Answers to clients questions

How are calories counted?

Calculation of calories is generally not complicated, but a little wily thing. It is very easy to be mislead when reading labels on products and evaluating their nutritive value. For the sake of clarity let us analyze such an example. Say, at a shop we have bought cheese, the label of which tells that 100g of the product contains 30g of proteins, 30g of carbohydrates and 30g of fats (water comprises the remaining 10g). At first sight everything might look clear for everyone: one third of proteins, one third of carbohydrates, and one third of fats. Water has no calories. But in fact this cheese is very fatty and calories from fat will definitely comprise more than half of all calories of the product. Let us calculate. As we know, 1g. of carbohydrates has 4kcal., 1g. of proteins has 4kcal. as well, and 1g. of fats has 9kcal. Therefore, let us multiply the numbers:

 30g. of carbohydrates x 4 = 120kcal.;

 30g. of proteins x 4 = 120kcal.;

 30g. of fats x 9 = 270kcal.

 Calorific content of products of some companies may be indicated on the packages in joules. Therefore in order to find out the calories, joules should be multiplied by a coefficient of 4.1. For the sake of general information I will remind that 1g. of alcohol has 7kcal. As we see from this example, more than half of the calories (even 53% of the product) are calories from fat. It is evident that it is a very fatty cheese that should not be eaten every day. I remind that your nutrition should be adjusted so that 55-60% of calories would come from carbohydrates, 25-30% from proteins, and 15-20% from fats. This percentage has, of course, to be modified depending on the aims. This is the reason why you should not be lazy to read the product label when buying food.