Have you ever seen a Boeing 747 taking off? The sight of that huge mass of aluminium, steel and plastic majestically rising off the ground is always a memorable one inspiring awe among the young and old alike.
Image via: Boeing
Did you know that a fully loaded 747 could weigh as much as 800,000 pounds but that the weight of the passengers and cargo is only about 200,000 pounds. In aeronautical terms, the 200,000 pounds is known as the “payload” or the revenue-producing part of the total weight. Imagine: just about a fourth (25%) of the total weight of the plane is generating revenue for the airline company. And payload ratios can be markedly more dramatic for things like space shuttles where about 5-7 astronauts and instruments with a payload of just about 50,000 pounds are carried to space using combined shuttles and boosters that could weigh close to 4.5 million pounds! That’s a payload ratio of just about 1%.
Now I am not talking about 747s and space shuttles just because they fascinate me so much (and believe me, they do). Payloads are something we should be paying attention to when it comes to foods too (you knew I would be coming back down to earth and talking about food soon!). So what is “calorific payload”? Think of it as the ratio of the number of calories in a food that are actually doing good for you to the total number of calories in that food. Simple.
This is a little different than just saying “this food has too many calories” or “this food is too fatty”. As an analogy think about an airline operator flying our favorite plane, the 747. What do you think is uppermost in his mind? Payload! Even with just half the passengers, his plane is still (800000-100000=) 700000 pounds in weight and he needs fuel, maintenance and crew to get it from point A to point B. His goal, then, is get as many paying passengers as possible so he can reduce his costs and make a profit.
You need to start thinking like him too. Everytime you pick a food, you have to think “OK, so this food is 200 calories, but what is its payload?”. In other words, you have to think “I am about to stuff 200 calories down my throat - what’s in it for me?”. In doing so you will immediately understand how some foods have excellent payload, and some are, sadly, just filled with empty calories (having a poor payload ratio).
Think of foods like almonds, peanut butter and olive oil. At first glance, one is bound to think of them as high-calorie and high-fat foods (just a tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories - all fat and an ounce of almonds is 163 calories - 120 of them from fat!). But look again. These have excellent calorific payloads. Almonds are one of the best nutritionally-dense sources of protein, fiber and Vitamin E; peanut butter has an excellent protein profile and just like these two, in moderate quantities, olive oil (about 1-2 tablespoon per person a day) is a great source of heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fats. So when you eat these foods, it is with a complete understanding that, yes, these are high calorie/fat foods, but they have the payload to justify that and they are actually good for you.
Conversely, think of foods like potato chips, french-fries, chicken nuggets, doughnuts (uh-oh, I am on a roll here, somebody stop me!) … a single serving of some of these have even fewer total calories than the good foods I mentioned above. But does that mean these are better? Nope. Because the calories they contain have no payload. Nothing accompanies them - they are just … empty! No fiber, no protein, no good fats, just empty calories. Would our airline operator fly his 747 empty? I don’t think so.
So strive for foods that have a good calorific payload. Here is a quick checklist to ensure you are getting something for every calorie you put into your mouth (not all of these will be true for a given food, but sometimes just one or two of these is sufficient payload!):
- Is there a sizable quantity of good (unsaturated) fats and little or no bad (trans) fats? Many products don’t list unsaturated fats separately, but in most cases it is as simple as subtracting the saturated fats (which is almost always listed) from the total fats. Trans fats, if present, are to be compulsorily listed from 1st Jan 2006 onward, by FDA rules.
- Is the food rich in fiber (atleast 2g per serving?)
- Is there sufficient protein (atleast 5-6g per serving)
- Is it rich in vitamins like Vitamin C, D or E and minerals (Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium)?
- Is it low in added/refined sugar and low in High Fructose Corn Syrup and other artificial sweeteners?
By scanning the entire Nutrition Label to look for calorific payload and not just the total calories or total fat in a food alone, we as consumers can make much more informed decisions the next time we shop. Although you should be counting calories, what is more important is making those calories count.
Let’s go get some more passengers into our plane!
[tags] health, fitness, calories, calorific payload, empty calories[/tags]
