Whether we are eating, drinking, sleeping or breathing, our bodies require energy in the form of calories to undergo metabolic processes. The body requires more calories to break down an apple consisting of 80 calories than exist in the apple itself. The reason being that breaking down the fibre takes a lot of work for your digestive system. The body tries to digest the fibre, but it cannot. In an attempt to digest and eliminate the fibre, the body expends more calories than it would with most other foods.

Now consider a glass of orange juice containing the same number of calories. There are somewhere between 8 and 10 oranges in a 250 ml glass that has been squeezed for juice, but there is very little fibre remaining. The longer it sits on the shelves in the grocery store, the less life force that juice will have–your body can’t tell the difference between that glass of juice and a can of coke because it is mostly sugar water. These liquids will work their way through your body at a rapid pace causing a spike insulin as described in Part 1 of this article. The moral of the story is that fibre is your friend. We need to chew our foods as much as possible; that is why we have sharp teeth. They serve an important evolutionary purpose.

I do not want to tell you what to eat. The sources of your macro-nutrients are entirely up to you. I only know what works for me. I am a fast oxidizer, meaning that carbohydrates enter my bloodstream at a rapid pace and don’t provide me with the sustained, prolonged energy that my body requires. So I get the vast majority of my calories in the form of meat, eggs, fish and dairy products (protein and fat). The metabolic benefits of these foods are that they take your body a lot of work to break down, they keep you fuller for longer, provide sustained energy, and the insulin spikes are negligible. Besides burning calories as proteins are broken down, they raise your metabolism by rebuilding muscle fibres faster. Muscles require more energy/calories to rebuild themselves even when they are not being used.  So the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns. Your body will require approximately 50 calories per pound of muscle a day to maintain it’s existence. Hence, high protein diets combined with strength training are the best recipe for staying lean and muscular.

For those who are vegetarian or vegan, there are plenty of alternatives to get your protein and fats. Beans, lentils (legumes), nuts, seeds, non genetically modified soy and leafy greens to name a few. These foods are in some instances better because they contain both fibre and protein. So you can get the best of both of worlds.

Regardless of what food groups you choose, focus on eating real food in it’s most natural state possible. Real food should have a lifespan. The foods you find in cans or boxes in the aisles of a supermarket will in most cases last indefinitely because they were never alive to begin with. The foods on the perimeter have a best-before date and they tend to rot over time. Despite what you may have thought, best-before dates are a good thing.