I've been getting a lot of inquiries about calories on our meal plan. When I ask what specifically is the goal many people are interested in weight loss.

As of right now we don't include calories in our meal plan, but as the demand for that seems to grow it is something we may consider.

Before that time comes I wanted to use this as a chance to talk a bit about calories and why I personally do not believe they are important for weight loss.

Calories are not made equally

it is more important to look at the quality of food you are putting into your body not just the amount of calories. 100 calories of broccoli reacts very differently in your body than 100 calories of chips or cookies. Broccoli nourishes you, and supplies your body with key nutrients and minerals, and it is stored differently once it breaks down (more on the this later).

If you are reading nutrition labels - it is more important to look at SUGARS than calories.

When we eat sugar our body uses what it needs for energy - If you’ve ever heard eat a banana before a workout - this is why. What our body doesn’t use for energy gets stored as fat. Looking out for sugar on a nutrition label is extremely important if you are trying to manage your weight - and for your overall health and wellness.

Pesticides/Herbicides/Heavy Metals are all stored in the fat cells.

Our bodies do not know what to do with all the chemicals that we are coming into contact with these days. There are chemicals in the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the clothes we were. We are surrounded by chemicals. Our bodies are designed to eliminate them to keep us safe, but the rate we are exposed vs. the rate we can eliminate is just too high. To keep us safe from toxins that could make us sick or kill us, our bodies store environmental toxins in our fat cells. in addition to this, toxins also mess with our metabolism, and how our body balances our blood sugar. All leading to weight gain.

Sugar and processed foods are addicting

This is scientific FACTS! Somewhere in time during the US obesity epidemic scientists stated to look into food addiction, and what they found was that processed foods contain certain chemicals that release “feel good” responses in the body. These foods (like cheese and sugar) were found to light up the same area of the brain that heroine does making them highly addictive. This makes it 100% more likely that you will overindulge in a bag of chips is more likely than overeating vegetables and whole grains.

At the Hungry Hippie we place our focus on using NATURAL, organic, and real ingredients. This reduces the chances of being exposed to harmful toxins ( herbicides and pesticides) , and over eating in response to chemicals that trigger addictive eating patterns in your brain.