Do you know how much nutrtion you consume in your meals?
Considering the chemical reactions our body undergoes (let's call this our metabolism) when consuming different types of food it is unrealistic to expect that a calorie should be treated the same regardless of the food it comes from. The food choices you make on a daily basis will determine how effectively your metabolism works for you and therefore will have a direct influence on your body composition.
Incorrect food choices on a daily basis has the potential to sabotage your vision of creating a healthy lean body regardless of how much exercise you do…… That’s right, even if you exercise six days per week but consume the wrong foods you will find it very difficult to create what you work so hard for. Correct meal selection and meal timing has a huge impact on creating a metabolism that will undoubtedly set you up long-term for success.
"A calorie is a calorie" is a common repeated dietary slogan. Research is now suggesting that the quality of our food choices will assist in maintaining a healthy weight. Think about the quality of foods you consume on a daily basis?
High quality food choices
This in essence is real food. Fruit and vegetables, lean meats, dairy, and nuts and legumes. The less this food has been processed the better health outcome you will receive.Low quality food choices
Highly processed foods often come with many preservatives and added sugars. When foods are processed much of the natural nutrition has been literally bleached out of the product which does not allow your digestive system to harness the nutrition that it craves. Highly processed foods are often high in calories which makes it very easy to eat a high calorie diet when consuming lots of processed foods.Processed foods generally have a high glycaemic index (GI) which assist the body to spike insulin levels and raise blood sugar therefore making the body more efficient at storing Body Fat!Processed calories V's Fresh food calories
The amount of processed food that is consumed V's fresh food is far more calorie dense than the healthy fresh alternative.Let's look at a highly processed McDonalds large Big Mac meal consisting of 1 x Big Mac, 1 x large fries, and a large Coke. total calories 1170 (and don't even get me started on the lack of nutrition)
let's take another lunch option, one large chicken salad and a 600ml bottle of water. 200g of lean cooked chicken breast, 2 cups of mixed salad, and salad dressing. Total calories around 450. Even if you chose to put a mayonnaise dressing on rather than an olive oil-based dressing and added Fried bacon you would still be lucky to exceed 600cal. Most people would not consume 200g of chicken and at most cafes you would be lucky to get 100-150g.
calories aside..... And there is a difference of around 500cal, the nutritional benefits that your body is receiving with the chicken salad option far outweighs the highly processed option. Even though the chances are that you would be consuming a higher volume of food with the healthy option you can see how calorie dense processed foods can be.
The more you learn about nutrition and in particular when and how much to consume the easier it becomes to create healthy habits and great eating strategies.
0 Comments