Calories Count But They’re Irrelevant
Understanding calories and counting them for health and fitness is flat out wrong says Jonathan Bailor, author of Smarter Science Of Slim and The Calorie Myth. We are in the worst health epidemic of all time with the traditional American diet.
Bailor blames low protein and low fat diets.
{We are taking a leap of faith and have added a donate button instead of using advertisers. Advertisements have been removed from this page to make your reading uninterrupted. If you learn something here, please donate so we can keep offering these posts. This post contains affiliate links, which sometimes pay for this site}.
“The calorie myth” is where all things we do and eat are balanced upon one focus, the calorie. “Up until the 1970s nobody in the mainstream knew what a calorie was, let alone count them. And we were slimmer and healthier. And no one in the world knew what a calorie was until the 1800s.” He said the rates of obesity from the first recorded documentation of obesity in the early 20th century was from military records and showed the obesity rate was sub 3%.
During the Real Food Con(ference) of 2013 held by Underground Wellness, Bailor said, “Calories count but they’re irrelevant.”
“In studies where they try to make people gain weight eating whole foods, they can’t.” Jonathon sites overfeeding studies done in prisons and all over the country. The test subjects were fed nutrient dense foods found in nature: non-starchy vegetables, nutrient dense protein, whole food fats and low fructose fruits. His claim is if we eat the proper quality food our body’s homeostasis, the body’s regulatory system, will regulate the food for us. “You don’t become overweight from eating too much food, you become overweight from eating the wrong types of food.”
Bailor points out naturally thin people have a lower set point for homeostasis than larger people.
He says eat more but smarter, eat higher quality food.
We live with the basis of two major myths that fuel our eating styles. The first is eating less makes us weigh less. The second is excessive exercise makes us weigh less.
Bailor says the reality is, “Eating less causes us to burn less. With that the body slows down. The next thing to happen is the brain slows down.
“Dropping caloric intake as low as 1600 calories (causes) our base metabolic rate drops up to 40%,” Bailor says.
The cycle of dieting, gaining, dieting, gaining, comes from loss of muscle tissue during dieting. When we have less muscle tissue we can not burn our fuel properly. When the fuel is not properly burned it is stored as fat again creating a viscous cycle of diet, gain, diet, gain. When you diet and regain weight the body is only doing what you have ordered it to do.
“What the body does when it faces a caloric deficit has nothing to do with thermodynamics.What it has to do with is biology,” Bailor says.
At this point 2/3 of our population is obese. He recommends we stop eating products and start eating food found in nature.
The concept that a calorie isn’t a calorie is proven through several routes.
The easiest route is looking at the numbers themselves and comparing the output. For example, 140 calories of high fructose soda does something different to our body than 140 calories of salmon.
Food that fills you up and keeps you full is the goal. Seek out satiating foods like egg yolk from free ranging bug eating chickens or steak with lots of fat on the side.
Food causes an insulin response causing aggression within the body. Seek calories that do not cause blood sugar spikes.
Seek food that is nutrient dense, provides essential fats, vitamins and minerals.
Food we eat gets broken down differently for utilization. Fat gets broken down into fatty acids, protein gets broken down into amino acids and carbohydrates get broken down into glucose. Glucose gets converted into triglyceride if there’s too much. Protein has an extra step. Breaking down protein uses up 30% of the protein. This causes it to be processed quicker and easier at the same time is it rebuilding the body.
If the same amount of food was eaten from carbohydrate 200% more of it would be stored as fat as the body is more efficient at processing carbohydrates.
Bailor says the more water, the more fiber. The more protein a food contains the better it is for you to consume. You are best off consuming non-starchy vegetables, whole plants you could eat raw: asparagus, broccoli, leafy greens, mushrooms or salad type foods. This should be 50% of your meal. Nutrient dense proteins should be 1/3 of your plate such as grass fed free ranging meat and poultry, wild caught seafood and fermented dairy products. The last portion of the plate should be whole food fats like avocado, nuts or seeds and fruits with a low fructose count like berries or citrus fruit.
He says, “Eat two of those plates. Eat three of those plates.” The basis of fueling your body into a nutritive state is the goal. While eating less will slow you down.
*Nourishing Plot is written by Becky Plotner, ND, traditional naturopath, GAPS who sees clients in Rossville, Georgia. She works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, Skype and phone. Since her son was delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia through food she continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. This is not a news article published by a paper trying to make money. This blog is put out by a mom who sees first hand the effects of nourishing food vs food-ish items. No company pays her for writing these blogs, she considers this a form of missionary work. It is her desire to scream it from the rooftops so that others don’t suffer from the damaging effect of today’s “food”.
“GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. The right of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.
Other sources:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/88/6/1716S.full
http://www.mr-damon.com/experiments/3svt/food_energy/
http://thebailorgroup.com/jonathanbailor/
Tag:Food
2 Comments
“”Food causes an insulin response causing aggression within the body.” Huh? First, not all food causes an insulin response. Fat doesn’t. Protein less so. It’s carbohydrates, particularly sugar and refined carbs, that create the most significant nsulin response. Secondly, what is “aggression within the body”? I agree with most of what you say, and I have “The Smarter Science of Slim.” But if say things like this, most people will roll their eyes and dismiss anything you say.
None of the sources listed are credible at all. A calorie is a measurement of energy.Calories cannot differ from each other as that would literally either defy the definition of the word calorie of defy the laws of physics.1000 calories from whole foods is exactly the same as 1000 calories from ice-cream in terms of energy, which is all that matters for weight loss or weight gain.