Is a calorie a calorie???

[kirstyjade]

Is there a difference between the calories we eat?
Are the calories we get from chocolate any different from the calories we get from fruit?
Or is a calorie just a calorie?

Iv just eaten 2 apples with about 65 calories in each, so I wanted to know couldn't I just have eaten a chocolate bar with 130 calories and enjoyed it more? Confused!?!?!

 

[lyzzyanne]

A calorie is a calorie, but a small bar of fat rich chocolate is not the choice we should be making, an apple would be more filling and contains nutrients that chocolate doesn't.

I am looking at this journey as a learning curve, chocolate for me isn't barred but I am trying to learn a new way of eating.

 

[fjsinc]

A calorie is a unit of energy, so yes a calorie is a calorie. BUT the nutritional value you have from 2 apples is substantially different to a chocolate bar, and will have a different effect on your body.

 

[slaz]

If you'd had my physics teacher you would know that " a calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of water through one degree centigrade" and if you didn't you would be wrapped across the knuckles with a ruler ( in the days teachers were allowed to do such things!
So whilst scientifically speaking a calorie is a calorie, metabolically the body will treat differently the calories in chocolate from the calories in apples.

 

[Yvessa]

Ultimately a calorie is a calorie. But given that an apple also has vitamins etc and will not encourage carb cravings its usually the better choice. That said, if it was the chocolate you really wanted, have it and savour it.

 

[top_kat]

certain foods are referred to as "empty calories" those from foods with very little other nutritional value..

 

[angeeb]

Leaving aside nutritional values.....will the calories from chocolate or apples make you put on the same amount of weight....so to speak....

 

[Paula Garner]

Leaving aside nutritional values.....will the calories from chocolate or apples make you put on the same amount of weight....so to speak....

I don't think so no, as their nutritional contents are different. How the calories are calculated is the same, but the ingredients differ. Does that make sense?

 

[fjsinc]

Yes, they have the same energy. But the way your body reacts to the different nutritional properties makes all the difference. For example, if you eat 100 calories worth of chicken your appetite will be very different compared to how you would feel if you at 100 calories worth of jam.