STOP COUNTING CALORIES

In her book, Glucose Revolution, biochemist Jessie Inchauspé shares her game-changing insights into losing weight, balancing blood glucose levels and boosting energy.

- Jessie Inchauspé

If you're hoping to shed pounds, you may wonder: won't adding calories make me gain weight? The short answer is no. The long answer involves understanding more about the types of calories we're eating and setting things on fire.

To measure how many calories are in, say, a doughnut, here's what to do: dehydrate the doughnut and place it in a cubicle submerged in a water bath. Then set the doughnut on fire (yes, really) and measure by how many degrees the water around it warms up. Multiply the temperature change by the amount of water in the container, the energy capacity of water (which is 1 calorie per gram per degree), and you'll get the number of calories in the doughnut.

So when we say, 'This doughnut and this Greek yoghurt have the same number of calories, we're really saying, 'This doughnut and this Greek yoghurt warm up water by the same number of degrees when we burn them.’

It’s through this burning technique – called a calorimeter and first invented in 1780 – that scientists can measure the calories in anything.