Empty calories - what is it ?! Fast food and health. Where are empty calories hiding?

Avoid "empty calories" if you want to be in shape and not gain weight. Such advice is confusing at first: how can something be both empty and full at the same time? The fact is that foods with "empty calories" do not contain useful nutrients but they are high in sugars and fats. Abuse of such food - fast track To big belly and powerful thighs. How to distinguish harmful products and how to replace them if you find "enemies" in your diet, AnySports will tell.

« empty calories» do not nourish the body with vitamins, minerals and fiber. To further confuse us, such products are sometimes referred to as "energy" products - you must agree, it sounds much more harmless! Often manufacturers in this way try to disguisebad calories.

An energy-dense food is one that contains a relatively small amount of food. For example, you get 300 calories from a tiny donut or a handful of potato chips, although it would be healthier and more nutritious to eat half a kilogram of broccoli or 3 eggs. Noticed the difference?

Sources of empty calories

Approximately 70% of products in regular store consist of empty calories - they are rich in carbohydrates and contain almost no healthy fats and squirrel. Sometimes we immediately understand what is in front of us: Barely hidden in sweet sparkling water. But sometimes bad calories are very dodgy. For example, you will not immediately guess that bought in a cafe blueberry muffin contains 5 teaspoons of fat, and coffee drink with syrup - 8 teaspoons of sugar.

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Notice empty calories - lose weight right!

The main foods that harm your diet:

• Sausages, bacon, sausages (contain solid fat)
• Ice cream (contains sugar and solid fat)
• Pizza, burgers, french fries, shawarma (contain solid fat)
• Cakes, pastries, cookies and donuts (contain solid fat and sugars)
• soda, fruit juices, sports and energetic drinks(contain sugar)

On this topic:

Liquid calories are one of the most simple ways get extra subcutaneous fat.

Sugary drinks are high in empty calories. Moreover, not only carbonated and coffee with fillers spoil the figure, but also packaged juices and tea drinks with sugar. What else contains empty calories? especially strong. In addition, a drunk person often overeats, not noticing that he has eaten his norm for a long time.

such as chips, french fries and salad dressings are predominantly empty calories. They contain saturated fats or trans fats, which raise bad blood cholesterol. This increases the risk of heart disease.

Desserts, as you know, are dangerous for slim figure And here's why: cookies and cakes are a double whammy for your flat-tummy dreams - they're high in sugar and fat. For the same reason, it is worth giving up sweets, syrup, honey and jam.

How to avoid empty calories?

In the fight against empty calories, you can start your dinner with a leafy green salad or vegetable soup. Give preference lean meat turkey, not high-calorie beef steak or pork chops. Always choose as a side dish - you will notice how it becomes more funcount calories online!

If instead of a cup of vanilla ice cream, which contains about 250 kcal, you choose a cup of frozen yogurt, consume twice fewer calories and get more benefit even if you add berries or some fruit to it.

If you don't know how to but trying to eat a well-balanced diet - just limit the amount of empty calories, enjoy fresh and natural products, watch your portion sizes and notice how you start to lose overweight!.

Sources: discovergoodnutrition.com, foodpyramid.com

Junk food - main enemy harmony. It doesn't have useful substances, but a lot of calories that are deposited by fat at the waist. Find out where empty calories are and eliminate these foods from your menu!

A calorie is a unit of energy that is contained in almost all foods. In addition to energy, each product has its own nutritional and biological value, due to which the physiological needs of the body for nutrients are provided. To do this, it must contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, alimentary fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids or other nutrients. If there are no useful substances in the product, and its calorie content is quite high, then it is considered that it contains the so-called empty calories. This term is not entirely professional, but it is very important for a competent diet, especially during weight loss.

Term meaning

The definition of "empty calories" is considered to be derived from the English expression "junk food", which means "junk food". This concept first appeared in the United States in the 70s of the last century and was originally used to refer not to the quality of food, but to the fact that its packaging littered areas at points of sale or mass consumption.

Since the food distributed through the establishment chains fast food, had a low nutritional value with a large amount fast carbohydrates and harmful cooking fats, the concept of "garbage" gradually changed its meaning and began to characterize not the packaging, but the contents. By the end of the 20th century, the term has spread throughout the world, but in relation to high-calorie foods that do not bring any benefit to humans. At the same time, when using the definition of junk food, examples of translation into other languages ​​became more diverse - not only “garbage”, but also “ junk food», « unhealthy food”, “junk food”, and “empty calories”. Today, it is customary to call such terms those foods that are not healthy for humans and only "clog" the body.

