Empty Food Calories – Zero Nutritional Value Diet & Drinks Guide?

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Most people eat with the intention of getting proper nutrition. This means not only should your food give you energy, it should also provide you with essential minerals, vitamins and many other nutrients that are essential to keeping you healthy and fit.

While this used to be so in the past, there are foods these days that only provide just one part of the whole benefits –making you feel full. These just fill you up without adding any extra or key nutrients.

Foods like this are known to contain empty calories. These foods are usually harmful to your health and can get in the way of you staying healthy and in great shape. So, smart folks would do well to limit their intake of these foods.

When we say foods in this article, we’re not just talking about solid foods. We’re also talking about soft drinks like soda, Coca-Cola, pepsi-cola and all forms of sugary drinks as well as alcoholic drinks that contain significant amounts of sugar.

These do nothing for you except add to your weight, causing significant damage to your other organs. The tricky thing about these foods is that there are so many sources that it’s easy for you to take some without even knowing that you just did.

And because they tend to taste so good, and are very convenient, they can be quite addictive and difficult to shake. This is why you really should keep away from them. This is both important for adults and kids as well.

Children are mostly at risk of becoming addicted to these foods because of their taste. That, combined with the fact that most healthy foods don’t taste as good –unless the parent intentionally makes an effort at making it really tasty- makes them dangerous to children.

The benefits of limiting children’s exposure to these foods are many. You know how kids can be filled with energy now and then, moody and dull the next minute?

Well, it’s primarily because these foods tend to be so loaded with sugars –added sugars which we’ll talk about in the next section- that can spike their blood sugar, resulting in fast sugar crashes, thus resulting in the need for the “fix”.

In this article, we’ll be exploring empty food calories and providing adequate information their potential health impacts, what you need to do in order to get rid of them from your diet, and showing you why you need to keep away from them completely.

About Empty Food Calories And Added Sugars

Calorie rich foods without any other nutrient are known to contain empty food calories. So, your body will utilize the calories in the food and convert them to energy. Unfortunately, this still leaves the body malnourished, seeing as there’s no minerals and vitamins in the mix.

These nutrients are just as important in helping the body optimize its meals. As a result, the body just takes what it needs, and stores these empty calorie foods as fat. And it does so pretty quickly. This is why you put on a lot of weight when you eat lots of junk foods.

There are three categories of empty calorie foods:

While these three serve as the most recognizable sources of empty calories, other non-categorized sources tend to be refined and processed food items. These are often high calorie foods with little or no nutritional value, and tend to have high carb and fat content.

Examples of these foods include ice cream, junk foods, soda, cakes, slurpies, candies, and sweets. If you eat any one of these on a frequent basis, chances are that you have been eating a lot of empty calories, and you’re already overweight or on the verge of being obese.

Let’s talk briefly about each of these high calorie food categories:

Beer and Certain Alcoholic Drinks

There are different types of alcohol. The really hard drinks like spirits –examples include scotch, whisky, and brandy to mention a few- don’t add any calories whatsoever. The same goes champagnes and alcoholic wines.

These contain little or no calories. However, there’s the third group of alcohol drinks called beer. These are a veritable source of high carbohydrates and empty calories, and are often made from high carb grains like barley, wheat and sorghum in certain instances.

Sure, they may not have as much calorific content as sugars and fats, but they add enough calorie to your diet that you should be concerned. There’s a reason people who drink develop what is known as “beer gut” and generally get fat.

This is possible because of the high calorie content of these drinks which not only increase your girth, but also deposit fats in multiple body parts like your hips, arms, thighs and belly, thus resulting in excess weight gain among other health complications.

Sugars

This is one of the highest sources of empty calories. You will get energized, but that’s all about it. And even then, it’s only a matter of time before you suffer a crash that completely drains you, thus necessitating the need for a fix.

Some common sugar sources include sugary drinks, fruit juices, sweets and candies, processed foods, energy drinks, refined or granulated sugar and sweetened dairy products. Sugars are often dangerous because of the body’s tendency to either use or store them.

So, if you live a sedentary lifestyle, the first thing your body does is release just a bit into your bloodstream and attempts to immediately store the extras.

And if your body cannot convert them efficiently, this results in a series of conditions that can trigger health conditions like insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes.

Solid Fats

It’s interesting that there are folks who recommend fats as a part of weight loss diets. Yet, studies have shown that some of these fats are definitely bad for your health. Some of these fats are usually low in nutrition and have high calorie content.

The easiest way to identify these is by looking at their state when they are at room temperature. Fats that assume the solid state at room temperature are dangerous, high calorie fats that you need to avoid.

Most of these are called saturated fats, and they do absolutely nothing for your health. Examples of fats like this include margarine and butters. Most of the time, these are often added to some processed foods that you eat, resulting in an even higher amount of empty calories in your meals.

You’ll find these solid fats in foods such as cookies, pies, muffins, cakes, biscuits, non-organic crackers, whole milk and pizza. They are also commonly used in the making of junk foods such as hamburgers, and hotdogs. Solid fats are also found in bacon too.

Please note that these are different from the healthy, good nutritious fat called the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). You’ll often dins these in fruits, nuts and healthy oils like chick peas, beans, olive oil, flaxseed oil and avocados.

Tips For Eliminating Empty Calories From Your Diet

The good news is that it’s easy for you to get rid of foods filled with empty calories. The bad news is that it will require a slight lifestyle modification to make the switch and adopt a healthier eating lifestyle.

The benefits of an empty calorie free lifestyle are incredible. People have gone from being overweight and obese to losing a lot of weight and regaining their shape by simply cutting out these calorie filled foods from their diets. The following tips should get you started on the path to a healthier lifestyle and one devoid of empty calories.

Eat More Nutritious Foods

The first thing you want to start doing is to eat more nutritious foods and cut out all processed foods. Yes, this includes your favorite cereals and sugary drinks. It doesn’t matter if it’s described as organic. If it’s not in the form in which it was originally planted, it is processed. Bottom line, packaged foods should be a no-no.

Start thinking whole grains, fiber-rich foods, antioxidant rich foods and lots of plain old water. Cut out the sugary drinks, the beer and other forms of alcohol. Eat more fruits, leafy greens, nuts, seeds and PUFAs. Eat more lean proteins such as fish, and chicken.

Get rid of the big mac or pizza –even if they say it’s vegan- and start eating home cooked meals. Take more oats, bran and all other forms of high fiber foods.

Pay Attention to Labels

As a rule, look for foods that are rich in antioxidants, have healthy ingredients such as amino acids, bioflavonoids, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Foods that are rich vitamins c, b and a are always great for your body, as are foods that are rich in calcium, magnesium, zinc, and potassium.

Get Rid of the Beer and Other Sugary Drinks

We know you love your beer, alcoholic drinks and other sugar filled drinks. We get it, but if you want to be healthy and get rid of all the empty calories and their attendant effects, you need to start by cutting them out and drinking clean water. If you can’t stand the “bland” taste of water, try vitamin or flavored water. That works just as well too.

Stop drinking fruit juice or anything containing sugars. If you need to sweeten your coffee or tea, try alternative sweeteners like honey, stevia and other healthier natural sweeteners.

Empty Food Calories Wrap Up!

That’s pretty much it. Once you can adopt these tips, you will enjoy a healthier life, radiant skin, fewer health issues and a healthy family.

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