The ‘eat-too-much, do-too-little’ hypothesis of obesity states that weight gain is a result of too much food or too little exercise. These conditions, it is claimed, cause a positive energy balance that results in fat accumulation. In support of this belief, proponents quote the first law of thermodynamics to support their contention. Such an idea is pivots on the assumption that if energy is ingested, it must be oxidised or it will be stored. However, this viewpoint is provably erroneous because it fails to take into account the fact that the gut is not part of the internal milieu of the body, but an external absorptive surface. Therefore, until the calorie is absorbed across the gut lining, it is not possible to include it in any equation based on the law of conservation of energy. The energy from some foods is poorly absorbed, and so calorie counting is not scientific in the least.
In fact, the poor absorption of macronutrients from some foods is well documented. Nuts are one example that has been investigated in the literature. For example researchers1 fed a range of peanut products to 63 healthy men and women, including whole peanuts (70 g), peanut butter, peanut oil or peanut flour, in order to assess the absorption of the fat content of the products. Subjects consumed one of the products and then crossed-over to the control diet, which was identical to the treatment diets but was missing any peanut products. Those subjects consuming the whole peanuts had a significant increase in excretion of fat in their faeces (5.22 %) compared to the control (3.87 %). However, the fat excretion in the other peanut groups was not significant from the control. There was therefore an increase in energy excretion with whole peanut consumption compared to the control or other peanut treatments.
These results support other studies that have reported energy excretion with nut consumption (here). These data also support the studies that show that nut consumption results in less weight gain that could be expected from the calories ingested. This evidence contradicts the premise of calorie counting and shows that nutrition is far more complex that using a food table to calculate energy consumption. Fat excretion can vary, and typically ranges from about 3 to 6 %. This can therefore have a substantial effect on the amount of energy absorbed to the circulation. In the above cited study, total energy loss increased by 36.8 kcal and the fat loss increased by 20.1 kcal during whole peanut consumption. It is likely that the additional non-fat calories were made up of a combination of protein and carbohydrate. The loss of energy may derive from a failure to rupture the fibrous cell walls during digestion.
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