About Calorie Charts

Calories are in foods we eat every day. Calories are vital to support life but need to be ingested in the right amounts. Once goals have been established in consultation with our doctor, all that remains is to watch caloric sources for optimal benefit when we make food choices. Everyone should know how to use a caloric chart for optimal health, even if the goal is merely to get better nutrients out your present 2,000 calorie diet, for example. Calorie charts allow the user to track calorie sources every day from any source that is listed. This allows the user to determine the relative value of a food for meeting their individual needs.

Calorie Definition

• A calorie is a way to measure energy in the form of heat. A calorie is the amount of heat that it takes to warm up one gram of water by one degree centigrade. How are calories measured in a food? By burning it. If more heat cones out of the fire than is put in, the extra energy is measured and indicates how many calories were in the piece of food burned. A calorie in this experiment is a true calorie but is different from a food calorie. 1,000 true calories makes up just one food calorie. If burning one calorie, it is enough heat to warm up one gram of water by one degree centigrade. In our body, a calorie serves as fuel for metabolic reactions. Calorie needs of an individual vary depending on lifestyle and metabolic factors but can be calculated (see below).

Significance

• Calories can be used to change weight since caloric intake is a factor in determining weight gain/loss. This means that if the calories used are more than what you take in, you lose weight. If the calories are higher than what the energy expended, weight gain results because extra energy is stored as fat. Since fat has nine kilocalories per gram many calories are efficiently stored as fat. Fat plays vital roles for the body to regulate itself but, too much body fat decreases lifespan.The problem is that every pound overweight is not all made of fat. About 40% of every "obese" pound is not pure fat. This means that if a patient has more than 20% over ideal body weight (determined by doctors), 40% is muscle. This is the reason that people losing weight can, if muscle is preserved by nutrition and exercise, be very muscular. Further, calorie reductions should be based on the normal diet of the person starting. Ideally, calories in a diet should only be reduced by about 500 kilocalories less than current caloric intake so that your body doesn't reject the diet, creating a yo-yo effect.

Finding Calorie Charts

• You can find these charts for free online from food websites like caloriecountercharts.com and calorieking.com. These are popular locations for finding calorie information. There are also pocket food count guides that are commonly available at grocery stores. It is mandatory at McDonald's fast food restaurants to have these charts on the wall for their foods so that you can make proper choices which is handy because each version of a hamburger, for example, will have different calories depending on the restaurant. Many of these charts are free to use or relatively inexpensive, compiled along other nutritional data or services.

Using Calorie Charts

• To use these charts, it is similar to reading a bus schedule since the foods are typically listed down the left side axis and the labels are often listed at the top. Take some time to orient yourself to your specific chart to make sure that this is the case. Once you have your bearings, you can trace the vertical column for the calories and see where it intersects the horizontal column containing the name of the food. Where the two columns intersect, the number represents the calorie per serving of that item. The serving size is either the standard size established for that food by the USDA or the size specified on the chart.

Caloric Nutrient Density

• Nutrient density is used by nutritionists to determine the value of a food. If the food is very low in calorie but provides nothing other than calories, the advantage of that food is less than a food that has a few more calories but makes your heart function (calcium), preserves your vision and makes your skin more youthful (vitamin A), or your bones healthy (vitamin D), for example. Calorie should not be the only basis of food selection.

Misconceptions

• Serving size on the chart doesn't matter? Make sure that you look at the serving size. If a can of soda says that it has 200 kilocalories but the serving size is half of a can... they are probably hoping that you didn't notice. Since most people who drink from a can intend to drink the whole can, the can might be considered deceptive. A word of caution when using a chart: do not assume that the chart and the package information are the same. Foods change all of the time and a brand might change ingredients often, so the package is usually more up to date if there is a conflict between the two.

Conclusions

• There are a number of factors to consider when using a calorie chart and any information needs to be read carefully. Remember to consult your doctor before doing any dietary modifications and to check to make sure that your reading of the information is accurate. Also make sure that the chart is up to date. Calories are only one consideration when selecting a food and should be done in combination with other factors in order to make choices. Do not forget that your diet is in your hands.