Real Talk | Carbs vs Calories

10 Jul Real Talk | Carbs vs Calories

Dr. Murphy talks about calories per gram of carbs, protein and fat.

When we look at food, we want to look at the lowest calorie foods we can. And I know everybody is a hater on carbohydrates and they say protein. Everybody’s got their own ideologies about this. Okay, let’s just get down to what the truth is of calories. If it’s a carbohydrate, it’s 3.4 calories per gram. Well, that doesn’t mean much to me. So let’s talk about what a gram is. Everybody pull out a dollar bill. That is a gram. If you have a paperclip, that’s roughly a gram. If it’s a raisin, that’s roughly a gram. We’re talking about weight. If it’s a carbohydrate, it’s 3.4 calories per gram. Well, you can’t make it four. You can’t make it three. It’s 3.4. Now we talked earlier about fiber being calories, but it’s non-digestible carbohydrate. That’s okay. It’s still 3.4 calories per gram outside the human body. But for this purpose, we’re just going to be talking about calories, carbohydrates we absorb. So if it’s a carbohydrate, it’s 3.4 calories. I want to make that clear because what comes next is a little bit interesting. I don’t care if it’s white rice, brown rice, wild rice, jasmine rice, wheat bread, white bread, wheat noodle, white noodle, new potato, sweet potato, white potato. I don’t care. They’re all carbohydrates. They’re all 3.4 calories per gram. Difference in healthiness, which is determined by an insulin surge, no difference in calories. You are going to gain or lose just as much weight eating white rice versus brown rice. There is a difference in healthiness, no difference in calories. If it’s a protein, it is 4 calories per gram. You pick up a 30 gram protein shake, turn it around, says 120 calories. Never 121, never 119. I do not care where the source of protein comes from. I do not care if it’s beef, chicken, pork, possum, raccoon, roadkill. It’s 4 calories per gram. Not talking about the fat content, pure protein content, always 4 calories per gram. Once again, difference in healthiness, no difference in calories. If it’s a fat, the weight of a dollar bill, it is 9 calories per gram. I do not care if it’s olive oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, Crisco. You can drain the oil out of your car’s engine and cook with it. It will kill you. The calories are still the same. People come in to me all the time going, Doc, I don’t know why I’m over it. I cook everything in olive oil. I just look at them and go, Pard, I don’t care if you cook it in Crisco. They’re like, well, I thought I was doing something healthy. I didn’t say you weren’t. I’m saying the calories are the same. So we’re looking at numbers. So we can do something healthy and justify the calories. So if you want to cook with oil, and we have to cook with oil with some foods, fine. Use olive oil. But just understand, it’s got the same calories as Crisco. If you don’t like brown rice, you want to eat white rice, fine by me. Calories are the same, as long as you’re not a diabetic. We might have an issue with insulin. If you’re not a diabetic, there’s no healthy difference between that stuff. Animal fat, yeah, it’s going to give me heart attacks and stroke. Olive oil is going to somewhat protect me. Fish, well, what’s a better source of protein, Doc? Beef or fish? Well, if I eat beef, I get cholesterol problems and heart attacks and strokes. Well, if I eat fish, too much fish, I get mercury poisoning. So I guess it’s kind of a toss up. So just do whatever you want with your protein. You know, so yeah. But that is how this all kind of works. It is calories per gram. If it’s a gram and it’s carbohydrate, it’s 3.4. It’s protein, it’s 4. If it’s a fat, it’s 9. Your body does not care where it comes from. That is the only thing it sees. And so when you look at these foods, well, we should try to hit the least caloric food we can. And that’s true. And it’s carbohydrate. So don’t hate on my carbs too much because they’re the least of all the carbohydrates. So some people will say, well, I have a greater component of satiety with eating meats and protein. Well, I hate to argue with that and I’ve thought about that same thing for quite a while. And I’ve actually read a lot of studies that say it’s not quite true. Carbohydrates actually weigh less than protein. It’s really solid and dense. But when they study people eating the same weight of carbohydrate versus a protein or the density of a meat substance, they tend to find out that people eat carbohydrate because of the sheer volume. And it’s based upon volume determines the feelingness of satiety or fullness, not the protein component. I thought that was interesting. And I had to really think about that for a while, but I believe they’re right. I always thought that myself, that eating protein was higher in satisfaction than carbohydrate. That’s not, that’s been proven to be false. So that was, I thought that was interesting.