When you are surrounded by Taco Hell, you get to thinking that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If we are to believe the results of the so-called “Twinkie Study,”of course they are all the same. If we try delving anywhere into a place I would like to call reality, however, we find that not all calories are created equally. Let us not forget the shameful deceit of corn sugar, for example.
Weight Watchers, helping men and women lose weight since the 1960’s is now coming to acknowledge something I feel as though I have known my whole life, with great advice from my mother telling me all about the importance of eating complex carbohydrates (brown rice) and not simple ones (white rice) — the source of the calories is just as significant as how many calories you consume.
Some calories come from foods that fill you up more than others, and some calories come from foods that do not spike insulin levels so much. Some calories come from foods with virtually no nutritional value (empty calories), while others are rich in vitamins and minerals.
All fresh fruits and the majority of vegetables now score zero points in the Weight Watchers new PointsPlus system. Dried fruit and some vegetables, such as potatoes and corn will still have points.
Similarly, we can look at a comparison between consuming calories that have their root in animal sources versus plant-based sources. Most of the animal sources are deficient in any of a number of positive qualities and are loaded down with excessive artery clogging cholesterol.
When you are facing down the menu, you need to know that your choices aren’t as simple as how many calories a food item has because two thousand calories coming to you from the empty calorie sugar train won’t do you any good.