The Nutritional Corner “Low and High Calorie Food Density”

Food Calorie Density is the number of calories in a given weight of food. All foods have calories and they vary from low to high calorie levels. Food calorie density does not tell you how much of a particular food to eat in order to determine which foods are fattening, it makes you aware of the number of calories you are consuming.

Food calorie density will also show you how easy it is to over-eat a particular food. In other words, foods that are high in calories are not necessarily healthy to eat. For example, if we eat approximately 3 1⁄2 ozs (100 grams) of the following items you can see the amount of calories you will consume: (28.3 grams = 1 oz., 100 grams = 3.53 ozs.)

                                                   100g = 3 1⁄2 ozs

Now remember, any time you change the serving size of a food the number of calories will also change, although, the calorie density will remain the same. So if you eat 1 tsp (0.16 ozs) of olive oil it will have approximately the same amount of calories as 100 grams or 3 1⁄2 ozs of Broccoli.

The point I am making is all foods do not cause you to gain weight, only the high calorie low nutrient foods you over-eat causes weight gain; therefore, if you monitor what you eat you can manage your calorie intake easier.