The terms Calories and nutrients can sound rather confuidng ror almost similar. However , they are different elemnts which serve definite functions.
What Are Calories?
A calorie is a unit of measurement that demonstaet the qunatitity of energy in a food . The food you intake is broken down to poduce enrgy.When you eat food, your body converts calories into fuel for everything from breathing to exercising.
Calories are obtained from carbohydrates (4 kcal per gram), proteins (4 kcal/g), fats (9 kcal/g).
Calories inform how much energy a food provides.
What Are Nutrients?
Nutrients are food components required by your body in order to grow,function and repair.They can be classified as either macronutrinets or micro-nutrients(Please refer to former posts we covered on these topics).
The macro-nutrients particularly carbohydrates , proteins and fats provide you with energy.This energy is what is measured in calories. Calories can be obtained from nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, legumes,nuts and seeds, vegetables, whole grains, starch etc or from junk and processed foods , what are also known as empty calories. The nutrinet-dense foods provide you with calories but along with nutritional value while the empty calories offer you calories-energy, but with low nutritional value.
Calories and nutrients are distinct inferences. While the two complement each other, the nutrients are essential for you but the calories are as a result of consuming the food and it being brken down to release energy. You need calories for energy- needed by your body to function properly. Choose foods that not only offer you calories but those with high nutritional value.