It's not Just About Calories

The standard way to look at the adequacy of a diet is to count calories. In addition the body needs protein and fat, and the food programmes of the United Nations and various governments, try to supply adequate food at minimal cost.

"The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recommends that each refugee receive more than 2,100 calories per day, but often camps fall short of this standard. For example, in 2005 and 2006, the daily amount of distributed food in Tanzanian refugee camps was 1,700 and 1,460 kilocalories per person, respectively. A 1987 study in the largest refugee camp on the Thai side of the Thailand-Cambodian border found that 30% of the population was chronically malnourished.

A report from an refugee camp in Asia reported that, carbohydrate, protein, and fat accounted for 84%, 9%, and 7% of total energy, respectively. The intake of vitamins A, B1, B2, and C and of calcium ranged from 24.2% to 53.1% of the RDA. ... Among children under five years of age, 33.7% were underweight, 36.4% were stunted, and 8.7% were wasted.

Why do I bother to speak about this?  Gary Taubes wrote a book called "Good Calories, Bad Calories." He writes about the Pima Indians of South Western Arizona, when the tribe was deprived of their land and animals, and were forced to live on the reservation, dependent on rations from the government for survival. The rations were inadequate. The children were short, underweight and malnourished, but the adults, especially the women, were obese. Why? Do these adults starve their children to feed themselves? Not at all. The adults fed the children the best food they had.

This pattern applies to Indian tribes across the USA. But also world-wide. In Jamaica, in West Africa, in Soviet Czechoslovakia, among the poor in every country. Why? The poor get cheapest food, both when they buy it themselves, and when it's supplied by the government or a charity. Carbohydrates were 84% of the energy (calories) in the diet in the example above. Carbohydrates are cheap, and sugar provides very high energy at the lowest cost. The obese women in Western Sahara refugee camps, ate very little, but spent much of the day drinking sugary tea. And the poor in my country, drink soft drinks with exactly the same effect.

The protein refugees ate lacked animal sources, and the fats and oils were the poorest quality. Essential vitamins and minerals were commonly less than 50% of the RDA. What does sad situation this teach us?

FEED Yourself

People will continue to eat, if they can, because they are malnourished. Your body has a requirement for certain fatty acids and amino acids that it can't make itself. If those are not already in your food, your body will drive you to eat more.

If you eat the same old wrong foods, or those are the only foods available, that doesn't help. You MUST eat foods that contain those essential nutritional ingredients. In the developed world, we don't lack calories, most of us eat far too many calories, but we eat empty calories, without the essential nutriments.

The obese women on the Western Sahara refugee camp, got obese on sugar, lots of calories and inadequate nutrition. They can say; "I don't eat much," truthfully. Some of us do exactly the same, we eat foods with excess energy and inadequate nutrition. Cereal, muffins and bread, instead of bacon, eggs and tomatoes.

So the first step to good health is to FEED yourself. Eat good quality food. Start the day with four to six eggs and a little bacon on the side. You may not need to eat again for six hours. Eggs are an ideal food, but so are fatty meats. Gram for gram both are about 50% protein and 50% fat. In calories that makes the breakfast 70% fat and 30% protein. By all means add tomatoes, mushrooms or spinach or kale for variety.

"Plan your day around the main sources of protein you will eat. Two meals a day, with something small or maybe nothing for lunch. Focus on nutrient dense foods and you'll never feel hungry because you've met your bodies need for essential fatty acids and amino acids."

As I planned to write this blog, yesterday, I looked up "nutrient dense foods" and I uncovered the old philosophical arguments that plague nutrition. There is some science, but mostly it's prejudice, pretending to be science. I will write about that next time.

John Stephen Veitch