how our bodies' feel and react to stimuli, like food, and have to rely on observation and mental gymnastics to manage something pretty much 'auto-regulated' by every other 'dumb animal' on the planet!

What is also interesting is that some bodybuilders, athletes, fitness models etc can instinctively eat foods and know which foods to add or cut out for weight gain or loss without measuring precisely. I find this myself, if I want to decrease my bodyfat I simply eat less and switch a few foods out do a bit more cardio and decrease resistance training volume and if by magic it works. I think people read too much into diet and training, it is actually really simple (in terms of maintaing a healthy body wieght and not getting type 2 diabetes, not talking preparing for a bb contest or performance related training ).