Friday, April 9, 2010

Fat in Food - How to Calculate Your Daily Calories and Fat in Food

Fat in food stuff provides more than double the calories provided by proteins or carbohydrates. For example, if you eat a food containing 1 grams of proteins, 1 grams of fat, and 1 grams of carbohydrates, you have a total of consumed 170 calories.

1 g protein will give you about 4 calories
1 g fat will give you 9 calories
1 g carbohydrates will be equivalent to around 4 calories
Therefore the total calories = 17

Dubious calorie figures
When you compare the food label and the above mentioned method for counting the total calories, you would find a difference. This difference is from the figures of the insoluble fiber present in carbohydrates that has been included by the manufacturer in the figure for calories!

There is absolutely no energy or calories provided by the insoluble fibers after passing through digestion. Though the manufacturer, would have perfect knowledge of this, he would bring down the "calorific value" of the insoluble fiber, thus arriving at a lesser calorific figure on the label than what you arrived through our method.

You might make your mind up that if you subtracted the calories of fiber from the total calories for carbohydrates, it would correct the difference. But you have to take note of the fact that the figure for fiber will include both soluble and insoluble fiber, but you are actually looking at subtracting only the insoluble fiber part of it. Disappointingly, you do not know how much of the fiber content is soluble, and how much of it is actually insoluble.

Calories in Liquor -
In a similar fashion as explained above, numbers in liquor calorie figures do not add up correctly. This is because, the calorific value of alcohol is not included in the total calorific value of the liquor it is contained in. It must be noted that 1 gm of Alcohol provides 7 calories!

With good food in mind, the method of preparation must also be considered. Fried foods contain more fat in them than when they are in their natural or roasted forms.

For instance:

* Meat when roasted will provide 3.1 grams fat
* Meat when fried is around 4.1 grams fat
* Meat and Skin that is fried in batter is around 18.5 grams fat

Be alert when you consume foods like salad dressings and mayonnaise, which are high in fat composition. They tend to counteract the good done by the healthiness in the meal you just ate and drastically increase the body's calorie count. Alternatively, you can use mustard, fat-free yogurt, barbecue sauce and ketchup instead of mayonnaise condiments.

Ultimately remember that fat in food gives twice as many calories as proteins and carbohydrates!

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