Empty calories are foods that contain almost nothing but energy value. Therefore, it does not give the body any nutrients that can support it, strengthen the immune system, improve the body, improve the condition of the skin and hair. After eating such food, a feeling of hunger sets in very quickly, since the internal organs do not receive required amount nutrients. At the same time, the excess energy coming from junk food is quickly deposited in fat reserves.

Quite often, extra and hidden calories are called empty, but this is not entirely correct. Often these definitions refer to the same products, but have different meanings:

1. Superfluous means calories that are consumed in excess of the norm established for a particular person. They can be not only empty, but also useful.
2. Hidden calories found in foods industrial production or dishes prepared in establishments Catering. In such food, the entire composition is not always fully revealed, so its energy value cannot be calculated, but the calories in it can also be both empty and useful.
3. Empty calories, as mentioned above, do not bring not only benefits, but even relatively prolonged saturation. They are the most harmful to the figure and health.

All of these terms are not scientific, but they are very popular among nutritionists and people who monitor their weight.

Sources

The modern concept of "empty calories" covers a variety of foods that do not have useful properties, but are very common, in demand and used in large quantities. The list of such food products is quite extensive and includes the following items:

• chips, french fries, fried chicken pieces and other fast food;
• various sweets, chocolate bars with fillings and sweets, especially lollipops, which consist of sugar, flavor additives and artificial dyes;
• white rice, white flour pastries, muffins, crackers, biscuits, and other fully processed grain products;
• sweet soda, drinks based on synthetic flavors and dyes;
• margarine, cooking oils, fatty sauces, mayonnaise, ketchup;
• semi-finished products, sausages;
• ready-made breakfast cereals, salted nuts.

Important! In modern dietology, the number of products containing empty calories are those whose calorie content significantly exceeds the useful properties. Their regular use contributes to weight gain and can cause significant harm to health.

Such products give a quick, but very short feeling of fullness, since simple carbohydrates are immediately converted into energy, the excess of which is stored in fat reserves, and the body needs to replenish it again, which creates a feeling of hunger. complete proteins, healthy carbohydrates and there are practically no fats in such food, as well as vitamins or minerals. It mainly consists of easily digestible sugars and saturated fatty acids in combination with flavor enhancers, flavors, dyes and other artificial additives.

For example, 50 g of chips contain 300 empty kcal, most of which are immediately stored in fat after consumption, so after 20-30 minutes the feeling of hunger appears again. Approximately the same number of calories is present in 100 g of cottage cheese with 1 tbsp. l. honey and pieces fresh apple, but it will be protein, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and a whole range of useful elements.

Separately, alcohol should be highlighted. Most alcoholic beverages contain empty calories because they are high in calories without the slightest benefit for good health. Only natural wine and live beer is rich in valuable micro and macro elements, therefore, with moderate consumption, their calories cannot be considered empty. But the abuse of any alcoholic beverages can make empty calories even useful products because alcohol interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.

Harm to the body

Empty calories harm not so much the figure as health. Excessive intake of sugar and saturated fats adversely affects the state of internal organs, primarily the liver and pancreas, as well as the whole digestive tract. For this reason, constant eating "junk food" contributes to:

• development of obesity diabetes, many chronic and other serious diseases;
• intestinal blockage, which leads to problems in the digestive tract, frequent constipation or diarrhea;
• increase in the level of "bad" cholesterol, the development of cardiovascular diseases;
• violation of digestive and metabolic processes, the creation of a deficiency of nutrients.

Important! The concept of "empty calories" can not be extended to everything high-calorie foods which are considered harmful from a dietary point of view. So, in vegetables fried in oil, meat and fish dishes as many useful properties are preserved as in boiled ones, but fried foods nutritionists do not recommend eating.

It should also be borne in mind that even chips home cooking can have many benefits. It depends on the technology of preparation and, most importantly, on the components included in the composition.

