E4 MG EE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 , 2020
Energy density is about eating calories in the most satiating way possible
have a lot of bulk for the calories
they deliver can satiate better,
and lead to lower overall con-
sumption, than foods that are
more calorie-dense. It works be-
cause, as your grandmother
could have told you, it fills you up.
If Captain Obvious needed a diet,
this would be it.
It’s not just the physical sensa-
tion, of course; your endocrine
system also gets into the act with
its satiety signals. And you get a
big assist from your brain, which
tends to calibrate “enough” by
sight. Take the Wheaties experi-
ment, for example.
One of the challenges in test-
ing whether a food’s volume
makes a difference in consump-
tion is finding foods that are
exactly the same, except for vol-
ume. But crunchy cereal flakes
offer just such an opportunity,
because they can be crushed to be
almost any volume you like.
In Rolls’s experiment, her team
crushed the Wheaties to 80 per-
UNEARTHED FROM E1 cent, 60 percent and 40 percent
of their original full-flake vol-
ume, and let subjects take their
own serving. All subjects estimat-
ed they ate about the same num-
ber of calories, but their intake
went up significantly as volume
went down. The subjects who got
the 40 percent cereal ate a third
more — despite the fact that
crushed cereal isn’t really very
appetizing.
Ice cream is, though, and one
study gave subjects snacks of
low-fat or full-fat ice cream,
thereby varying the energy densi-
ty but not the volume (the inverse
of the Wheaties study).
They rated the ice creams as
equally palatable, but ate 139
fewer calories of the low-fat ver-
sion and didn’t compensate by
eating more later in the day. And
before you splutter that only a
philistine can’t tell low-fat from
full-fat ice cream, let me inform
you that these particular subjects
were French. C’est vrai.
It works with kids and mac and
cheese. It works when you add a
salad to a meal as a first course.
There are a gajillion studies that
pit foods with lower energy den-
sity (which the literature rather
unfortunately abbreviates ED)
against foods with higher levels.
And, according to Rolls, the up-
shot is that people eat fewer
calories of the less-dense food,
and they don’t tend to make it up
later.
These studies, though, are all
done in labs with food that’s
manipulated surreptitiously, and
that doesn’t mimic what goes on
in most people’s homes. Out in
the real world, there’s some evi-
dence that people who eat diets
low in energy density take in
fewer calories (and also lose more
weight in diet trials), but it’s hard
to draw conclusions from that. A
diet that’s calorie-sparse is heavy
on the veg, light on the desserts,
and that kind of diet is probably a
marker for overall prudence and
health-mindedness. It could be
the prudence, and not the energy
density, that’s responsible. My
best guess, which is also Rolls’s, is
that it’s a combination of both.
I like energy density because
it’s the Unitarianism of diets. It
doesn’t prescribe specific foods
and it co-exists with just about all
the other diets. Almost regardless
of how you’re eating — low-carb,
keto, low-fat, paleo — you can
focus on whichever foods in those
diets are low in calorie density. As
an adjunct to other diets, it can
amplify their effect. (Speaking of
which, I know I promised you a
keto column in October, but I’m
waiting for the results of a big
study to be released.)
Three things help make foods
less calorie-dense:
Water: It’s obviously the key to
the satiating power of soup. And,
weirdly, drinking water with your
food doesn’t have the same effect
as cooking water into your food,
Rolls said (okay, she didn’t say
“weirdly,” but the rest of it).
Liquids you drink tend to move
through pretty quickly, without
the chance to make you feel full.
Water is also the reason veg-
etables, even the starchier ones,
have bulk without many calories.
Cooked pasta is 62 percent water,
and it has 157 calories in 100
grams. Cooked sweet potatoes
are 80 percent water, and half the
calories.
If you come here often, you
know that, from an environmen-
tal perspective, I’m no fan ofsalad. Its water content (96 per-
cent, for crispy lettuces like ice-
berg) means it yields precious
little actual food for all the re-
sources it takes to grow and
transport, but that’s exactly why
it’s a dietary win. Food is just a
never-ending series of trade-offs.
Fiber: It bulks food up with
carbohydrates that are hard for
your body to digest, so they
deliver only about half the calo-
ries of easily digested carbs. For
most foods, it’s not a huge calorie-
density win, but fiber can also
contribute to satiation by slowing
down digestion.
Air: Obviously, no calories at
all. Fluffy foods like puffed cere-
als, popcorn and my personal
favorite, souffles, look like they’re
more food than they are and can
outwit your cognitive calibration
system.
Although you can also reduce
calorie density by cutting fat, I
prefer adding to subtracting.
