CHAPTER 3
Good Calories, Bad Calories, and SANE Calories… Oh My!
Think for a moment about people who are naturally thin. How do they get that way? They eat whatever they want, they don’t really exercise, and they still stay slim. What does a body of a naturally thin person do that enables it to be thin, effortlessly and permanently? More importantly, what can you do so that your body acts like the body of a naturally thin person?
We’ve already answered that: lower your setpoint. While naturally thin people were lucky enough to be born that way, with this plan, you can live the rest of your life that way. The best place to start is by eating more SANE food. Far from eating less, you will be eating more food than you ever have in your life… from SANE sources. In fact, one of the most common questions our coaches get is, What if I’m too full to eat all of this food? Not a bad problem to have while losing weight!
SANE foods all hinge around “calorie quality.” Remember, calories work differently in the body, depending on which food they come from. Putting 1,000 calories of low-quality food (think chips and soda) into your body has radically different effects on your weight than ingesting the same quantity of high-quality calories (think salmon and avocados). The more low-quality inSANE calories you eat, the higher your setpoint.2 The more high-quality SANE calories you eat, the lower your setpoint.
The quality of calories is determined by four factors: Satiety, Aggression, Nutrition, and Efficiency. The “SANE” approach to eating considers them all. SANE will change the way you think about food, calories, and even yourself.
You are high quality, and you deserve high-quality calories. Let’s be honest, we’re talking about putting food inside you. And we’re talking about what food is being put inside our children and loved ones. I think it’s worth the effort to ensure only high-quality products are being put inside ourselves and those we love. Here’s how you do that.
CALORIE QUALITY FACTOR #1: SATIETY
Are you tired of being hungry and tired? If so, one word can change your life: Satiety. It’s how scientists measure how “satisfying” various foods are. For example, a food with high Satiety satisfies you quickly and keeps you satisfied for a long time. On the other hand, foods like Pringles (aka “once you pop, you can’t stop”) have low Satiety because you must eat a lot of them to feel satisfied—and even then, it doesn’t last long.
If you want to easily avoid hunger AND overeating, eat more high-Satiety foods in place of low-Satiety foods. For example, eat more meatballs, and you will have less room for the pasta. The more high-Satiety foods you eat, the fuller you are, making it harder to eat setpoint-increasing foods. By eating more of the “right” things, you effortlessly avoid the “wrong” things. It’s the simple and powerful science of Satiety. It makes willpower obsolete—and that changes everything.
I’m not suggesting you never eat sweets. I’m only asking you to imagine how your life would be different if you were always so full and satisfied that cravings for sweets went away. It can happen—I see it every day.
The fewer calories needed to fill you up (and the longer those calories keep you full), the higher the satiety of that food. And you won’t be hungry because high-Satiety calories are also the most Nutritious calories in the world (the S and N in SANE), so it’s a win-win. No points or calorie counting needed. Your beautiful biology does that for you.
All sorts of research shows that calorie for calorie, certain foods are more filling than others. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine followed 10 obese patients with type 2 diabetes for 21 days, and found that the people who ate as much high-Satiety protein and natural fat as they wanted, while avoiding low-Satiety starches and sweets, unconsciously avoided 1,000 low-quality calories per day (Boden et al. 2005). And these participants reported feeling just as satisfied as other people in the study who ate 1,000 more lower-Satiety calories.
Why is eating 1,000 fewer low-quality calories per day useful? Didn’t we just cover how harmful starvation is? Yes, but we’re not talking starvation here. When you eat high-Satiety food, you take in more food and much more nutrition, but unintentionally get full faster, stay full longer, and therefore automatically avoid overeating. More food, more nutrition, more energy, and unconsciously avoiding excessive calories is entirely different from less food, less nutrition, feeling hungry, and being tired and cranky all day. The surplus of nutrition and satisfaction from high-satiety food saves you from the side effects of starvation.
