Calories & Nutrients & Dessert. Oh My.

As I’ve mentioned, the subject of my career can make for some interesting mealtime conversations  At a recent workshop, a participant reported the secret (as she saw it) to losing weight.  I’m paraphrasing here:

No one will ever stop eating their dessert because they are too full.  They’ll always eat it till it’s gone.  So, it would make much more sense to order your dessert first and then stop eating your main dish when you’re full, right?

I applauded her creativity and thoughtfulness.  She has a point.  In this hypothetical scenario, one would, in fact, consume fewer calories.  One thing she failed to consider is something I find is all too commonly left out of the equation: all calories are not created equal.

Eating is not about counting calories.  Nor is it solely about savoring every delicious morsel.  (Dagnabbit!)  It’s about nourishing your body with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy.

So I pointed out to my new workshop pal that by following through with this plan, she would potentially be missing out on some important healthful nutrients.  To her credit, her eye-roll was barely visible as I let the air out of her sails.  It didn’t take long, however, for the table to come together and offer a compromise:

Share the dessert after finishing the veggie sides.

We can all live with that.

What do you think?  Do you consider the nutrient density of your calories?  And, seriously, how awesomely fun does dining with me sound?  

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PS- That’s a photo of my very first homemade blackberry pie.  And by “homemade,” of course I mean that I used store-bought crust.  But the berries?  They’re NC grown fresh from The Produce Box.  Yum-my!