Can dieting based on 'how many calories am I taking in' be dangerous to health?

 Can dieting based on 'how many calories am I taking in' be dangerous to health?

At the beginning of every new year, some of us make some resolutions and intend to do something new.

One of the most common, or perhaps most popular, resolutions to make at the beginning of every year is to lose weight and get in better shape. To achieve this we often promise to moderate our food intake and exercise daily.

As you all know, the energy in food is measured in calories, so many of us assume that if we cut our calorie intake, we will achieve our weight loss goals.

But is this the right approach, or does it need to be rethought? Some experts not only consider calorie counting to be outdated, but they also argue that it is dangerous. We're reviewing calories here historically.

A calorie is a unit of energy, often used to express the nutritional value of foods.

The term comes from the Latin word 'calor', meaning heat, and has been in use for over a century.

Dr. Giles Yeo, Professor of Molecular Neuro and Crinology at the University of Cambridge, tells the BBC that 'Nicholas Clement defined the calorie as the amount of heat it takes to raise one liter of water at sea level by one centigrade.'

Clement was the first French scientist to use the term in lectures on heat engines at the beginning of the 19th century.

So today it is defined in the dictionary as one calorie means the energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one centigrade. In this way, 1000 calories are added together to make one kilocalorie.

What effects did his discovery have around the world?

The scientific ability to accurately measure the calorie content of foods was a historic moment that changed many things.

 their gender, and no two diets could be comparedtheir gender, and no two diets c" explains Nick Colather, a professor of history and international studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. But suddenly, it happened that they started being compared.

There was a big change in our assumptions and views about food and people started seeing food as a combination of proteins, carbohydrates, micronutrients, fats etc.

And the way people look at food has changed.

Even in the 20th century, calories began to influence public policy. During the 1920s and 1930s the Japanese Navy implemented a dietary standard for its sailors, which they saw as bringing them in line with European standards.

Wheat, meat, and especially pork and chicken were added to the diet of naval personnel and widely distributed to the Japanese public. It is very likely that the Japanese food that many of us enjoy today is a result of this dietary change.

Decades later, the United States used caloric calculations to determine this, and they did so to determine food aid to send to drought-prone countries. At the same time, the League of Nations, an organization that emerged from the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, studied nutrition and in 1935 established a standard classification at the world level, according to which an adult needed 2500 calories per day.

Now the widely popular norm is 2,500 calories per day for a man and 2,000 calories per day for a woman.

However, some experts say that calorie counting is outdated.

Some experts say that calorie counting is outdated and the reasons for this are as follows.

They say that even if different foods have similar energy values, they may not provide the same health or nutritional benefits. For example, a glass of milk has about 184 calories, and a glass of pure beer has a slightly lower 137 calories.

Geneticist Giles Yeo points out that 'we don't actually eat calories, we eat food and then our bodies have to work to get those calories out.' Depending on what kind of food we eat, carrots, donuts or meat, our bodies have to work to different degrees to get the calories from it.'

The labels we see on food packets in the supermarket tell us how many calories are in the food, but they don't give you any indication of how much our bodies will be able to absorb.

 So for the amount of protein calories we need, we need to take 30 percent more protein so that we can absorb the required calories.

Is calorie counting dangerous?

Adrian Rose-Batar, an expert in the history and culture of food and health at New York's Cornell University, warns that "reliance on fixed calorie counts hurts people." Calorie obsession and the adoption of calorie-reduction programs can cause problems, he says.

He says, "An alcoholic can give up alcohol, but on the contrary, you cannot give up food."

start with an innocuous calorie counting program."

Some programs even suggest people survive on dangerously low-calorie diets, she says.