How to Avoid Empty Calories

In most cases, it is impossible to completely eliminate empty calories from the diet, but you can significantly reduce their intake, guided by the following rules:

• replace sweet soda with carbonated mineral water with the addition of natural fruit syrups;
• give up sugar by using non-sugar instead a large number of honey, and instead of sweets - dried fruits with nuts (you can grind and cook healthy homemade sweets);
• to dress salads shop mayonnaise, and low-fat sour cream or olive oil with lemon juice;
• instead of a hamburger, it is better to eat a sandwich from bran bread with lettuce, cucumber and tomato slices, slices low-fat cheese, pieces of meat or fish;
• abandon packaged juices in favor of fresh juices, smoothies or fresh vegetables and fruits;
• do not buy semi-finished or ready-made meals (casseroles, salads, meatballs, etc.), but give preference healthy meals home cooking.

If, after the exclusion of the above products, only water remains in the diet, then eating habits needs to be changed urgently. To do this, include in the menu more whole grains, vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy and dairy products. To determine the amount of empty calories consumed, you need to keep a detailed food diary, including everything that was eaten throughout the day. This will help to establish and eliminate a significant number of unnecessary calories from the diet.

A detailed menu for several days is recommended to be drawn up in advance, controlling the composition of ready-made dishes and drinks. But, getting rid of empty calories, you need to make sure that the diet remains healthy, complete and balanced in terms of quality and quantity of food consumed.

If living without “goodies” turns out to be too difficult, then once a week you are allowed to eat your favorite product with empty calories. This will help maintain a stable emotional and mental background, so that over time life does not become gray and bleak. Scientists have proven that periodically you need to pamper yourself, otherwise a breakdown may occur. Therefore, limiting empty calories in nutrition cannot completely give up pleasure. Measure is needed in everything, even in the struggle for good health and slender figure.

Many have already heard the term "empty calories", but not everyone knows exactly what it means. There is an opinion that all calories harmful to the body are called empty, but this is not entirely true.

What are empty calories?

To maintain human performance, he needs energy. The body gets it from food. There is such a food, after taking which, after a short time, the person is hungry again. This situation is directly related to the fact that the diet contains a large number of empty calories. They do not provide the body with the energy it needs.

The term was first used in the United States, where "junk food" was used to refer to fast food products (chips, commercially prepared sandwiches and sausage slices). After it was eaten on the street, there was a lot of garbage, wrappers, candy wrappers. At present, this concept is used everywhere.

Another common name for empty calories is excess or hidden calories. These concepts are somewhat different. Extra calories include those foods that can be easily discarded. For example, stop tea drinking for the company at work, and the problem will disappear. Or replace cookies and sweets with dried fruits.

Hidden calories are usually found in those foods, the calorie content of which is difficult or impossible to calculate. This is usually the food served in cafes and restaurants, as well as in other places of public catering. You should just stop eating out and take homemade food to work.

It should be noted that the sources are empty and extra calories are identical.

Foods rich in empty calories

Often the wrong food is used to quick snacks. Who is not familiar with the situation when you need to drown out hunger, and chocolate bars, cookies or sandwiches are used. The result is short-term saturation. An excess of calories ingested in the body negatively affects weight. Eating foods with empty calories leads to the appearance of fat deposits in the abdomen and thighs.

To avoid this, you should carefully review your diet. Foods with excess empty calories include:

1. Chocolate bars with different fillings. This is the favorite food of the sweet tooth. In fact, saturation occurs at short term, increases the activity of the body due to the receipt of an additional dose of glucose. After a certain period, there is a decline, and another serving of sweets is required.

1. Fast food known to everyone is a variety of burgers, french fries fried in reusable oil, hot dogs and shawarmas cooked in street conditions.
2. Carbonated drinks, sugary juices and fruit waters. Separately, it is worth noting the harm of alcoholic beverages, which have high calorie, but do not carry any benefit to the body. Sweet wine and liqueurs are especially harmful, weakly alcoholic drinks, beer.
3. Semi-finished products and meat products prepared in industrial environment. These include most varieties sausage products and hams, sausages and sausages, pates.
4. Butter, wheat bread, sweet pastries And confectionery, cakes and cream cakes, candies. Even harmless lollipops can be placed in this group.
5. Industrial sauces (mayonnaise and mayonnaise products, sour cream, cheese sauces, ketchups made under production conditions).
6. Chips and snacks.

How bad are empty calories?

This question worries many people who monitor their weight. It is worth distinguishing between empty and harmful calories, since the above foods can not always be called harmful. For example, take live beer or real wine. IN small quantities they even bring some benefit, and calories can hardly be called empty for the body. And the abuse of these drinks can be considered harmful, since alcohol creates an obstacle to the absorption of nutrients from food.