The primary area in your brain influenced by high-Satiety foods is the hypothalamus. It tells you when you feel satisfied from eating. Its “you are satisfied” signals that tell you to stop eating depend on three factors:
1. How much do the calories you’re eating stretch your digestive organs?
2. How much do the calories you’re eating affect short-term Satiety hormones?
3. How much do the calories you’re eating stimulate long-term Satiety hormones?
You can enjoy more high-Satiety food by focusing on foods that contain high amounts of water, fiber, and protein. How much a food stretches your stomach and other digestive organs is mostly determined by the amount of water and fiber in it. More water and fiber mean bigger food, more stretch, and getting fuller and staying fuller longer. That is why 200 calories of wet, fibrous celery is more filling than 200 calories of dry, fiber-free gummy bears. Calorie for calorie, celery is about 30 times the size of gummy bears, stretches your stomach and other digestive organs much more, and is therefore much more satisfying.
Foods high in water include non-starchy vegetables, low-fructose fruits, and (surprise) nutrient-dense protein,3 all of which help to fill you up. Noted researchers like Barbara Rolls at Pennsylvania State University and Adam Drewnowski at the University of Washington have published extensive science demonstrating that feeling full is linked to the size and weight (i.e., volume) of foods. In fact, Dr. Rolls has referred to water in foods as “the secret ingredient” to Satiety.
Dietary fiber is another “secret” ingredient. Unlike other food components such as fats, proteins, or carbohydrates—which your body breaks down and absorbs—fiber isn’t digested by your body. Taking up space in your digestive system until it “makes you regular,” fiber keeps you full for a long time.
The amount of protein in food is also critical. Publishing in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Harvard researchers have found that protein affects the other two factors that influence your “stop eating” and “say full” signals: short- and long-term satiety hormones. More calories from protein mean more “full” hormonal signals being sent to your brain now and later (Halton and Hu 2004).
Short-term satiety hormones include ghrelin, which initiates the feeling of hunger, and another hormone called peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY). Produced by gut cells and released into the bloodstream, PYY travels to the brain to decrease hunger and boost satiety. This slows the movement of food in the gut, thereby ensuring maximum digestion of nutrients and decreased appetite.
Long-term satiety hormones include leptin and insulin, both triggered by eating. Produced by fat cells, leptin sends “I’m full” signals to your brain. Protein keeps levels of glucose-managing insulin in check for long periods of time so that your blood sugar doesn’t dip, leaving you hungry.
The power of protein to tame appetite and promote feelings of fullness has been shown repeatedly in numerous clinical trials:
• In a University of Washington study, participants ate an unlimited quantity of calories while having the proportion of protein in their diet increased from 15 percent to 30 percent. They responded by unconsciously avoiding 441 excess calories per day without feeling hungry (Boden et al. 2005).
• In a University of Sussex study, participants ate either a high-protein or a low-protein meal. The high-protein people unconsciously ate 26 percent less than the low-protein people at their next meal without feeling hungry (Booth et al. 1970).
• In a University of Leeds study, participants ate the exact same weight of food, but one group ate a higher percent from protein. The higher-protein group unconsciously ate at least 19 percent fewer calories than the lower-protein group without feeling hungry (Hill and Blundell 1986).
• In a Karolinska Hospital study, participants ate more or less protein for lunch. The more-protein group got full on 12 percent fewer calories at dinner than the less-protein group (Barkeling et al. 1990).
The science is clear: More water, fiber, and protein mean more Satiety. More Satiety means you can get too full for setpoint-raising, low-quality food. Bottom line: High-Satiety eating makes high-willpower living unnecessary. (And that’s awesome!)
CALORIE QUALITY FACTOR #2: AGGRESSION
There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Two minutes on your lips, a lifetime on your hips.”
The problem with this statement is that “2 minutes” may or may not end up on your hips, or anywhere else on your body for that matter. The reason is that calories vary in how likely they are to be stored as body fat. The more Aggressive calories are, the more your body will store them as fat.
What makes calories Aggressive? In a nutshell: how quickly they flood your body with glucose. Your body can handle a sharp spike in glucose every once in a while. But constantly elevated glucose levels give your body no choice but to use fat tissue as the preferred depot for that glucose (this literally turns your body into a body fat–creating machine). The more sugar and starch—and the less fiber, protein, and fat—in a food, the more Aggressive it is (bad) and the more likely its calories are to be shuttled into fat storage.
Examples of Aggressive calories are sweets and starches. Suppose you eat a big plate of pasta, along with some garlic bread (starch plus starch). Dessert is a few cookies (starch plus sugar). Those calories are so Aggressive that your body will send them right into fat storage.
