Calorie Counts of Food

There's no question that there are some confusion about calorie counts of food. Is a Calorie a Calorie? Not All Are Created Equal! What exactly is a calorie, and why should you care?

Technically speaking, what we think of when we use the term "Calories" is actually a kilocalorie. Does this mean anything? Not really, since everyone except for scientists use the generic term of "calorie." What you do need to know is that a calorie is simply a measurement of energy--more specifically, a measurement of food energy.

It tells us how much energy is in food. Does that mean all calories are created equally? Absolutely not. Your body processes various types of calories much differently. Some are burned for energy, and some are stored as fat.

What do You Need to Know?

What you need to know about calories is that they can be reduced to four types of foods. These are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and alcohol. The caloric counts of these foods are quite different, however, and how your body processes each is equally as important.

How many calories are in a gram of food? That depends on the type. Proteins and carbohydrates have four calories per gram. Fats have nine calories per gram, and alcohol has seven calories per gram. From this, you can see how the low fat craze started.

If fat has the most calories per gram, then it seems logical to cut fats, and you'll lose weight. In theory, this works, but the carbohydrate question comes into play.

Calories and Carbs

What you need to know about carbohydrates is that there are two kinds: simple and complex. This is important, because complex carbohydrates are much healthier in general.

Further, your body takes longer to digest and use energy from complex carbohydrates that it does from simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are also known as simple sugars, and your body "blasts" through them, making you feel hungry again shortly after eating.

Additionally, if there are too many simple sugars in your body, they can't be processed, and they're converted to fat (that's the short version). One thing to note is that fruit juice and fructose fall into the simple sugar category. Does this mean you should cut out all fruits? No, but it does mean you should consider eating fruits whole and fresh. The fiber in fruit slows the digestion process, and the nutrients are maintained better in whole fruits than it is in fruit juice.

Calories and Fats

Even though fats contain the highest amount of calories per gram, this does not mean they're not important. You must have some fat in your diet. It's essential to your survival--literally.

Too much fat, of course, also affects your survival. The key here is to choose "good" fats. Those found in foods such as olive oil and avocadoes. These fats help raise your "good" cholesterol levels and lower the "bad."

Fats in your diet also help you feel full longer, which can mean fewer calories overall. The bottom line is that choosing your calories carefully is key. This includes balance and healthy choices.