I can outrun a bad diet, right?

Calories in equals calories out is what I've understood to be the way to lose weight.  Seems simple enough, nope.  A calorie isn't just isn't a calorie and a bad diet will undo whatever amount of exercise I've done.  

I've been thinking a lot about this for a very very long time.  When I was younger I could eat anything and everything I wanted and in massive quantities.  I was growing, developing and I needed this amount of energy in my diet.  As I've aged my body has changed but my diet hasn't.  I've come to the realization that I've been poisoning my body for a very long time because a "calories in equals calories out" equation is flawed.  

Let me explain. It’s true that all calories have the same amount of energy. One dietary calorie contains 4,184 Joules of energy. In that respect, a calorie is a calorie. I could eat 1,000 calories worth of cotton candy and 1,000 calories of steak.  So if they produce the same amount of Joules energy my body should treat them the same, right?

Protein calories are less fattening than calories from carbs and fat, because protein takes more energy to metabolize. Whole foods also require more energy to digest than processed foods.  Increased protein can lead to drastically reduced appetite and cause automatic weight loss without the need for calorie counting or portion control.

So a calorie isn't just a calorie when for years I believed they were. I can't excessive my way to health if I'm eating a diet high in fructose and added sugar.  The sustainable changes to my diet with the addition of regular exercise is a much more potent formula to health and the traditional "calorie in equals calories out" one.  

It gets me to thinking about the why?  Why have we been taught that this is the answer to getting healthy Vs improving our diet with less processed foods and limiting the amount of sugar we eat?  

The only thing I can boil it to down to is corporate profits/greed.  Multinational food corporations have systematically changed our diets so they can make more profits. Sugar, salt and fat are extremely cheap ingredients to add to thier highly processed foods.  Not only this but they are extremely addicting to our human brains.  They re wire our brains so slowly that we don't even notice the detrimental effects they're having until we get to the point of obesity and type 2 diabetes.  

I've pulled back the curtains and I'm astonished with what's been hiding behind them.  Now that I can see clearly for the first time my focus is lazer sharp.  

Mr. Ian Repay