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A Better Way to Look at Food - HealthDay
A "low-energy-dense food diet" sounds like just another weight loss fad, but it's an approach with decades of research behind it.
The concept is simple: Eat more foods with a higher water content to get more volume for fewer calories.
Energy density is simply the amount of energy -- or calories -- in a gram of a food. Foods can be very low-, low-, medium- or high-energy density.
Butter, for instance, is a high-density food with 180 calories in 20 grams. Watermelon is very low, with just 7 calories in 20 grams. Portion size is another way to see the difference. For example, one and a half juicy oranges have the same number of calories as a mere three pretzel rods.
A "low-energy-dense food diet" sounds like just another weight loss fad, but it's an approach with decades of research behind it.
The concept is simple: Eat more foods with a higher water content to get more volume for fewer calories.
Energy density is simply the amount of energy -- or calories -- in a gram of a food. Foods can be very low-, low-, medium- or high-energy density.
Butter, for instance, is a high-density food with 180 calories in 20 grams. Watermelon is very low, with just 7 calories in 20 grams. Portion size is another way to see the difference. For example, one and a half juicy oranges have the same number of calories as a mere three pretzel rods.