Are Invisible Calories Making You Fat?

 

I recently saw a pic that has had me thinking about it a lot.  It wasn’t gross.  It wasn’t beautiful. It wasn’t shocking.  Well, that’s just it maybe that is exactly what it was in a way.  Let me explain.  

The picture was a hand with some mixed nuts in it.  Then, another hand with more nuts in it.  But, the first handful of fewer nuts was 85 calories, the second was 255 calories.  What made these hands shocking is that at first glance there really wasn’t much of a difference in the number of nuts and so, I started thinking.  

How much do we really know about where our calories are coming from.

A snack of nuts is a wise choice.  

  • ¼ cup/28g of the mixed that I buy is 160 calories, 14g fat, 0g cholesterol, 0mg sodium and 5g protein.  

So compare that to Doritos  

  • 21 chips/50g are 260 Calories, 13g fat, 0mg cholesterol, 370 mg sodium, and 3 g protein.  
  • Girl Guide cookies  2 cookies/29g  140 calories, 6 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 45 mg sodium and 1 g protein.  
  • Pretzels  90 pretzels/50g  190 calories, 0g fat, 0mg cholesterol, 860 mg sodium and 4 g protein.

 

These quantities are all of the suggested servings right on the package but I don’t know who ‘they' think is actually consuming their food because I have never counted chips or weighed pretzels or even had just two cookies.  Get real!

So look at this little comparison above.  Ok, no cholesterol in any of these choices. That sounds good, doesn’t it?  But look at the sodium amounts.  If all you are doing is counting calories, you are missing out on some major nutritional info.  

What you eat is not just about calories either.  If it was only about calories, let’s face it, there are a whole lot of people that would only eat chocolate or anything deep fried or just bacon. Our bodies are way more complicated than that.  And like it or not, we need to eat our vegetables.  A lot of veggies.  Sorry to all you people that don’t like veggies unless they are in a burger or a caesar.  

But, again, it’s more than just veggies.  We are made to eat a whole variety of foods.  Our brains don’t survive without fat.  Our muscles require protein.  Our digestion needs water, plain water.

If you don’t start paying attention to at least some of the details in what you are eating, your body will just not work the same.  The time has come and gone where you can just be complacent and eat whatever commercial you have just seen.  There are way too many competing radical diets that are dangerous.  You need to do what is right for your body.  So listen to it.

If after eating that portion of Doritos, are you full?  After all, it was your snack and you should at least be satisfied at the end of it.  A snack is just a small meal and so it should be treated like that.  A small meal should have multiple components to it.  Protein, first and foremost, because that is the food that keeps you satisfied longer.  Then whatever else you have to keep you actually mentally satisfied.  If it is crunchy, sweet, sour,  or whatever it is your body is asking you for.  If you listen, your body will tell you.  Really it will.

Please, just pay attention to your portions.  Not the portions on the package, those actually have nothing to do with the amount that your body should have in a serving.  The portions you should be paying attention to are actually not that hard to find.  We use a great app my fitness pal.  Your daily quantities are all listed there.  You can very quickly look at this app for your daily amounts of most of your requirements.  They also have most foods entered into their system for easy reference.  It is a free app, really easy to use.  I have actually talked about it before.  There are all sorts of references out there if you really are interested.  Even your doctor with have some daily quantities.  

Next time you sit down to eat,

  • look at your portion.  
  • Then look at your calories.  
  • After that look at the rest of your nutritional content.  
  • Pay attention.  
  • It matters.  
  • Oh, and drink your water.  

 

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. – Virginia Wolf

 

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