Anytime the body has more starchy and sugary calories available than it can deal with at one time, it stores them as body fat. That is why the glycemic index and glycemic load have become so well known in nutrition. Glycemic index refers to a measure of a food’s Aggression—how high it spikes your blood sugar. The higher a food’s glycemic index, the more Aggressive it is. Glycemic load is similar to glycemic index but also considers quantity. The glycemic load measures a food’s Aggression combined with the carbohydrates in a portion of it.
Bottom line: Your body will drive the fat storage process when you have more glucose in your bloodstream than your body can use at one time. The more Aggressive calories are, the faster they increase the levels of glucose in your bloodstream and the faster those calories head to fat cells.
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about memorizing the glycemic index or glycemic load of foods because SANE eating prevents excess glucose from getting into your bloodstream. When you stick to increasing the amount of water-, fiber-, and protein-packed high-Satiety foods, you automatically eat low-glycemic foods, ensure a low-glycemic load, and store less body fat. You also lower your risk of diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular disease.
What about fat? You do not have to worry about fat in whole foods being Aggressive. Eating fat does not increase the amount of glucose in your bloodstream at all. In fact, digesting fat slows the release of glucose into the bloodstream. That is why foods containing fat are often less Aggressive than fat-free foods, and a lot of those “low-fat” products you see touted are actually more Aggressive because they are making up for the lack of fat with added sugars. That said, foods made up of nothing but fat—like oils, butter, and cream—are not SANE because they don’t contain any water, fiber, and very little protein. They are fine if absolutely needed when cooking, but your setpoint would be lower if you ate fats in whole-food form instead.
CALORIE QUALITY FACTOR #3: NUTRITION
What if everything you were taught about nutrition was wrong? I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s not all wrong. The bad news is that it’s incomplete. But there is one more bit of good news: With three simple words—nutrients per calorie—you can see the real world of nutrition and your setpoint will never be the same.
When you look at the nutritional breakdown on food labels, you may look at the calorie count and then all the details below it. All good. You are halfway there. The only thing left to unlock a whole new world of setpoint-lowering nutrition is to divide those details by the number of calories. Wait—on second thought, you don’t actually have to do any algebra. You just need to keep in mind that anything that anyone says about nutrition that isn’t framed in terms of “per calorie” is at best incomplete and at worst wrong.
This is true because nutrition refers to the vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients (beneficial plant chemicals) found in food. However, the number of calories found in foods varies wildly, so talking about the nutrition of a food without considering the calories within that food is like talking about parenting without considering the age of the child. For instance, which is more nutritious, a cup of enriched wheat flour or a cup of spinach? Ignoring calories and just comparing the other details on the labels you would see:
Nutrients per Cup
Nutrients: Vitamin A
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 0
Spinach (% DV): 56
Nutrients: Vitamin C
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 0
Spinach (% DV): 14
Nutrients: Vitamin E
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 3
Spinach (% DV): 3
Nutrients: Vitamin K
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 1
Spinach (% DV): 181
Nutrients: Thiamine
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 74
Spinach (% DV): 2
Nutrients: Riboflavin
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 41
Spinach (% DV): 3
Nutrients: Niacin
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 52
Spinach (% DV): 1
Nutrients: Vitamin B6
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 3
Spinach (% DV): 3
Nutrients: Folate
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 63
Spinach (% DV): 15
Nutrients: Calcium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 2
Spinach (% DV): 3
Nutrients: Iron
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 34
Spinach (% DV): 5
Nutrients: Magnesium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 9
Spinach (% DV): 6
Nutrients: Phosphorus
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 13
Spinach (% DV): 1
Nutrients: Potassium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 4
Spinach (% DV): 5
Nutrients: Zinc
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 8
Spinach (% DV): 1