In addition, modern dietology distinguishes products according to the way they are prepared. For example, fried meat can be classified as undesirable food for the body, although it is in no way inferior to boiled meat in its value. And mayonnaise, prepared at home, is no worse than store-bought. It contains butter, eggs, lemon juice, these calories can also hardly be called empty.

How to give up empty calories

In order to maintain weight or lose extra pounds, it is worth giving up food that is not useful. Having figured out what empty calories are and in what products they are present, it is easy to bypass these shelves in the store.

Getting rid of all the empty-calorie foods in your diet is quite problematic. It is not always possible to refuse a visit to a cafe with friends or a cup of coffee and cake in honor of a colleague's birthday. But stick to the principles of choice healthy foods still worth it.

You can avoid empty calories in your diet by following some nutritionist recommendations:

• It is worth giving preference to baked and boiled dishes. With this preparation, nutrients and vitamins are retained in the products in greater quantities than when fried.
• Sweet carbonated drinks can easily be replaced with green or herbal teas. Chilled is very good in the heat green tea with lemon.
• Use granulated sugar can be minimized by replacing it with honey. And from sweets, dried fruits, berries and sweet fresh fruits should be preferred.
• For refueling, it is best to use unrefined oils, natural low-fat sour cream, lemon juice. This great alternative industrial sauces.
• If possible, do not buy foods with empty calories. A piece of sausage never compares to a delicious, well-done steak! Ready meals in the store can be purchased only in extreme cases.

Following healthy eating, it is worth remembering that its main principle is the balance, diversity and usefulness of the diet.

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Empty calories - what is it ?!

At first glance, it may seem that in order to lose weight, you need to reduce the number of calories and that's all - ideal figure in your pocket, but in reality it's not so simple. There are " useful calories and empty calories.

These terms are not entirely scientific, but for us, losing weight, they are very important. When you learn to find empty calories in your diet and eliminate them, or replace them with more useful ones, you can not only lose weight, but also improve general well-being and of course look better.

A calorie is a unit of measure for the energy value of a food.
Moreover, the unit is very small, so the measurement is usually carried out in kilocalories - Kcal. But in colloquial speech, even among nutritionists, it is customary to simply say “calories” without “kilo”.
Calories are found in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and alcohols.

1 g of protein provides the body with 4 kcal

1 g of carbohydrates - 4 kcal,

1 g of alcohol - 7 kcal

1 g of fat - 9 kcal.

A woman needs about 2000 Kcal per day, for weight loss this figure decreases, but cannot be less than 1200 Kcal per day. Here is the arithmetic.

What are empty calories?

Empty calories are foods that are low in nutritional value but high in calories. That is, food that contains almost nothing but energy, and therefore does not give us anything useful, no nutrients, nutrients that strengthen our health, our body, improve the condition of the skin and hair.

Food poor in proteins, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats Those are empty calories. Foods containing empty calories contribute to weight gain. Having consumed empty calories, we quickly become hungry again, because the body has not received the nutrients it needs, but fat deposits are formed with a bang.

For example, after eating a bag of chips weighing 50 g, we will consume about 300 Kcal, which will completely turn into fat, and we will want to eat and drink in half an hour, because salty increases appetite so much! Eventually - excess weight and swelling with regular consumption of such food.

And a snack consisting of 100 g of cottage cheese, a spoonful of honey and a fresh apple will give us about the same number of calories, but these will be proteins, fructose and vitamins. See what's the difference? Empty calories are absolutely useless, they only make us fatter and negatively affect our health. In Western countries, foods containing only empty calories are called junk food. Not very nice, right?

Where are empty calories hiding?

There are a lot of empty calories in fast food, sweets, dry ready-made breakfasts, sweet and carbonated drinks, pastries made from white flour, chips, many fatty sauces such as mayonnaise, sausages, sausages, margarine. At the same time, 100 g of such a product can contain up to 500-700 kcal due to fat, flour and sugar. As sad as it may sound, many modern products contain a lot of empty calories. Especially semi-finished products, industrially processed food, fast food.

What to eat instead of empty calories

Empty calories are harmful not only to the figure, but also to health. Excess sugar and "bad" fats disrupt the normal functioning of the liver, pancreas and everything gastrointestinal tract. If you want to lose weight and keep it under control, then the number of empty calories must be reduced by replacing them with useful ones.

