Making Smart Food Choices
You might think eating 200 calories of fresh fruits + veggies is the same as eating 200 calories of your favorite fruit yogurt or even dried fruit. They’re both 200 calories, and they’re both “fruity” so why does it matter? Well, it actually matters a lot more than you think.
Our bodies are funny about calories. They are even picky about calories. They store calories and use them differently depending on the nutrients included in the food you’re consuming. Take our sweet green blend – made with kale, spinach, strawberries, peaches, pineapple, banana, dates + coconut water, it’s only 180 calories with no added artificial sugars or any other ingredients you can’t pronounce. It’s chocked full of vitamin A and C and is one of our most nutrient dense blends. Your body is going to use those nutrients to hydrate, alkalize and boost antioxidants.
Compare that to your favorite strawberry yogurt or a handful of craisins that could have the same calorie content as our sweet green, but there’s also loads of stuff you don’t want to be putting in your body-specifically artificial sweeteners and colors. While some of these fruity foods carry the same calorie load, they can’t claim to hydrate or fill your body with nutrients because any health benefits they could offer have been covered up with fructose, sucralose, aspartame and artificial coloring. These little monsters will leave you feeling tired, hungry and frustrated.
Quantity vs. Quality Calories
Even a sweet treat like chocolate and peanut butter can get sticky when it comes to calories. You could choose a 16 oz. chocolate/PB smoothie from a national chain that will provide you with 420 calories, 14 grams of fat, 65 grams of protein + added sugars and dairy. Ediblend’s choco-shake has only whole foods like cacao, dates, almond butter, almond milk, maca and bananas. It has 330 calories, 13 grams of fat, 50 grams of carbs and 9 grams of protein. It’s our highest calorie blend, but still 100 less than the national chain! Our choco-shake will be energizing and sustaining while the one with added sugars + dairy will leave you with a sugar surge and belly bloat-two things that should never be on your to-do list.
When you’re caught up in counting calories, you have to be smart about looking beyond the numbers to see what’s actually IN those calories. What’s the fuel in your food? Don’t be left feeling hungry and confused.
Still have questions about calories? Come see us at the café! We just redesigned our nutritional information to make it easy for our customers to see what’s in our blends! We have no secret monster ingredients. We use no dairy, no gluten, no added sugars, no artificial ANYTHING. Just plant-based, whole food ingredients that will treat your body good and leave you feeling transformed!