If you stopped there, enriched wheat flour appears to be more nutritious overall. And that’s why the USDA’s various pyramids and plates continue to tell us grains are nutritious. Here’s why that’s objectively wrong. One cup of enriched wheat flour contains 495 calories. One cup of spinach contains 7 calories. Does it seem fair or even logical to compare 495 calories of one food to 7 calories of another food? No way! To be fair, scientifically accurate, and to lower your setpoint, you can fix this by looking at nutrients per calorie. For example, here’s how the nutrition of enriched wheat flour and spinach compare if you look at nutrient per calorie:
Nutrients per 250 Calories
Nutrients: Vitamin A
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 0
Spinach (% DV): 2,000
Nutrients: Vitamin C
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 0
Spinach (% DV): 500
Nutrients: Vitamin E
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 2
Spinach (% DV): 107
Nutrients: Vitamin K
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 1
Spinach (% DV): 6,464
Nutrients: Thiamine
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 37
Spinach (% DV): 71
Nutrients: Riboflavin
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 21
Spinach (% DV): 107
Nutrients: Niacin
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 26
Spinach (% DV): 36
Nutrients: Vitamin B6
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 2
Spinach (% DV): 107
Nutrients: Folate
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 32
Spinach (% DV): 536
Nutrients: Calcium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 1
Spinach (% DV): 107
Nutrients: Iron
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 17
Spinach (% DV): 179
Nutrients: Magnesium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 5
Spinach (% DV): 214
Nutrients: Phosphorus
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 7
Spinach (% DV): 36
Nutrients: Potassium
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 2
Spinach (% DV): 179
Nutrients: Zinc
Enriched Wheat Flour (% DV): 4
Spinach (% DV): 36
When you look at those magic three words—nutrients per calorie—you get a whole new and super slimming view of Nutrition. It’s really cool and leads to food guide pyramids and plates that look like these:4
So, in your new world of SANEity, Nutrition with a capital N (aka the N in SANE) means “nutrients per calorie.” That distinction gives you a more accurate view of food, and more importantly, it will save your life. Basically, the more nutrients (vitamins, minerals, essential proteins, essential fats, etc.) concentrated into a food calorie, the more beneficial it is. The fewer nutrients per calorie, the less healthy and more setpoint-elevating it is.
As we alluded to when discussing Satiety and Aggression, Nutrition plays a big part in lowering your setpoint. When you eat more water-, fiber-, and protein-filled foods, you get more essential nutrients while avoiding overeating (Satiety) or overwhelming the body with glucose (Aggression). A University of Florida study discovered that people who ate more nutrient-dense foods enjoyed lower levels of body fat and inflammation than people who ate the exact same number of calories, but from foods that were not nutrient dense (Kadey 2015). A surplus of quality nutrition is the opposite of starvation and your key to fat loss instead of frustration.
Maximizing Nutrition is easy: simply choose foods high in water, protein, and fiber. These include non-starchy vegetables; low-fructose fruits like berries; nuts, seeds, and other whole fats; and quality proteins like humanely raised fish and meat.
WHAT ABOUT “HEALTHY” WHOLE GRAINS?
Aren’t “healthy whole grains” the foundation of any good diet? Sadly, no. Just because some food products are “whole grain” doesn’t mean they’re SANE—for several reasons. They don’t fill you up when compared calorie for calorie to veggies and protein (Satiety). They make glucose levels skyrocket (which leads to fat storage—Aggression). They contain fewer nutrients than their non-starchy plant-food counterparts (Nutrition), and they are inEfficient (which I’ll get to in a moment). You don’t need grains to lower your setpoint and optimize health. Further, if you eat grains instead of SANEr foods like non-starchy veggies, nutrient-dense protein, whole-food fats, and low-fructose fruits, you are increasing your setpoint and harming your health.
Is whole-wheat toast SANEr than a doughnut? Yes. But that’s not saying much. Is one pack of cigarettes “healthier” than two? Yes! But again, something being “less bad” is not the same as it being awesome at lowering your setpoint. Whole grains are “less bad” than what makes up most diets. That doesn’t mean they are good for you. And it definitely does not mean they are an effective way to lower your setpoint.
For example, take a look at how 1 cup of whole-wheat pasta stacks up against 1 cup of zucchini noodles or “zoodles” (a SANE food many of our members are deliciously substituting for pasta) in terms of nutrient quality.
