Shoutout to the nutritionist who told me 200 calories of almonds isn't the same as 200 calories of gummy bears

I read a study in a nutrition journal that said your body actually absorbs fewer calories from whole foods than processed ones because of the energy spent digesting them. I was spending all my points on Fiber One bars thinking I was being smart but now I just eat actual fruit instead. Anybody else get tripped up by that calorie math thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

piper91227d ago

Oh man, that almond thing got me too. I was out here thinking I was being all healthy munching on almonds when really I was just eating expensive sawdust compared to gummy bears. But then I found out my body burns like 10% of those almond calories just trying to break them down. Gummy bears basically slide right through. So yeah, 200 calories of almonds is actually like 180 calories of gummy bears. Makes you wonder why we bother at all.

paul34627d ago

Oh man, 100% same here. I used to snack on those protein bars thinking I was hitting some health goal but really I was just eating glorified candy bars with extra steps. The worst part was realizing my "healthy" trail mix with dark chocolate chips had almost the same sugar as a Snickers. I swear I spent a whole month eating nothing but nuts and dried fruit thinking I was killing it, then I did the actual calorie count and almost fell off my chair. Now I just eat an apple and call it a day at least I know what I'm getting.