Is every calorie created equal?

I came across a recent study which compares the consumption of whole-food meals versus processed-food meals. Calories where the same in both cases.

The findings are very interesting: digestion of whole foods requires more calories than processed foods, which means that, when whole foods are consumed, less calories are actually absorbed by the body!

So if both meals contain say 1000 calories, the whole-food one will supply the body with 800 calories (200 will be used for digestion), while its processed-food counterpart will supply 900, because in this case digestion requires only 100 calories (numbers are random).

This is of course another proof that whole, real foods are better for you. But there is one more conclusion: the busting of the "a calorie is a calorie" myth. More about that in a future article.