Nutrients per Cup
Nutrients: Calories
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 174
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 8
Nutrients: Dietary fiber
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 25
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 8
Nutrients: Vitamin A
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Nutrients: Vitamin B6
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 9
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Nutrients: Vitamin B12
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Nutrients: Thiamine
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 11
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 5
Nutrients: Riboflavin
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 4
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 3
Nutrients: Niacin
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 5
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 5
Nutrients: Folate
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 2
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 13
Nutrients: Vitamin C
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 39
Nutrients: Vitamin D
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Nutrients: Vitamin E
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 3
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 2
Nutrients: Vitamin K
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 1
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 7
Nutrients: Calcium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 3
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 4
Nutrients: Potassium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 14
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 87
Nutrients: Iron
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 19
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 9
Nutrients: Magnesium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 10
Nutrients: Phosphorus
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 13
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 7
Nutrients: Copper
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 5
Nutrients: Manganese
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 97
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 16
Nutrients: Zinc
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 8
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 4
Looking at quantity, whole-wheat pasta seems more nutritious than zoodles in nutrients such as fiber, thiamine, and several minerals (iron, magnesium, phosphorous, copper, manganese, selenium, and zinc). But here’s why that’s misleading: 1 cup of whole-wheat pasta contains 174 calories, and 1 cup of zoodles contains 27 calories. But looking at quality—nutrients per calorie—you see something much different and more useful. Here is a more fair comparison—comparing 174 calories of pasta to 174 calories of zoodles:
Nutrients per Calorie
Nutrients: Calories
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 174
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 174
Nutrients: Dietary fiber
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 25
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 52
Nutrients: Vitamin A
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 77
Nutrients: Vitamin B6
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 9
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 77
Nutrients: Vitamin B12
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Nutrients: Thiamine
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 11
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 32
Nutrients: Riboflavin
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 4
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 19
Nutrients: Niacin
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 5
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 32
Nutrients: Folate
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 2
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 84
Nutrients: Vitamin C
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 251
Nutrients: Vitamin D
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 0
Nutrients: Vitamin E
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 3
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 13
Nutrients: Vitamin K
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 1
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 45
Nutrients: Calcium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 3
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 26
Nutrients: Potassium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 14
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 561
Nutrients: Iron
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 19
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 58
Nutrients: Magnesium
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 65
Nutrients: Phosphorus
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 13
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 45
Nutrients: Copper
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 12
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 32
Nutrients: Manganese
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 97
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 103
Nutrients: Zinc
Whole-Wheat Pasta (Cooked) (% DV): 8
Zoodles (Cooked) (% DV): 26
Knowing these facts, why would any nutritionist tell you to eat more whole-wheat pasta instead of telling you to eat more zoodles? I mean heck, “zoodles” is even more fun to say!
Like Satiety and Aggression, a food’s Nutrition depends on water, fiber, and protein. Water and fiber have no calories, and protein calories do not “count” as much as carbohydrate or fat calories (more on this when we talk about Efficiency… the E in SANE). When you keep water, fiber, and protein at the top of your mind, you’ll have a dramatically different view of which foods are nutritious.
Let me pick on grains again only because when I was growing up, the Food Guide Pyramid convinced me that they were the most nutritious foods in the world. Consider cereal, bread, rice, pasta, or all the other “healthy” starches sitting in most pantries. The reason they are in the pantry and not the fridge or freezer is because they contain no water. Strike one. They also contain little protein.5 Strike two. Fiber is their only hope.
But be cautious about the high-fiber claims companies make for their whole-grain products. Are they actually true? The 4 grams of fiber in 250 calories of whole-grain cereal is double the fiber in 2 grams of fiber in 250 calories of refined-grain cereal, but that is only comparing grains. We have to ask if grains are a good source of fiber compared with more water-and protein-packed foods you could be eating. Spoiler alert: They are not. Eating whole-grain bread to get more fiber is like eating carrot cake to get more vegetables.
To wrap up, it’s a good thing you are already focusing on foods rich in water, fiber, and protein when it comes to Satiety and Aggression because those are the same three factors that give you REAL setpoint-lowering Nutrition.
CALORIE QUALITY FACTOR #4: EFFICIENCY
The fourth and final part of the SANE acronym might be the most revolutionary and is definitely the least well known in the mainstream. The E in SANE stands for “Efficiency.” Your body varies wildly in its ability to store things you consume as body fat. Some things you consume can’t be stored as fat, while others are very Efficiently stored as body fat. If your goal is having less fat on your body, it’s helpful to eat foods that your body is inEfficient at storing as body fat.
