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Food

17th May 2019

Study shows that calories don’t mean a thing when you’re trying to lose weight

Olivia Hayes

Many people use counting calories as a way of controlling their weight.

And we get it, you want to know your food intake day to day, so sometimes it’s easier to just read the calories and keep on top of it all.

However, many nutritionists have warned that just because something is advertised as low in calories, it doesn’t always mean it’s super good for you.

A new study is after backing that up and further implementing that we shouldn’t just read the calories on a piece of food and think that it’s automatically healthy if it’s low.

In a study published by Obesity Reviews, 22 scientists from different universities across America teamed up together to research the nutritional value of a piece of food – and not just how many cals it has.

The study stated that “calories from any food have the potential to increase risk for obesity and cardio-metabolic disease because all calories can directly contribute to positive energy balance and fat gain.”

“However, various dietary components or patterns may promote obesity and cardiometabolic disease by additional mechanisms that are not mediated solely by caloric content.”

The researchers also found that sugar-sweetened drinks are much worse than eating a plate full of potatoes and could lead to type-2 diabetes.

Lead author Dr. Kimber Stanhope said: “This thorough academic review of the current body of nutrition research is a valuable contribution that may both improve the design of future research and focus attention on research areas that may have the greatest impact in slowing the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type-2 diabetes.”