Calorie Density.

One of the most helpful tools I've come across to use in managing my weight and making decisions when I'm standing in the aisles of the grocery store or in front of the food bar at any truck stop, or looking at the menu of any restaurant is called Calorie Density. (By the way, Jeff Novick is where I first saw this. He's also on Facebook.)

Think of calories as a measurement of energy.  Our cells need to have power to function - think of any manufacturing plant and there is some source of power: electricity, a furnace burning gas or oil or coal. No source of power, nothing happens in that manufacturing plant.  Same in our cells: we need calories to give our cells energy.  Our biggest problem is that we get too many calories and that is because we are often getting poorly packed calories - too many calories and too few nutrients.  By the way, think of nutrients as the raw materials the cell uses to do what it does - muscles produce movement, brain cells help us think, blood cells carry oxygen, etc. So we need an appropriate balance of energy and raw materials, or calories and nutrients.

Here are a few pictures to get a handle on calorie density. Hang in there, with a few basic concepts in place, the overall visual provides a helpful overview.

The first concept is to get a handle on calories per gram.  Almost every food label uses grams and calories on a 'per serving' basis.  Some simple math gives you a number of "Calories Per Gram". (OK, before you get nervous that you have to do all this math for every item you buy in the store - YOU DON"T! But you do need to understand the basic concept so we'll compare two items - Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and a bag of raw carrots.

For Ben and Jerry's - towards the top the label says 114 grams per serving and 314 calories per serving.  Calories divided by grams and you get roughly 3 calories per gram.

For raw carrots, you have 85 grams per serving and 35 calories per serving. Calories divided by grams and you get about .4 calories per gram. 

So, about eight times more calories in each gram of ice cream than in a bag of carrots; way more calories per gram in ice cream than in carrots. No big surprise! Think of it another way: if I eat the same amount of calories of carrots and ice cream, I've gotten WAY more nutrients in the carrot package than the ice cream package.

Now, no one is going to do calculations for each food item in the store when you shop. You don't have to. People have done it for us and it turns out that foods divide themselves rather well into calorie density groups.

In this first picture you are introduced to nine food groups. Vegetables are on the left and groups go all the way over to oils/fats are on the right.  You can see the definition of "UnrefCC" and "RefPC" - Unrefined means closer to the way it comes in nature.  Processed means we messed with nature by adding things and/or taking things out. And think of "Fatty Protein" as the meat group.
Think of how calories come packaged through our ice cream/carrot example above.  On the left side of the graph - lots of nutrients come with very few calories.  On the right side of the graph, lots of calories come with very few nutrients.

And look at the bottom of the picture to carry that last thought further. We are designed to want to feel full (satiety). That is why 'portion control' diets are so hard - we always feel HUNGRY! Left half of the graph means we have the highest feeling of full with an appropriate amount of calories.  Right half of the graph means we have the lowest feeling of full with an appropriate amount of calories. So, the danger of overeating is low on the left and high on the right.

Let this sink in. Ask questions if you have them and then I'll post a couple more pics to complete this look at calorie density.