WHY CALORIES DON’T COUNT DR GILES YEO ares alNOT ALL CALORIES ARE EQUAL” WHAT IS A CALORIE? WHY DON’T CALORIES COUNT? Calories are units of heat. aa i 1 calorie aka ‘heat’ calorie = energy needed to raise the temperature of ml of water by 1°C at sea level 1 Calorie aka kcal or ‘food’ calorie = energy needed to raise the temperature of “litre of water by 1°C at sea level. Be nck: . 2 et aTHE DISCOVERY OF CALORIC AVAILABILITY HUMANS ARE NOT BOMB ° CALORIMETERS There are differences between how many calories we absorb from different foods This was first discovered 140 years ago by chemistry professor Wilbur Olin Atwater For 20 years, Atwater's work focused on calculating the calorie content of thousands of different types of foods. esse e iti dd METHOb. through a bomb Le J me) TBE ATIWATERY GENERALE FACTORS: Tt Ll SNS Sahara OULU) La eae a orl AU ee NC eee ere eerie ieiase WHAT COULD ATWATER NOT CALCULATE 120 yy) 2 YEARS AGO? d Fe Len Ee ON eas fs discovery at the time, helping us to me me eee calorie calculation, informing calorie ROU aoa ae eRe TD Cer ar CoC a Rare nutrients in food. This is the final % Peon teers ro et aHOW DO WE UTILISE = CALORIES AS ENERGY? HOW DOES FOOD PROVIDE ENERGY? Protein, fat and carbohydrates are all metabolised into intermediate nutrients (amino acids, fatty acids and glucose) before being transported around the body, When these intermediate nutrients reach the cell, they are metabolised into transportable units of energy called adenosine.iriphosphate.(AT?). ATP has three phosphate “77 > “~ groups which have very high 0ea0 . Nhe 4% 9 (ae) <= energy bonds between them. « 38 i OOF Von? ENERGY When you break the bond and a FROM FOOD PHOSPHATE phosphate group is removed, ATP becomes adenosine diphosphate OH OH (ADP) and a charge of energy is » 1 I J n released ° i When our food is 4 ' PHOSPHATE \ Ho-P-0-p-0. ba OH YQ metabolised, we ‘recharge’ the ADP > 4 [-} ADP back to ATP, ready to ENERGY ha use again for energy. et aCALORIC AVAILABILITY ~~ OF MACRONUTRIENTS PROTEIN CONTENT MATTERS) Most of our energy is stored in the body as fat, with a small amount of energy stored as glycogen Carbohydrate and fat are composed entirely of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen which makes ‘them almost interchangeable when it comes to storage in the body. Unlike carbohydrate and fat, we don't have a store of protein. Protein is either metabolised and used immediately or stored as fat. While protein is composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen too, it also contains nitrogen. The nitrogen needs to be stripped out of the amino acid before the energy can. be used or stored THIS PROCESS USES ENERGY! 307, of the calories from protein are used by the body to strip out nitrogen and metabolise amino acids into energy, 10% of calories from complex carbohydrates and S% of calories from simple carbohydrates are used to package the energy up into useable units. METABOLISABLE ENERGY NET METABOLISABLE ENERGY Energy a — La) 175kcal FAT Fat is incredibly energy dense and 48-1007, of calories will be absorbed WAN aWE EAT FOOD NOT CALORIES WHAT SHOULD WE BE COUNTING INSTEAD? @ 167. OF YOUR DAILY ENERGY INTAKE FROM PROTEIN ©@o) Gg >30G OF FIBRE PER DAY @ <5 oF your vaILy ENERGY INTAKE FROM FREE SUGAR @ rear-rree vavs GATORIG AVAILABIL 2O2UEAN Hla) The entire concept of caloric availability 1s why popular diets work, even if just for the short to medium term. All diets that ‘work’ for weight loss manage to create a catorte deficit This 1s done through one of three ways: Calorie restriction e.g. low calorie’ diets, group weight loss support High protein (>16% total calories) eg. Keto, Atkins etc. High fibre e.g. Plant-based diets A HEALTHY DIET IS A PRIVILEGE There ts an uncomfortable link between _ class and health. y SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS RISK OF OBESITY AND OTHER DIET-RELATED ILLNESSES There are complex reasons why, but a large part of the reason is because quick, easy and cheap foods tend to be ultra-processed. Ultra-processed foods are typically Low in protein and fibre, and higher in salt, sugar and fat - therefore they tend to be very RU calorically available G6 We need to talk about how we can consider making ultra-processed foods better, because it does annoy me when people say ‘replace that chocolate bar with a banana’. Sometimes.life. demands.a chocolate bar, sometimes. life demands.a banana. The question to ask is, how do we make a verter i chocolate bar? WAN a