A Coca Cola Observation

Coca-Cola

If you've known me for a while (college and before) you know that I was a huge Coca-Cola drinker.  I would literally drink about a 3 litter a day.  I knew it was bad for me.  I saw the ads with sugar cubes and such.  I even saw the specials on TV showing me how you could fight rust using Coke.  I was still hooked and continued drinking it, I'm not sure why.

I'm not here to talk you out of drinking it, you'll have to come to that conclusion yourself or suffer the consequences.  Like anything else in life it's 100% up to you.  All I want to do is make an observation to all of the Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Vanilla Coke drinkers out there.

First off Diet Coke and Coke Zero.  We drink it because the marketing claims better health.  These products have less calories and less sugars then the real thing but the 'same' taste. Of course with that logic why even sell the original but I'll keep moving on.  So in order to give you less calories and make a product healthier I would assume the product would take out some ingredients right?  Let's take a look...


Between regular Coke and Diet Coke High Fructose Corn Syrup (sugar) has been taken out and Aspartame (sugar substitute), Potassium Benzonate and Citric Acid have been added.  If you drink Diet Coke it would be worth your while to look up those ingredients.  Ok... so less calories... more ingredients... hmmm. 

Now going on to Coke Zero we have added and replaced some ingredients I can't pronounce but sound like something I used in my high school Chemistry class.  If this doesn't set off some alarms I don't know what does.  

So in order to loose a few calories I am replacing those calories with some kind of chemicals?  I know how I feel about this but the real question is, "how do you feel about this?"  And are those chemicals worth 140 calories?   

Well what about regular Coke and Vanilla Coke, let's compare those two!  Vanilla has a few more calories, less sodium, more carbs, and more sugar.  I understand that, I mean it is only Coke with some Vanilla flavoring in it right?  But no major nutritional difference there.  What about the ingredients?  What is in the vanilla flavor?  That's weird the ingredient list is exactly the same for the two products isn't it? 

For me, that again raises some red flags.  At least before I could research these new ingredients and come to my own conclusion, now I can't.  Maybe those natural flavors aren't so natural?  

Conclusion
I don't mean to pick on Coke here.  There are plenty of other products out there that do this exact same thing.  I chose Coke because it's one of the most popular brands and because I was hooked for so many years.  The point is READ THE INGREDIENTS.  In my opinion they are more important then calories! Which is the reason you switched in the first place.  You can read more about that in my past blog here.   


Calories vs. Nutrition: Keeping it simple.

Calorie Counting

Calories vs. Nutrition: Keeping it simple.

Before I start this article I want you to know that I AM NOT a nutritionist.  I'm writing about this topic because I have learned a lot and I want to alleviate some confusion about calories and nutrition for you.  There are tons of articles written on how many calories you need per day, how to calorie count, food apps, programs, etc.  But I feel no one asks the more important question of, "Do calories and nutrition even go hand in hand?"  This day in age it's so easy to get consumed by a topic that sometimes it's hard to step back and wonder if it's really important in the first place.

How are calories even calculated?  Ok here's the simple break down.

1g of Fat = 9 cal
1g of Carbs = 4 cal
1g of Protein = 4 cal
1g of Alcohol = 7 cal

EXAMPLE:  Assuming your food has..

3g of fat | 20g of carbs | 10g of protein
3 x 9(cal)  +  20 x 4(cal)  +  10 x 4(cal) = 
27 + 80 + 40 = 
147 calories

Calories are just a mathematical equation of the fats, carbs and proteins listed on the supplement facts.  

Ok great, the label did all the work for me, now can I just eat my 2000-ish calories a day and be on my way to a healthier life? No you can't because there a hundreds of different ways for food to have 147 calories but have way different ratios of fats/ carbs/ proteins in them!  We could just as easily had tons of fat, and then just a few carbs and proteins.  

 BUT, we're still missing a vital part of this entire equation!!!  So far all we've done is a little bit of math.

What are the ingredients in your food?  If I put a piece of plastic in a bag and told you it had no fat, no carbs, and 50g of protein would you eat it?  I hope not because it's made of plastic!  This is why I don't even look at the calories in food anymore.  For my current fitness level and lifestyle, it doesn't have as much of an impact on me as the other things do, I prioritize!  This is the reason nutritionists say to read all packaging the exact opposite way it was intended.  Instead of reading front (top to bottom) then back (top to bottom), read it the exact opposite!

CONCLUSION:
There are plenty of topics on calories, proteins, carbs, fats, ratios, counting, etc; but in my opinion ingredients always come first.  Make sure you know what you're putting in your body before worrying about how many calories it has.  Once you master healthier, single ingredients foods, then take it to the next level of worrying about how many fats/ carbs/ and proteins you need to be consuming for your lifestyle.  Remember this shouldn't be complicated so take it one step at a time!  Hope this helps!

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