"The Most Important Thing to Look for on a Nutrition Label Isn't Calories, According to a Dietitian?" Review
If you still believe in the “Calories In/Calories Out” theory (and you’re still not losing weight), you’ll want to read these reasons why you should rethink your approach (from the Business Insider article "The Most Important Thing to Look for on a Nutrition Label Isn't Calories, According to a Dietitian?").
In glaring black-and-white block letters on the side of your favorite cereal, they vie for your attention — calories. Yet while they're the most prominent part of a nutrition label, calories don't tell the full story.
That's according to registered dietitian and nutritionist Nichola Whitehead, who says the most important thing to look for on a nutrition label is not the calories, but rather the ingredients.< br>
"It's what you're putting into your body that counts," says Whitehead.
While calories can provide a very rough estimate of how healthy something might be, they leave out a number of important factors. Calories don't tell you, for example, how satiated or full something is going to make you feel, how beneficial it is for your digestion, or whether it contains the vitamins and minerals you need for healthy skin, hair, and nails.
This guidance can be applied to whole meals as well as processed foods.
Take the following two breakfasts as an example. Meal one consists of a piece of wheat toast with butter, a couple scrambled eggs, and a coffee. Meal two includes a bowl of frosted cereal in low-fat milk, a glass of orange juice, and a coffee. Both meals have almost exactly the same number of calories.
While they tally up identically as far as their calories are concerned, the two plans are far from equal.
The cereal and juice meal is based around sugar and refined carbohydrates, which the body breaks down quickly, creating a constant need to refuel with caffeine or a snack. The eggs and wheat toast meal, on the other hand, is what Whitehead would call "balanced" — it contains the right mix of proteins and complex carbohydrates that your body needs to be properly fueled in the long term.
Because they score high on something nutritionists refer to as the glycemic index, essentially a measure of how a food will impact your blood sugar levels, foods like processed cereals, white bread, and white rice fall into a category known as "empty calories." Foods like this will "give you a rapid amount of sugar, but you’re going to feel hungry shortly afterwards," says Whitehead.
This is where ingredients play a key role in sizing up the content of what you're eating. When you see things like sugar, corn syrup, fructose, or white flour listed as the first ingredients on a food, that can be a good indicator that it's not going to keep you full or energized in the long term. Instead, look for things like whole grains, lean proteins (chickpeas, beans, or chicken breast), and vegetables.
"It's what kinds of foods you eat that matters when it comes to how healthy your body is, how satiated you’re feeling, and how much energy you’ve got," says Whitehead. "Calories are just a tool."
Personal Trainer Wisdom: “A caloric reduction in your diet will automatically result in weight loss” is the biggest weight-loss myth that still resonates with my personal training clients. I don’t blame them. The less food intake, the more weight loss. In some cases, this is true. For instance, if you typically consume 3000 calories per day and cut out 500 calories, this dramatic drop may result in weight loss… initially. There will be a point, just like it has for my personal training clients over the last 12 years, when that will stop, though.
Your body is a very complicated, efficient piece of art that depends on a base of dietary fuel. While you can function on a filler-food diet, it doesn’t change the body’s nutrient-dense requirements. What happens when you don’t choose nutrient-dense foods? Your core system will recruit secondary systems to compensate for this deficit. You may continue to release the hunger hormone, ghrelin, until it receives what it needs. Your body may also slow your metabolism to preserve what it has received and/or minimize stress on itself.
On the flipside, you most likely will be increasing your blood sugar levels with an onslaught of refined (simple) carbs and increasing the amount of inflammation in your body, too…2 important factors that will also affect your ability to lose weight.
Furthermore, as the article describes above, the combination of calories plays a pivotal role in digestion and absorption. What does this mean for you? Any diet that requires a single food as a meal, solely on liquid (unless it is a smoothie), fasting, and an abundance of inflammatory foods/drinks (dairy, grains, processed foods, refined sugars, red meat, and alcohol), may stop your weight loss, increase your weight, and compromise your health.
About the Author: Michael Moody, Wedding Officiant
Michael Moody—author of the self-improvement book Redefine Yourself: The Simple Guide to Happiness and host of the “The Elements of Being” podcast—is an ordained minister serving Denver and other towns across Colorado. He is a 2023 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Award winner in both Denver and Chicago (his eighth consecutive year), was named “Best Business of 2024 and 2025” by Three Best Rated, and earned “The Best Wedding Officiant in Commerce City, Colorado for 2024” from Quality Business Awards USA. Since 2012, he has officiated more than 300 weddings.
Specifically, Michael officiates wedding ceremonies in the Denver neighborhoods of LoDo, River North, Washington Park, Cherry Creek, City Park, Central Park, Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Park Hill, Highland, Platt Park, Lower Highlands, Sloan Lake as well as the zip codes 80215, 80214, 80204, 80203, 80205, 80207, 80218, 80219, 80222, 80223, 80224, 80246, 80238, 80221, 80022, 80230, 80231, 80202, 80209, 80247, and 80210. Michael also serves as an ordained minister in Golden, Boulder, Breckenridge, Frisco, Aspen, Vail, Estes Park, and more.
If your Denver neighborhood or Colorado town isn’t listed here, no worries! Please contact Michael to propose a wedding ceremony location in a different area!
