CAN YOU BE LOW ON CALORIES?

Many people, often anxious, ask themselves: What is good eating?

The answer is simple: first and foremost, you need enough calories . I see you frowning. Isn't that what everyone today wants to avoid at all costs? Be careful! In a "normal" Western diet, calories are horrible ghosts. Given its richness in processed foods loaded with sugar and fat and devoid of fiber, this diet -- also called urban/industrial -- easily, quickly, and without you even noticing, overloads you with calories that will be difficult to burn and will make you gain weight.

But... a balanced peasant/agricultural diet is rich in fibrous foods, foods that quickly become filling and then it is just as easy to stop eating before the calorie intake has been satisfied, as it is difficult in the urban/industrial diet not to continue eating when the calorie intake has been satisfied for a long time.

Do you understand the problem? The transition from an urban/industrial diet where we ate too much for years, to a balanced diet where we have to eat – chew – to live, is very difficult if we maintain the obsession with calories ¹ .

We often hear that quality is better than quantity. It depends. Many health-conscious people begin to carefully seek out the best possible foods, often purchasing them at high prices, and snacking on them in small quantities. This approach is laudable but misguided. They sincerely believe that the small amount ingested, because of its exceptional quality, contains as much, if not more, health as in the lower-quality foods consumed in larger quantities.

Please remember this well and never forget it: without quantity—without enough calories, and you need at least 1,700 a day—there is no possible quality in nutrition. Calorie deficiency, that is, insufficient quantity, is of all deficiencies, the most fundamental, the most serious. It is the first deficiency, the one that leads to all the others. Not providing the quantity of food necessary for an individual's energy production necessarily denies them the quality of life they seek. However, several popular dietary philosophies are at risk of leading to calorie deficiency: too many raw vegetables and too many leafy vegetable juices are recommended—these choices are all low in calories—and not enough complex carbohydrates—if not condemned outright.

In the absence of an adequate dietary source of complex carbohydrates – whether bread, pasta, whole grains, or potatoes in abundance, which are the fundamental sources of quality glucose – the body will be forced to transform proteins into glucose . And here we are on the slope of chain deficiencies. The transformation of proteins into glucose does not provide the quantity of glucose necessary for the proper functioning of the brain and here we are, both feet in the hell of hypoglycemia ³ . But there is more. Proteins transformed into glucose can no longer be used for the construction of the body, for the development of secretions and bodily fluids: enzymes, hormones, sperm and semen, antibodies.

Soon the signs of caloric malnutrition appear, then automatically in protein, and finally in fat too, because in cases of starvation - diets of less than 1000 calories per day - the body transforms 10% of fats into glucose, which produces 90% waste in the form of ketone bodies toxic to the brain. And of course, transformed and wasted fats can no longer be used to produce sufficient body heat, elaborate and preserve fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), and maintain the proper myelination of neurons. (For a more detailed explanation of this sad phenomenon, see my book TOTAL HEALTH ² , the chapter "Optimal Nutrition".)

What are the signs of calorie malnutrition, among others? Fatigue, edema (swollen eyes, hands, feet), stunted growth in children, weight loss with chills, hair loss, repeated infections, nervous and mental disorders (anxiety, depression), etc.

We will try to combat all this with pills, supplements, concoctions and miracle therapies! When the primary solution is no further or more expensive than whole-grain bread, whole-grain pasta, and jacket potatoes, all well prepared and eaten to our heart's content!

Children are particularly at risk of calorie deficiency in a diet that relies on the quality of raw vegetables or juices consumed at the beginning of meals or between meals. These suppress the appetite before the calorie intake is reached. Children aged 2 to 12 can then suffer from thinness, repeated infections (colds, ear infections, bronchitis), nervousness, insomnia, and aggression. Two to three slices of good bread at each meal could make all the difference ⁴ .

So, the fundamental rule of good nutrition is that you must eat! Yes, eat, not snack, not fast. And what you must eat more than anything else is a variety of whole grains in all their traditional forms. Wheat, spelt, khorasan wheat, barley, oats, rice, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, corn, rye, etc., are the best fuel for our body. Whole, unrefined grains provide the highest nutritional yield, in the purest and most non-polluting way for our internal ecology. Today, as always, we must eat to live. Every day, long live our daily bread! Danièle Starenkyj© 2016 www.publicationsorion.com

1. Colmant É., Starenkyj D., FINALLY THIN, Orion, 2010.

2. Starenkyj D., TOTAL HEALTH, Orion, 2009.

3. Starenkyj D., THE EVIL OF SUGAR, Orion, 2011.

4. Position paper of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian Diets, JA DIET ASS, Vol. 97, No. 11, November 1997.