Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

118 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

MORE BULK MEANS FEWER CALORIES

When subjects eating foods low in caloric density, such as fruits and veg-

etables, are compared with those consuming foods richer in calories, those

on meal plans with higher calorie concentrations were found to consume

twice as many calories per day in order to satisfy their hunger.^1

Interestingly, the Chinese, who on average consume more calo-

ries, are thinner than Americans.^2 In China the calorie intake per

kilogram of body weight is 30 percent higher than in the United

States. The Chinese eat about 270 more calories per day than Amer-

icans, yet they are invariably thin. Exercise cannot fully explain this

difference, as researchers discovered the same thing with Chinese of-

fice workers as well.

This may be because calories from carbohydrates are not as likely

to increase body fat as the same number of calories from high-fat

foods such as oils and meats, which make up such a high proportion

of the American diet. The data suggests that when a very low fat diet

is consumed (15 percent average dietary fat in rural China), as com-

pared to the typical Western diet (30-45 percent of calories from fat),

more calories are burned to convert carbohydrate into fat, so the

body cannot store fat easily.

Your body must burn about 23 percent of the calories consume!

from carbohydrates to make the conversion from glucose into fat,

but it converts food fat into body fat quickly and easily. One hundred

calories of ingested fat can be converted to ninety-seven calories of