Eat a sandwich instead of a hamburger grain bread or bread with bran, lettuce, circles of cucumber, tomato, low-fat cheese and meat, fish, in extreme cases - ham. Instead of juices and drinks from bags and boxes, it is better to drink tea without sugar and eat fruits.

Sweets are easily replaced with honey, dried fruits, of course, in reasonable quantities. And fatty mayonnaise can be successfully replaced with yogurt or low-fat sour cream, adding herbs and spices. In principle, it is better to refuse sausage, mayonnaise and margarine altogether or make them appear on your table only on holidays.

Calories provide energy and warmth to the body, but can cause weight gain. After all, it is important not only the number of calories that you consume and manage to use up per day, but also their quality.

Surely with each of you there was such a situation when, after a snack or even a hearty lunch, after a short period of time, you again wanted to eat. What's the matter? More likely, we can say that the reason is a sufficient amount of empty calories that have entered your body along with the food you eat.

- these are calories contained in a sufficiently large amount in certain dishes and products that do not carry any nutritional value and benefit. In America, this concept is especially common under the name "junk food" (junk food).

Many mistakenly believe that "empty calories" are only found in drinks: soda, sweet juices in packs, fruit waters, tea with sugar. However, this concept implies much more wide range food, which includes almost all food from fast food establishments: hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, french fries, chips, glazed or salted nuts.

"Junk food" is also hiding in supermarket refrigerators under the guise of finished semi-finished products. Products of this type do not saturate our body with the necessary vitamins, do not contain fibers, minerals, essential protein and proper fats. Their composition is dominated by dyes, flavors, flavor enhancers, cheap trans fats and preservatives. Such a composition can strike not only a figure, but also internal organs and health in general.

Lovers of sweets should not lean on harmless, at first glance, lollipops, cakes, sweets, because, in fact, all the calories they are rich in are empty. Popular types chocolate bars have a very attractive packaging and a relatively low price. Having eaten one such 100-gram bar with nuts, you can get up to 500-100 empty calories, and without being satiated, which means that in addition to chocolate, you will also add a full meal, ensuring your weight gain.

Alcoholic beverages are especially rich in useless calories. Most of them are very high in calories, for example, various liquors, sweet low-alcohol drinks and some beers. Excessive addiction to alcohol is deposited in the abdomen, forming a "fat belt".

Mayonnaises, cheese sauces, ketchups, sour cream products are high in calories, and for the body will only be a source of cholesterol and digestive problems.

Various sausages, bacon, ham, sausages cause short-term satiety, like any other fatty food, which is a mixture of soy protein, phosphates, colors, flavors, stabilizers and, of course, empty calories. By frying sausage products, you increase their calorie content and supplement food with carcinogens formed during the frying process. In addition, fried foods can contain 30 grams of fat or more. Therefore, such food should be abandoned in favor of natural products.

A source of empty calories can be considered and sweet pastries, factory-made white wheat bread (the exception is wheat bread cooked by hand in a special oven, such as lavash, matnakash), cheesecakes, muffins, pies and others.

Consistently eating foods high in empty calories can lead to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, pancreatic problems, and more.

Avoid empty calories

If, having excluded the above products, you realized that only water remained in your diet, you should carefully review your eating habits.

Avoid frying food. Modern Appliances allows you to cook excellent vegetables and meat dishes, by baking, steaming or stewing. Try, if possible, to cook boiled chicken breast, steam red fish or baked fillet.

Replace sugary and carbonated drinks with herbal teas. Instead of eating sugar, you can use. To prepare your favorite mocaccino, one tablespoon of natural cocoa bean powder is enough.

Include whole grains in your diet, such as whole grain bread.

From sweets, choose honey and dried fruits, for example, dried. This is just a godsend for the sweet tooth. For a snack, use fruits and berries.

Homemade sauces are much lower in calories than packaged products. For dressing salads, use homemade yogurts, low-calorie sour cream or kefir from whole milk.

Do not buy ready-made salads, casseroles, meatballs, etc. These products are made from unknown ingredients and have unknown nutritional value.

To calculate the number of empty calories consumed per day, you need to make a list of all the foods that you ate during your main meals and snacks. This approach helps eliminate up to one-third of unnecessary calories from the diet.

Make a detailed menu in advance, and follow the composition ready drinks and products. And then in your diet there will be no place for empty calories, but a healthy complexion and a boost of energy for the whole day will appear.