The terms calories and nutrients can sound rather confounding or almost similar. However , they are different elemnets which serve definite functions.
What Are Calories?
A calorie is a unit of measurement that demonstrates the quantitity of energy in a food . The food you intake is broken down to produce energy. When you eat food, your body converts calories into energy required for evn voluntary functions such as breathing and swallowing , and activities that redquire energy such as exercising.
Calories are obtained from carbohydrates (4 kcal per gram), proteins (4 kcal/g), and 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 macro-nutrinets 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 nutrient-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 a food, which is broken 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.