bite my words

Dispelling nutrition myths, ranting, and occasionally, raving

Tag Archives: calories


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The many faces of sugar

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An article in the New York Times refers to a recent study that showed we consume most of our added sugar in solid foods rather than from sugar sweetened beverages. I’d like to point out that the sugar and calories in beverages tend to come with little or no additional nutrients. This may or may not be the case with foods. The calories in beverages also tend to be less satiating than the calories in foods.

The author suggests looking at where sugar is listed on the ingredient list as ingredients are listed by weight. Yes, this is true but the problem is that sugar is now frequently listed in numerous forms in the ingredient list. You should probably take the time to scroll through the entire ingredient list to see how many different forms of sugar are included. Here’s a link to a list of the many names that sugar takes. It makes grocery shopping more time-consuming and complicated to do read labels thoroughly but it’s worth it for your health. Another trick: try purchasing/growing as many foods without food labels as possible and cooking your own meals so that you can be in as much control of what goes on your plate and in your mouth as possible.


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Coca Cola tackles obesity

I can’t seem to keep up with my reading… I just read this news article about Coca Cola launching a series of ads, ostensibly to address the obesity epidemic. Really Coke? Are we honestly expected to believe that a huge for-profit company like Coca Cola is concerned about obesity rates and thinks that two, two-minute commercials will help us to lose weight. These ads are not for our benefit, they’re for the benefit of Coca Cola. They are advertising their beverages, and are meant to increase sales, not help you to lose weight.

The first ad tells us what Coca Cola is doing to reduce obesity. That would be creating more diet sodas. They also put calorie counts on the front of cans (because turning them around was too much effort). They also  While reducing calories through consumption of low-calorie beverage options, rather than the original versions, can aid in weight loss it is certainly not the only necessary change. More important personal changes include: cooking most meals at home, not eating in front of the tv, and eating slowly. Most importantly, we need to change our society and food system so that calorie-laden, nutrient-poor foods are not so cheap and readily available, among other things.

The second ad (which I can’t seem to find a link for, sorry) tells us how much exercise is necessary to burn-off the 140 calories in a standard can of Coke. The message here? Coca Cola doesn’t have all that many calories, you can burn them off by walking your dog, dancing, or basically just having fun with your friends. Sure, you can burn-off the calories in those ways but the empty calories are not the only thing to be concerned about. There’s the phosphorus which may increase bone demineralization. There’s the fact that these calories may be displacing nutrient-dense foods and are often being consumed on-top of more than all necessary calories, meaning that one walk around the block with the dog is more than likely not going to be adequate exercise to maintain or lose weight.

I don’t think that anyone should be applauding Coke for “tackling” the obesity crisis. These advertisements are entirely intended to make you feel okay about consuming empty calories. Honestly, I don’t blame Coca Cola for trying to sell their products, everyone’s got to make a living. I just find it offensive that they think we’re stupid enough to believe that a) they’re concerned about obesity and b) that two commercials could reduce obesity rates.


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Gluten-free weight loss

I’ve blogged about the fallacy of weight loss resulting from the modern vegan diet before. As the gluten-free trend continues I frequently hear about people choosing to go gluten-free in order to lose weight. Many packaged gluten-free foods have a health halo. That is, people believe that they’re healthy simply because they’re gluten-free. However, the same rules apply to gluten-free packaged foods as to any other packaged foods and label-reading is still essential.

You may lose weight on a gluten-free diet. However, you’re much more likely to do so if you’re not replacing one processed packaged food for another. In fact, many packaged gluten-free foods often have more calories than their traditional glutenous counterparts. While gluten-free breads continue to evolve and improve in formulation, many are still very dense and while their slices may appear smaller than regular bread they may still have equivalent, or more, calories.

Beyond calories, gluten-free baked goods usually have less fibre than glutenous baked goods. Gluten-free bread tends to have about 1 gram of fibre per slice. Compare that to regular whole wheat bread which generally has about 4 grams of fibre per slice.

Before you decide to go gluten-free (without a doctor’s recommendation) remember that label-reading still applies. Ensure that you’re still getting sufficient fibre. Regardless of whether or not you’re going gluten-free, you should try to choose minimally processed foods as often as possible. Finally, gluten-free doesn’t mean calorie-free but it often means fibre-free.


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Grocery store lessons: coffee cream

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Usually my “lessons” are about products that you should avoid. Not this time!

As much as I love having y coffee black (no, that’s not sarcasm) sometimes I like to have a little cream in it. However, calories and fat from coffee cream add up quickly: one tablespoon of 18% coffee cream will add 25 calories, 2.5 g of fat (1.5 g of which are saturated). It will also provide you with sodium and cholesterol. Enter: So Delicious’s Coconut Milk for Coffee.

This coconut milk has only 5 calories per tablespoon, 0.3 g fat (0.2 of which are saturated). No sodium. No Cholesterol. Of course, purists won’t be thrilled as along with the main ingredient of coconut milk, there’s cane syrup, colour, dibasic potassium phosphate, carrageenan, and guar gum (although it is organic). Despite these ingredients, I think that this product is a great alternative to regular creams for coffee lovers looking to save calories but not wanting to drink their coffee with low-fat milk or nothing added.

 


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I like my coffee with honey and coconut oil?!

I know that I rant about the stupid advice Dr Oz gives frequently. He just gives stupid advice frequently and I can’t let it all pass by without comment.

The other day he was doing some sort of Q&A on twitter and responded to a question from a reader:

 

What in the heck kind of suggestions are those? I’m assuming that this individual is using splenda because they’re concerned about their weight (correctly as it turned out because I sent them a tweet after seeing this). Honey, while likely a healthier choice than granulated sugar in some respects, has about the same amount of calories (actually a few more) per teaspoon as sugar. And coconut oil?! Perhaps I’m the crazy one here, but I can’t imagine that any type of oil would be a tasty or health conscious addition to a cup of coffee. Milk, while a great alternative to cream is not really an alternative to sweetener. Honestly, if you’re drinking your coffee black, you’re concerned about consuming extra calories, and you enjoy a little splenda in it then that’s a perfectly healthy option. 

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