Food is Fuel (and it’s not)

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

If you’re a person who’s halfway concerned with health or fitness, you’ve likely heard the phrase “food is fuel.” Maybe you’ve seen in on a magazine or plastered cheaply to the dingy wall of your local LA. Fitness. You may have even thought, “what a useful way to think of food!” Calories in, calories out, or something. The comparison of the human body to a car, let’s say, is as convenient as it is unsurprising. Put quality gas in your car and it’ll run well. Put quality food in your body and it’ll run well, too. If you run out of gas, your car won’t work. If you’re under-nourished, your body won’t work. And if you over-fuel your car, you’ll end up standing in a puddle of gasoline, which is sort of where the metaphor breaks down (ha).

The largest (most annoying) problem with the food-is-fuel mindset is that living organisms aren’t machines. We’re not that simple, unfortunately. Our bodies are incredibly complex, self-regulating, and dynamic beings. If you’re like me, you may have spent a lot of time doing “calorie math:” counting how many calories you eat (or estimating since getting exact calorie counts is nearly impossible), and estimating how many calories you expend. I counted calories for so long that I know how many calories are in nearly any common food item. I could even closely guess the calorie counts for…