Calories of common foods

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*Calories of Common Foods- A Rough* Guide**		Text Copyright 2007 by Nancy Sculerati MD - all rights reserved
*Calories of Common Foods- A Rough* Guide**
The truth is that no guide can give precise calories on natural foods, unless - at the minimum, the food is weighed. Even then, depending on which 100 grams of apple, say, (Rome or Red Delicious) we are talking about, calories will still vary because some apples are sweeter than others, and when it comes to nutritional assets and liabilities: not every red delicious apple is just precisely the same. The growing medium and presence of presticides contribute to at least trace amounts of the individual content of all fruits and vegetables. Similarly, a lamb chop's calorie content is dependant not only upon its size, but also (very much so) its fat content, and this is not exactly the same chop to chop, and when it comes to the chicken and the egg- a hen's diet and activites influence both. So, this guide says "rough" for a reason, the calories are truly only ballpark estimates. Please see the reference section and the external links for better information. *Nutritional information includes the highlights of each food, as applies to healthy* adults and children.** A mineral like potassium is great for most of us- if you have kidney failure you have to restrict that mineral and so, for example, for you, potassium would not belong in Banana's "assets" column. This is my attempt at providing useful, working information to help us all (especially me). That's why values are rounded off and ranges are given - to make values easier to remember and to emphasize that a "moderate" slice, like a piece of fruit, has a range of calories and sizes.
Rough Guide to Food Values Learn the relative assets and liabilities of foods		This calorie counter from Google may help you assess your dietary intake & stay or get healthy- but not if you take the foods they picture as main dishes, side dishes and deserts as staples in your diet!
Fruits & Vegetables	Assets	Liabilities
Banana : 200 calories	Vitamins C, B6 Potassium, Manganese	nearly 30 grams of sugar in a nice banana
Apple: 65 - 100 calories	Vitamin C Fiber	Who's eating this apple? Kids under 3 (no molars yet) and people without good teeth need to cut up apples-the hidden liability here is choking. Those with good dentures can chew, but they still tend to swallow pieces that get stuck and "go the wrong way" because the plate covers sensitive palates.
Watermelon slice: 150 calories
Strawberries (cup): 50 calories	Vitamin C
Tomatoes (cup): 30 calories
A Holistic View *by Dr. Sculerati*
Low carb? Low fat? What's healthy eating? There's a lot of opinions out there - and here's mine: it's probably not the same for everybody. In animals, there's evidence that optimum diets are different in the same species depending on long-term habitat. In other words, a rabbit that comes from 10,OOO generations in a meadow in Mexico may be the same species as a rabbit whose 10,000 generations have been in the Vermont woods, but it's likely that there have been fine adjustments in digestion and metabolism and that the optimum diet might be different for the two. I'd venture that a person whose ancestors have all been Inuit, eating a high fat sea mammal meat and fish diet for generations back to prehistory, might have a different reaction to bread and butter than somebody from Southern European extraction. Even within hereditary groups, there are certainly variations that have to do with food allergy, levels of exercise and ...tastes. So, to me, the notion that there is a perfect human diet is a silly one. There has to be some variation to the optimum diet depending on an individual. The saying that "one man's meat is another man's poison" is not just allegorical.


References

Further Reading

External Links

NutritionData