Who cares about calories?!

September, 2009

by Morella Devost

Do you care about calories? Or do you care about your body's health and ability to heal?

Food is more than calories.

I find it surprising to see how much nutrition advice focuses on calorie and portion guidelines. It is my opinion that focusing on calories is the wrong way to go if you are looking to create long-lasting health. Here's why:

Diets, calories and food restrictions automatically put you in the frame of mind of limitation
"You can only eat X number of calories a day." When you believe that you have to create a limitation for yourself it automatically reduces your sense of freedom. Where is the joy in that? How can you create a sustainable lifestyle if you are always in a place of counting your calories/points/ounces? And are all calories the same?
By focusing on calories we lose the bigger picture of food
Food is much more than calories! Food is VERY complex chemistry that we haven't even begun to understand. The complex chemistry of foods as they come from nature (vegetables, fruits, nuts, proteins) interacts with the chemistry of your body to trigger healing reactions, build new cells, produce blood, create hormones, neurotransmitters, etc.

Food that triggers healing is real food; food that is so fresh, so close to its natural state that it could have come from your garden. Food that triggers healing has a life force and has not been sitting on a shelf for weeks.
Thinking calories doesn't necessarily lead people to make better choices
Things like 100 calorie snack packs prove my point. Most of them are empty calories made out of all processed ingredients and very little real food; certainly very little life force in that little packet.

Even if you get calories, if you don't give your body the nutrition it needs, it will continue to ask for it. Your body's requests for nutrition show up in more hunger, cravings, etc. Because you keep giving it fluff but none of the substance that help you build bones, cells, blood, etc.

Another great example of this is diet soda. It doesn't have any calories but that doesn't mean it's good for you.
When we think about calories we get into a habit of thinking
Thinking "calories" puts us in a rational state about what we "should" be eating vs. listening to what our body tells us it needs. They are very different things.

You know well that animals in nature don't count calories or points, and yet they know what to eat. You've probably seen your cat or dog eat grass or leaves. Instinct guides them to eat what they need for health.

Granted, many people have gotten so far away from natural eating that they have no clue what to eat. Some guidance on where to start can be helpful. But instead of starting with the limitation of "calories," how about starting with adding more foods: add more salads, fruit, and vegetable recipes to your repertoire, more home-made meals with fresh vegetables and protein. I guarantee this will begin to reacquaint you with what it feels like to eat real food and give your body real building blocks for health.
When we think calories we turn away from our own natural satiety wisdom
If you ration your food with rules like: a card-deck-sized portion of meat, a check-book-sized portion of fish, etc., you will likely feel limited even before you eat your meal. Instead, serve yourself a reasonable amount of REAL food on an average-sized plate and then eat slowly with 100% awareness: chewing, setting your fork down, breathing and enjoying your food. You will notice a shift in the sensation of eating and the flavor of your food when you have eaten enough and it will very likely be BEFORE your plate is empty, and long before your stomach feels "full."

Food gives you life. It is not just a bunch of calories. If you eat real food with awareness, and listen to your body, you will discover the power of your body's own wisdom.