Food is culture, not arithmetic

We have gone back in time as today’s headlines state that all restaurants will be adding calories to food menus. Have we got to this backward way of thinking, this reductionist thinking and lost all common sense regarding nutrition? Last month fruit was killing our children and us, and the reason for fatty liver disease. So I, for one, am not surprised that we are subjecting our children, teenagers, young adults, neurotic parents, and anxious people to yet another reason to worry and create a disturbing picture of good food.

Calories seem to be the first concept anyone venturing into the be- draggled ‘wellness’ forum learns. Personal Trainers dream, or even orgasm, over hitting their macros’ at night or cutting their macros like they are superhuman. Macros are macronutrients and include protein, carbohydrates and fat, and the Gym sharks most probably live off protein! All three areas are essential, except people spend a lifetime trying to give up carbohydrates but fail and destroy their body’s metabolism and physiology.

Take the thyroid as an example; it runs out like a car. So the ability to stay warm, have energy, feel satiated and be happy go through the window as the next decade is spent eating raw greens and dried out chicken, all the while picking up other addictive habits to contain the pain both physically and mentally. The fitness industry has exploded, with most people forgetting how to dress anymore as they run their lives in leisurewear and men in tights with shorts over the top! And yet, at the same time, we have all become exercise addicts; we also have an obesity epidemic—calories in versus calories out as the baseline. We shouldn’t count calories but rather ask where the calories originate. If you want to count something, count the chemicals on the back of your mars bar, Oreos, or bottle of wine, the chicken breast and the fake meat! Counting calories allows us to negate the nutritional quality of the food a little like weight watchers.

If people start counting calories to lose weight, then we admit that overeating got us here in the first place and that you are to blame for being fat. ”Obesity as the penalty for gluttony and sloth” Gary Taubes, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If we turn into a nation of counting calories, we are not putting health first. Instead, we are dumbing down science, our intelligence, and in turn, will create a nation of people with a plethora of comorbidities that no number of numbers will be able to iron out.

Energy is where it all starts and finishes and if you don’t have energy, then slowly but surely, all the systems in your body start to also run on a slower and less efficient system.

The food you eat turns into glucose, the primary energy source for your brain and body. When you feel warmer, happier and more energetic after eating, you can probably make a philosophical assumption that the food has worked for you. It’s been absorbed and assimilated. On the other hand, when you have to undo the top button of your jeans or feel like you need an espresso, you can probably make a philosophical assumption that the food has not worked for you, but the exact opposite. This is valuable information as to how your metabolism runs. Whether you feel less energised after food counting numbers or not, the food will not be optimally digested and absorbed and therefore uptaken for energy, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.

If you want to count anything, count your pulse and body temperature, two very subjective measures of how your hormonal and digestive systems work. However, counting calories will create more harm than good as we know most of the readings can be up to 30% inaccurate, potentially leading you to overeat by 30% or undereat by 30% both come with problems.

Food is culture, not arithmetic.