Don’t Count Calories: Count Nutrients!

As you might know at this point, besides being a natural skincare formulator, I’m also a Dietitian.

It’s been almost 10 years since I graduated and worked in health clinics. Throughout this time I have helped hundreds of people with every type of health issue you might think of, but the most common one was weight lose. With my experience in helping people to lose weight, I realized the following: counting calories does not work!

But hold on, counting calories makes sense, I get it, and that’s what we learned in Nutrition school: when you're in a caloric deficit, also known as burning more calories than you take in, you'll probably drop a few pounds. But in real life, it does get a little more complicated than that. 

 I’ll give you an example:

Think about bread. Let say you’re trying to lose weight and your nutritionist adviced you to buy a bread low in calories. But here are two options: you have a white bread – plain and simple, basic ingredients, made with white flour, mostly, and it’s very low in calories. Perfect, isnt it? But you have another option: a whole grain flour bread, way more caloric, but check this out: this bread has more nutrients: it has more vitamins and minerals, fibers, more natural/good fat, even more protein! Which one would you chose?!

As a dietitian point of view, I’ll tell you to pick the whole grain flour bread. Yes, the most caloric one.

And here is why: if you chose the white bread, you will have less calories, yes, but a white bread is faster absorved in your body, because doesn’t have many nutrients to break down. And because it doesn’t have as many nutrients to break down, it will be easier/faster absorved, it will also spike your blood sugar (and trust me, if you’re trying to lose weight, you def don’t want this!). So you eat the white bread and 20mins later you’re hungry again, and you feel you need another slice.

Now, with the whole grain bread: it is more caloric, yes, because it has so much more ingredients and nutrients– like vitamins, minerals, fibers, fat (natural tho, mostly from the grains) and protein! And because it has more fibers, fat and protein, it will last a long time in you belly breaking it down and being absorved – and guess what – this process makes you not feel hungry – makes you feel satisfied for a long time! Also, because of those nutrients, it also won’t spike your blood sugar. Which means, if you eat the whole bread, you will not need to eat soon – which is a plus if you’re trying to lose weight!

Long story short... I would recommend to my patients, who were trying to lose weight, a slice of whole grain flour bread, with butter, avocado and eggs, over a piece of nothing-in-it-white-bread with a zero calories jelly, made with artificial ingredients and sweeteners.

Which one would you choose?

 

with love,

Rafaella.

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