A calorie (a measure of heat) is an imperfect measure. I have said this before. There are many factors involved in liberating energy in the form of heat from the macronutrients. Why on earth are people separating macros from the calories (measure of heat) they provide? How energy is liberated from the different macros is unique as the macros themselves (edit- up until Kreb's and even then there are two entry points into the Kreb's cycke that amino acids can exploit). As far as nutritionist saying empty calories are useless is not true. If one is starving then by all means eat empty calories (empty being defined as not accompanied by vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, nucleosides, fiber, or water). Constant ingestion of empty calories is not recommended. Finally, I forget the exact post but someone said a cookie is more nutritionally dense gram for gram then oatmeal. Again, not true, even the opposite cannot truthfully be said because nutrition density compares micronutrient against micronutrient in comparable caloric substrates. One must pick a nutrient and compare it and then make a statement based on that single nutrient. Example, milk is more nutritionally dense in Calcium then soymilk.
