Did you ever wonder if certain foods have a direct effect on your health?

Well, I'm here to solve that mystery since you are the foods you eat.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host Dr Michael Greger.

Today we look at why it's so hard to outrun a bad diet.

When trying to lose weight, which is more important? Diet or exercise.

A national survey found that a vast majority of Americans trying to control their weight

believe that food and beverage consumption and physical activity were equally important.

Seven out of ten went with equally important, about two out of ten thought exercise was

more important and only one out of ten chose diet. The vast majority of Americans

are wrong. It's easy to understand how people might think diet and exercise play equal

roles. After all, our weight is determined by the balance of calories in and calories out.

What people may not understand about this energy balance equation is we have much more power

over the calories inside.

In fact, on a day-to-day basis, we have full control.

We could choose to eat zero calories or 10,000 calories, but most of the calories out

tend to be outside our control. Unlike wild animals who tend to burn most

of their calories on activity, about 60% of our daily calories are used up just to keep us alive. What's called our resting or basal metabolic rate,

thanks in part to our energy-intensive brains.

Even if you stayed in bed all day,

you'd still burn more than a thousand calories just to fuel the basics, like thinking,

breathing, keeping your heart pumping. In contrast, even most active people accrue less than

two hours of exercise a week which may average out to be

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