The following foods are often considered to contain mostly empty calories and may lead to body weight gain. Sugar: such as cakes, cookies, sweets, candy, soft drinks, fruit-flavored sweet beverages, and other foods containing mostly added sugars, including high-fructose corn syrup.
Because the carbohydrates in refined grains — bread, white rice, pasta — come packaged with some fiber, some protein and even a few other nutrients, their calories aren't quite as empty, and the speed with which they're digested varies.
Most empty calorie foods are highly processed and contain added fat and sugar. As you might imagine, examples include all those products that are hard to avoid such as cakes, biscuits, pies, pastries, shop-bought desserts, sweetened fruit drinks and ice cream.
Foods and drinks that contain no significant nutrients but are high in calories are said to have “empty calories.” These are mainly foods and drinks that have a high sugar, fat, or alcohol content, but little or no other nutritional value.
Nutritionists often include whole milk and whole milk dairy products like cheese, butter, and ice cream on their lists of empty-calorie foods. These foods do provide some nutritional benefits, but they also contain a lot of saturated fat. Some, like ice cream, contain added sugar as well.
Potatoes do contain carbs, but that doesn't make them empty calories. They are also loaded with other minerals and vitamins.
Pasta isn't a source of empty calories, either. True, white pasta is a refined grain product because the germ and bran of the wheat—where much of the fiber and nutrients are—are removed. Still, it supplies 6 to 7 grams of protein and about 2 grams of fiber per cooked cup.
Processed foods like cookies, cakes, chips and fries have loads of empty calories. Empty calories can also add up from sugar in items like bread, yogurt and sweetened drinks. “These foods have a lot of fat and sugar — and not many vitamins, minerals, protein, antioxidants or fiber,” says Basen-Engquist.
Many people consider white rice an “empty” or “bad” carb since it loses nutrients when the bran and germ are removed. However, white rice is typically enriched with added nutrients such as iron and B vitamins. So while brown rice does have more nutrients than white rice, white rice is still considered nutritious.
The bottom line: Aside from water, no truly calorie-free food or drinks exist. Why do so many things say they have zero calories, then? The FDA legally allows manufacturers to label anything with less than five calories as having zero calories.
A new study found that nearly 40% of the energy consumed by kids and teens comes in the form of “empty” calories. Half of those empty calories come from the solid fats and added sugars in just 6 sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza and whole milk.
Bad or simple carbohydrates include sugars and refined grains that have been stripped of all bran, fiber, and nutrients, such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, sweet desserts, and many breakfast cereals.
"Convenience foods," like packaged snacks, chips, and sodas, are common sources of empty calories. Nutrient-rich foods, on the other hand, have a lot more nutrients in relation to their calories. A few examples are vegetables, peanut butter, bran cereal with fruit, and fish.
That sweet, sweet corn on the cob just has empty calories to offer you.
About 20 minutes of peeling, cutting and mashing those potatoes, equals 54 calories. Another 20 minutes of trimming, cooking and tossing green beans, for your famous green bean casserole, that will also burn 54 calories.
Solid fats and added sugars add calories to the food but few or no nutrients. For this reason, the calories from solid fats and added sugars in a food are often called empty calories.
It may come as no surprise that whole milk is higher in calories and fat than 2-percent. But, the differences aren't that great. One cup of whole milk has 150 calories and 8 grams of fat, while the same serving of 2-percent fat milk has 120 calories and 5 grams of fat.