Americans looooove their coffee, but at what cost? If you thought the price on a venti mocha was high, consider the price you’ll end up paying in the long run when it comes to your health. For instance, did you know that in one 20oz cup of Starbucks Venti Caffè Mocha made with whole milk and topped with whipped cream that there are approximately 450 calories and 13 grams of bad fat?! A healthier alternative would be to have a cup of tea, but for the die-hard coffee drinkers out there who absolutely HAVE to have that coffee, consider getting your next beverage made with skim milk and light whipped cream or no whipped cream at all. Or you can even downsize the cup.

The need of the hour is for medical reform to not be the creation of self-created feeling of need, but rather it should be based on informed decisions and acted on when the time is right. There is little doubting the fact that each medical care reform proposal will be backed by many case studies and demonstrable facts, and when such facts as well as proposals are filtered, it should enable one to determine whether such medical reforms will increase, or reduce the value of health care that the patient receives, and thus should form the basis for accepting or rejecting such medical care reforms.

So what do calories measure?

Easy: they measure energy.

Yes, the evil calorie – the bane of the dieter’s existence – is really just a 3-syllable label for energy.

And it’s important to highlight this, because the body itself, despite its vast intelligence (much of which medical science cannot yet understand, only appreciate in awe) does not really do a very intelligent job of distinguishing good energy from bad.

Actually, to be blunt, the body doesn’t care about where the energy comes from. Let’s explore this a little more, because it’s very important to the overall understanding of how to boost your metabolism, particularly when we look at food choices.

In our choice-laden grocery stores, with dozens of varieties of foods – hundreds, perhaps – there seems to be a fairly clear awareness of what’s good food, and what’s bad or junk food.

For example, we don’t need a book to remind us that, all else being equal, a plum is a good food, whereas a tub of thick and creamy double-fudge ice cream is a bad food.

Not bad tasting, of course; but, really, you won’t find many fit people eating a vat of ice cream a day, for obvious reasons. So what does this have to do with calories and energy?

It’s this: while you and I can evaluate our food choices and say that something (like a plum) is a healthy source of energy, and something else (like a tub of ice cream) is an unhealthy source of energy, the body doesn’t evaluate. Really.

It sounds strange and amazing, but the body really doesn’t care. To the body, energy is energy. It takes whatever it gets, and doesn’t really know that some foods are healthier than others. It’s kind of like a garbage disposal: it takes what you put down it, whether it should go down or not.

So let’s apply this to the body, and to weight gain. When the body receives a calorie – which, as we know, is merely a label for energy – it must do something with that energy.

In other words, putting all other nutrients and minerals aside, if a plum delivers 100 calories to the body, it has to accept those 100 calories. The same goes for 500 calories from a (small) tub of ice cream: those 500 calories have to be dealt with.

Now, the body does two things to that energy: it either metabolizes it via anabolism, or it metabolizes it via catabolism. That is, it will either convert the energy (calories) into cells/tissue, or it will use that energy (calories) to break down cells.

Now the link between calories/energy, metabolism, and weight loss becomes rather clear and direct.

When there is an excess of energy, and the body can’t use this energy to deal with any needs at the time, it will be forced to create cells with that extra energy. It has to.

It doesn’t necessarily want to, but after figuring out that the energy can’t be used to do anything (such as help you exercise or digest some food), it has to turn it into cells through anabolism.

And those extra cells? Yes, you guessed it: added weight!