I quite often receive questions from readers who want to know the calorie or kilojoule count of certain foods, or how many calories/kilojoules they need to consume to either lose or gain weight. In recent years the method of counting calories or kilojoules has fallen into disuse and most nutritionists and dieticians do not advise their patients to compile their diets in terms of these energy units anymore.

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Why has this method fallen into disuse?
The reasons why the nutrition fraternity has discarded the previously very popular method of meticulously counting calories or kilojoules, are as follows:

• Counting calories or kilojoules is a very time-consuming and restrictive method of monitoring how much energy you ingest
• Because this method is so time-consuming and complicated (it entails weighing portions and working out daily energy intakes) its use often discouraged patients and gave them the perfect excuse for abandoning their diet: “I can’t keep up this fussy process of having to weigh everything I eat and I haven’t got the time to work out how much energy I eat on a daily basis. So I ‘m going to stop this nonsense!” - sound familiar?
• Nutrition experts all over the world, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), agree that nutrition messages and instructions are often too complicated and basically meaningless to the general public, resulting in confusion and discouragement
• The WHO published a directive a number of years ago instructing nutritionists to convey health messages and dietary advice in terms of actual foods, instead of using complicated concepts like calories and kilojoules
• The WHO approach is eminently sensible, seeing that people eat foods and drink beverages and think of their dietary intake in terms of food and drink

So what replaces calorie/kilojoule counting?
Nowadays slimming and other diets are usually expressed in terms of foods and beverages that should preferably be avoided and those that should be eaten or drunk to achieve the specific goals of a given diet.

Seeing that Slimming Diets are probably the most popular diets used by millions of individuals who are struggling to lose weight all over the world, let’s have a look at the type of dietary advice you would be given nowadays in contrast to a few years ago when you would have been told to reduce your energy intake to 1000 calories or 4200 kJ/day.

The modern approach
To lose weight you basically need to do two things:

a) Decrease your energy intake by cutting down on foods rich in fat and beverages that are high in energy
b) Increase your energy expenditure by doing regular exercise

Avoid fatty foods
The advice to cut out, or reduce fatty foods, is based on the fact that 1g of fat contains 37 kJ or 9 calories and is, therefore, the most concentrated form of energy in our diets. Research has also shown that the human body is programmed to use fat in food as a reserve and to store this fat in the so-called fat depots (tummies, thighs, buttocks). If you want, or need to lose weight, then these are the foods you should avoid:

• Full-cream milk, yoghurt and other dairy products like cream cheese, cream and butter (use low-fat or skim milk, yoghurt and cottage cheese, soft cheeses like Gouda, and small amounts of low-fat Lite margarines instead - don’t cut out milk and dairy altogether because you need the calcium, B vitamins and protein these foods contain)
• Fatty meat, fish, poultry, organ meats and food preparation methods that add fat to these foods (use lean meat trimmed of all visible fat, white fish, fish canned in brine instead of oil, skinned poultry, and cooking methods like grilling, frying in a non-stick pan without butter, stewing and steaming instead, - don’t make rich sauces with dripping or cream)
• Rich, fatty cakes, pies, pastries and cookies (use wholewheat, unprocessed grains and cereals like wholewheat bread, high-bran cereals, oats, brown rice, potatoes baked in their skins without butter or cream (use a low-fat yoghurt dressing), pasta, samp, and crushed wheat instead)
• Chocolates and rich desserts (if you must have something sweet, then rather eat jelly babies, marshmallows, or hard boiled sweets in moderation, and use fresh fruit, diet jellies and low-fat flavoured, artificially sweetened yoghurt for dessert)
• Avoid alcohol and cold drinks
  Alcohol contributes 29 kJ/gram and is the second most dense source of energy in the human diet. Cold drinks are also energy-rich and seeing that many people drink liters of carbonated sweetened cold drinks on a daily basis, it is a good idea to avoid this practice when you are trying to lose weight.

Preferred foods

In addition to the foods suggested above as substitutes for fatty foods, the following can be used in Slimming Diets:

• Fruit and vegetables in all their variations (fresh, dried, raw, cooked, juice, canned in water and frozen) can be used freely in Slimming Diets.
• Dry beans, peas, lentils, and soy products (legumes) can be eaten freely and used as low-energy substitutes for fatty meat.

I think readers will agree that in the long run the demise of counting calories and kilojoules is an advantage and that it is much simpler to think of diets in terms of foods and beverages and that this more modern approach makes dieting much easier.

If you have any diet queries, post a question or message on The Message Board.

Dr I V van Heerden, D.Sc.

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