Since March is National Nutrition Month, I thought I’d share some food for thought, when it comes to making nutritious choices.
When making decisions about what to eat, it helps to know some fundamental facts about calories. For instance, did you know that it takes 3,500 calories to gain a pound?
That means, theoretically, it takes 3,500 calories to burn off that pound. (While that’s generally true, it’s not true 100% of the time because weight loss, among individuals, can vary).
In general, though, it’s good to know how many calories a particular food has.
It also helps to know the origin of the calories you’re consuming.
So, when you look at the food label, be sure to make note of the fat, protein and carbohydrates.
These are the macronutrients — and where calories are found.
Vitamins and minerals, which are micronutrients, don’t contain calories.
Protein and carbohydrates (including all those grams of added sugar) have 4 calories per gram.
Fat has 9 calories per gram. If a food item has 10 grams of fat, that’s 90 calories right there.
That’s why it’s important to know that when you go easy on the fat — such as baking versus frying, having low-fat milk, or using less cream-based salad dressing — you can instantly cut down on calories.
Calorie intake, as you may have guessed, has increased over the decades.
A Pew Research study reported that Americans, on average, in 2010, were eating 2,481 calories a day. That’s 23% more than were consumed daily in 1970.
A lot of caloric intake comes down to food choices.
Are you choosing food that is nutrient-dense or calorie-dense?
Nutrient-dense foods are high in vitamins and minerals, and typically – but not always – low in calories and fat.
Calorie-dense foods are high in calories and yield low nutritional value.
Think about foods such as cookies, chips, soda and candy bars.
Those whose eating pattern consists of foods with “empty” calories may develop vitamin or mineral deficiencies, too, because filling up on these foods replaces eating foods that have more nutritional value.
For instance, indulging on cookies won’t have the same effect on your health as, say, snacking on an apple.
You can fill yourself up by eating calorie-dense foods, but your body won’t get much nourishment from the food.
Here are some easy side-by-side examples of calorie-dense versus nutrient-dense foods:
- 6 ounces of strawberry-flavored yogurt (168 calories), compared to 6 ounces of plain yogurt with 3 ounces of freshly sliced strawberries (137 calories)
- 1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios (190 calories), compared to 1 cup plain Cheerios (100 calories
- 1 can of cola (140 calories), compared to water (0 calories)
- Enriched bagel with cream cheese (259 calories), compared to whole wheat bagel with 2 tablespoons hummus (236 calories)
- A 2-ounce bag of bite-sized cookies at the vending machine (280 calories), compared to a package of peanuts at the vending machine (333 calories)
Did you notice the cookies have less calories than the nuts?
Nutrient-dense foods don’t always mean fewer calories, but they do have more nutrition.
Even the healthier unsaturated fats still have 9 calories per gram, so something like oils, nuts, chia seeds and avocados will be high-calorie due to the fat content, but they still have plenty of nutrition to go along with it.
The peanuts have 2 grams of sugar, and plenty of fiber and protein, while the cookies are high in sugar (18 grams) and only have 2 grams of fiber.
A healthy diet doesn’t mean you have to obsessively count calories at every meal, but it’s a good idea to get into the habit of looking at food labels and reading the ingredients.
Fewer ingredients are a sign the food hasn’t been heavily processed and, therefore, has more nutritional quality.
It’s also good to remember that while the difference between one choice and another may seem negligible, those small decisions do add up.
So, if your choices add up to an extra 500 calories a day, then that adds up to 3,500 calories in a week, which equals 1 pound.
So, it’s easy to see how weight gain can creep up on you.
Here are some suggestions to modify recipes and substitute ingredients to make more nutrient dense meals:
- Use reduced-fat dairy (milk, cheese) instead of full-fat
- Whole grains (bread, pasta, brown rice) instead of enriched (white) grains
- Use a leaner ground meat, or a plant-based protein such as beans or lentils
- Use herbs and spices instead of salt
- Use healthy cooking oil (canola, peanut, almond, olive, etc.) instead of butter or lard
- Add more vegetables than the original recipe calls for, such as more onion, spinach, mushrooms and so on.
By Shari Bresin
Shari Bresin is the Family & Consumer Science Agent for the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Cooperative Extension Pasco County.
Published March 23, 2022
