How many of us have counted calories day in, day out and not seen a pound change on the scale? Well, that could be because the calories don’t matter if the foods and drinks, they come from can’t be used in our bodies the way we need them to. A calorie is a calorie no matter where is comes from. Whether it is from a fruit or veggie, which our body can use for our daily function, or from a candy bar. The calorie is a unit of energy defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of a quantity of water by one degree, not a unit of nutritional load.

When we eat foods that have the proper nutritional density our body can use those building blocks in all processes, including hormone production and cellular matrix building. It can be confusing to know what the proper food pyramid is supposed to be these days, but the best thing to do is to know where your food comes from and how it is grown, raised, and prepared. These are the best ways to ensure that we give our body what it needs to help us reach our goals for our healthy weight and healthy life.