A Calorie Is A Calorie

Myth number 2: A calorie is a calorie.

High-protein diets tried to prove this wrong, and failed. Recent studies, however, have proved that not all calories are the same in relation to weight loss. You can see how our diets have changed in relation to the three main food groups protein, fat and carbohydrate.

As you can see, our consumption of calories from fat is carbohydrates (that's sugar, grains, vegetables and fruit) mid possibly protein. Only calories from carbohydrates, however. have gone up consistently in line with increasing rates of obesity.

If carbohydrates were to blame, you'd expect countries that eat large amounts of carbohydrates to be the fattest. But not a hard and fast rule. Some of the healthiest communities in the world get 55 per cent or more of their calories from carbohydrate. China, where the figure is 70 per cent of caloric, is a  classic example. So let's go in closer and look at the kind of carbohydrates we are eating more of.

Mainly we consumed from three kinds of carbohydrates, (added) sugar, starch and fiber, which is indigestible carbohydrate and has no caloric value. Fiber has gone up, which is nothing but good news and, if anything, would reduce weight because it fills you up and you eat less. But what really stands out now is our intake of sugar which is steadily rising.

The average person in Britain eats 22kg (481b) of sugar a year. Yet according to government sources, 2.3 billion tons of sugar go into the British food supply every year. That amount translates as an average of 38kg (841b) per person per year, almost double what the government diet survey above shows. This makes a lot more sense because more comprehensive surveys in the US, which tops the world in obesity, show that the annual intake of sugar there has gone from 56kg (1241b) in 1975 to 80kg (1571b) in 2008.

So where is all this sugar lurking? You'd be amazed at the amount not just in cakes and sweets, but in soft drinks, convenience foods, flavored crisps and other savory snacks, condiments and many breakfast cereals. Whichever way you slice it, there's obviously an awful lot of hidden sugar being consumed, and your body simply can't cope with it.

There are other problems in the calories we're getting from carbohydrates. While our intake of starch has decreased very slightly, a lot of this is refined 'fast-releasing' - what I call high carbohydrate, that sends your blood sugar level rocketing. Baguettes, white bread, cornflakes and the like are the nasty here. If we had the right data on starch, I believe we'd also find that we are eating more and more refined carbohydrates. And quite a few other foods, such as chips, bananas and dates, also carry a heavy.

As far as weight loss is concerned. Whichever way you look at it, this is simply not true. You can lose weight by changing the quality of what you eat, even if you don't change the quantity. Of course, if you eat fewer calories of lower foods, that will trigger the most rapid weight loss.

Not only that, we now know that people who eat low food eat significantly less anyway, as they feel much more satisfied. So, if you eat a low  diet, you not only lose weight, but you tend to want to eat less. It's a double whammy in your favor.