Before you can identify which foods are Efficiently stored as body fat (and then avoid them), you need a bit of background on how your body handles food in general. From a volume perspective, food is made up of essentially fiber, water, protein, carbohydrate/sugar/starch, and fat. Fiber and water don’t provide your body with calories, so they are not applicable here. You could say that fiber, water, or anything else that your body can’t get calories from is 100 percent inEfficient. That means you could consume it in unlimited quantities and never store any of it as body fat. In the case of fiber and water, you’d simply use the bathroom more.
As a side note, this is why non-starchy veggies like celery have always been known to help with weight loss. They are basically water and fiber along with a bunch of vitamins and minerals. That entire food group is essentially 100 percent inEfficient and therefore helps nourish you with 0 percent chance of causing fat gain.
Moving on to macronutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats: These are broadly defined as compounds that give us energy. But here’s the rub: Protein is so inEfficient that I almost wish it wasn’t considered a macronutrient. After you eat protein, absolutely no energy is available to your body. Again, after you eat protein, absolutely no energy is available to your body. Protein leaves your stomach as amino acids. Amino acids cannot be burned for energy or stored as fat. They are used to repair and create your cells. If protein leaves your stomach as something your body can’t use as energy, why is it in the same class as carbohydrates and fat? Because the science of Efficiency is not well known… until now!
I cover the science in detail in my first book, The Calorie Myth, so I won’t repeat that here, but here’s the short version:
• Protein is eaten and enters your stomach.
• Protein is broken down into amino acids. Your body is inEfficient at this. Digestion burns about a third of protein calories.
• Amino acids enter your bloodstream.
• The amino acids then repair and build cells.
• If you have more amino acids than you need, they go to your liver and are converted into glucose. Your body is inEfficient at this. The process burns another third of the protein calories.
• Glucose then enters your bloodstream and can be burned for energy.
• If you have more glucose than you need, it is sent to your fat cells along with insulin and is converted into triglyceride and stored as body fat. Your body is inEfficient at this. The process burns another fourth of the protein calories.
As you can see, it’s a long, complex, and calorically costly—that is, inEfficient—road from protein to stored body fat.
As for carbohydrate and fat, both of these macronutrients DO provide energy after leaving your stomach. Your body is pretty Efficient at storing carbohydrate as fat and is very Efficient at storing fat as body fat. Carbohydrates (either sugar or starch) leave your stomach as glucose and are burned for energy or shuttled to fat cells for storage. They do need to be converted into fatty acids before they can be stored, and that is a fairly inEfficient process. However, since that was the only bump on an otherwise short and straight line to your fat cells, let’s call sugar and starch Efficient.
Fats leave your stomach as fatty acids and can be burned for energy or stored as body fat. The key here is that there is zero inEfficient processing needed by the body to get fat you eat into your fat cells. It’s very Efficient. This does not mean that eating fat makes you fat any more than eating green vegetables makes you green. Remember that the fat you eat could be burned for energy as easily as it is stored. Also keep in mind that fat doesn’t trigger the release of the hormone insulin, and that can be very helpful when trying to lower your setpoint. However, it is important to note that processed foods that are pure fat—like oils—are easy to overeat and could provide you with way more fatty acids than you need for energy and would then be really Efficiently stored as body fat.
Lots of science here, but just keep doing what you are doing and focus on eating lots of water, fiber, and protein-rich non-starchy vegetables and nutrient-dense protein. Then simply make sure that your fats come in whole-food form so that even they bring water, fiber, and protein along for the ride. An elevated setpoint simply doesn’t stand a chance!
Put this all together, and it’s clear why eating so much SANE food (Satisfying, unAggressive, Nutritious, and inEfficient) that you are too full for inSANE food heals your metabolism and drives your setpoint down, while starvation dieting harms your metabolism and drives your setpoint up. When you eat as much as you want, whenever you want—as long as it’s SANE—your body stops storing fat and burns it instead. You eat more food, maintain a lower setpoint, and slim down naturally.
The next chapters will get into the specifics of the foods that help you do this as simply, quickly, and deliciously as possible.
| High in water, fiber, and protein | Low in water, fiber, and protein |