Calories
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Scientifically, a calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. Looking at food in terms of calories began in the late 1780’s by a chemist named Lavoisier. Lavoisier believed that life, including food, could be broken down into chemical functions. Lavoisier’s beliefs are still popular today with the many people who count calories. According to this system, calories are released by the nutrients as they breakdown in the following amounts: protein and carbohydrates are 4 calories/gram, fats are 9 calories/gram.
However, Gabriel Cousens states in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), “Since the 1780’s, we have discovered that nutrition is more complex than simple calories. Food has additional factors—proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, enzymes, subtle hormone factors, alkaloids…” The complexity of nutrition can be seen in the example of ingesting fats. Cooked oils cannot be easily processed by the body and are instead often stored as undigested fatty tissue, increasing one’s weight. (Coconut oil when used for cooking is the most stable of any oil, which means it has the best chance of staying in a form that the body can digest and eliminate.) Avocados, on the other hand, contain the enzyme lipase, which actually breaks down fatty tissues in the body. So, if we were to count the calories that an avocado and a serving of cooked oil have and base our decision on what to eat from only this information, we would be overlooking a great wealth of understanding that could help us even more than the practice of counting calories. Avocados may be high in fat calories, but that is the kind of fat that your body needs and uses efficiently.
Take the herbal route to nutrition and health. Find this low calorie guide high in fact. Weight is not a problem if calories are kept in the right balance. Make sure you exercise enough so your last meal is burned. Follow the chart begin counting calories. Realize the importance of enzymes in your body. A digestive enzyme may be the key to your stomach ache. Elevated enzymes in the liver should be checked out by a doctor. Other information on other enzymes will be in the next article. The benefit of pancreatic enzymes should be known.