This is a way of simplifying how to think about healthy food, and ending up with the healthiest body composition and weight possible. How? Eat the healthiest food possible.
The more ingredients an edible item contains, the more likely it is to be processed and further from the original local whole food. Think of the progression from a freshly picked apple to an apple shipped from Chile, to applesauce, to apple pie, to a weird apple turnover-thing wrapped in cellophane that will never decay.
The fewer additions, subtractions, chemical and mechanical processes to which a food is subject, the greater retention of nutrients, vitamins, fiber, freshness and palatability. Instead of reading the caloric value on a package, notice the ingredient list. If it’s really long, have suspicions about it’s quality, flavor and nutrient value. Peanut butter should have peanuts and salt and maybe some extra oil, not peanuts, sugar, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil and unpronounceable stabilizers. Here are some comparisons of labels.
Quality of food is the aim here, not quantity of calories. Your body is valuable - feed it amazingly healthy things. If you wouldn’t feed it to a 5 year old (that you like), you shouldn’t eat it either. Aim for foods with very short ingredient lists or those without labels. Foods that have only one ingredient are the ones that will give you the biggest health bang for the buck. And you will probably never have to count calories again.
Apple vs “apple snack pie”