Adding veg to almost anything —
stews, sauces, sautes — just
makes more of it. Soups and
souffles are at home on any table,
festive or workaday. Big helpings
of those make it easier to have
smaller helpings of, say, the pe-
can pie.
I started writing about nutri-
tion in the ’90s, and I could have
written a column like this then
(although I like to think I’ve
increased the deathlessness of
my prose). But I’m writing it now
because it was true then, it’s still
true, and we’ve lost sight of it.
Theories about satiety that are
much more complex — all macro-
nutrients all the time — got
currency, and the funding fol-
lowed. Most of the research on
the Captain Obvious Diet dates
back 15 years or more.
It’s easy to see why: We kept
getting fat. Which demonstrates
what we ought to know about
weight loss by now, which is that
it’s hard. There’s no strategy
that’s sure to help you get thin; if
you want a guarantee, buy a
toaster. But if you want to make it
just a little easier to eat what you
intend to, and no more, pump up
the volume.
If you don’t believe me, go ask
your grandmother.
[email protected]Haspel writes Unearthed, a monthly
commentary in pursuit of a more
constructive conversation on divisive
food-policy issues.ISTOCK
Energy density is the number of calories in a particular weight (or
volume) of food.BY THE WASHINGTON POSTThe Washington Post Food
staff, Nourish columnist Ellie
Krieger and America’s Test Kitch-
en host Julia Collin Davison re-
cently answered questions about
all things edible. Here are edited
excerpts from that chat. (Capital-
ized names indicate recipes that
can be found in our Recipe Finder
at washingtonpost.com/recipes.)Q: Mashed potatoes stump me
every time. How do I get silky
smooth mash? I have russets and
a food mill or a ricer. I always feel
like I end up with little harder
pellets of potato. Am I not cook-
ing them long enough before
mashing? They certainly seem
done.
A: Make sure your potatoes are
fully cooked and tender. It sounds
like undercooking could be the
culprit. If it happens again, you
can return the potatoes to the
stove, add liquid (broth, milk or
cream) and continue cooking/
mashing until those lumps disap-
pear.
Becky Krystal shared an Essen-
tial Mashed Potatoes recipe that
calls for russets and offers a
no-appliance mashing method,
but she advises that if you want
them super smooth, pull out the
ricer.
— Ann MaloneyQ: S ince I am stuck at home and
have nothing but time, I have
been busily making edible Christ-
mas gifts. Thus far I have made
(and canned) vodka cream sauce
and bourbon barbecue sauce, and
have Kahlua and vanilla extract
in the works. Any other sugges-
tions?
A: S o nice! What about marsh-
mallows? The homemade version
is far superior to the regular
supermarket ones, and they’re
fun to make. Our Peppermint
Marshmallows (coated in choco-
late, or not) are fantastic.
— Joe Yonan
A: O ne of my favorite homemade
holiday food gifts is a jar of Maple
Spiced Glazed Nuts.
— Ellie KriegerQ: I am making the PillowyPull-Apart Dinner Rolls and I
would like them fresh out of the
oven rather than baking them a
day in advance. To save time, can I
make the dough tonight and store
it in the fridge before rolling
them into individual rolls?
Should I let the dough rest before
I put it in the fridge?
A: L et the dough do its first rise
in the fridge overnight, then pull
it out, let it come to room temp,
and continue to shape, rise and
bake.
— Julia Collin DavisonQ: What is the best dessert or
dessert type to highlight vanilla? I
want to use a bean and really
double down in the vanilla itself
and I can’t help but feel a lot of
“vanilla” desserts are actually fla-
vored of butter, cream cheese, etc.
A: I ’m voting ice cream or crème
brûlée. Last summer, our very
own Becky Krystal did a deep dive
into the world of ice cream and
published a super-adaptable reci-
pe for Sweet Cream Ice Cream
Base. You can add scraped-out
vanilla (from the bean).
— Olga MassovQ: I am looking to indulge in the
ultimate cozy cold weather dish
— cassoulet. I want to make it
properly, too, with toulouse sau-
sage. I am having trouble finding
it. I live in southern Maryland but
am wondering where in the DMV
I’d be able to find it.
A: Great idea! I go to Pam the
Butcher at Wagshal’s for every-
thing, including toulouse sau-
sage.
— Mary-Beth AlbrightFREE RANGE EXCERPTSHow can I get perfect,
silky mashed potatoes?
STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG
FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTEssential Mashed Potatoes.CaseDesign.com I 301.755.9855MD MHIC #1176 | VA # 2701039723 | DC # 2 242Our commitment to providing a safe, healthy,
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