Empty Calories Can Pile On the Pounds!

Empty calories, better known as junk food, are not a healthy diet habit. These foods are not included on the new USDA My Plate Food Guidelines. They are usually loaded with lots of sugar or lots of fats! They taste great and lure us in. But man can not live by junk food alone, which is what many people attempt to do!

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Top junk food choices are:

• Cakes, cookies, pastries, pies, donuts, candy, cobblers, sweet rolls, the sweet stuff!


• Sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks and fruit drinks!


• Full fat Cheese!


• Pizza!


• Full fat Ice cream!


• Sausages, hot dogs, bacon, sandwich meats, and ribs!


• Fried foods which should be limited!


• Sugar sweetened cereals!


• Chips, chips, and more chips!


• Condiments like Mayonnaise!


• Frozen dinners or snacks!


• Crackers and the salty crunchies!


• Fast Food!

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Empty calories should be limited by everyone concerned with weight control. That is most of us! For some of you, this might mean a complete diet redo because you live on junk! You have come to the right place! Start on the lifestyle solutions page, and make changes and develop healthy diet habits! Your health depends on getting this area of your life under control!

Read labels to check for added sugar and be savvy because manufacturers label sugar by many names. Some of them are:

• Anhydrous dextrose


• Brown sugar


• Confectioner’s sugar


• Corn syrup


• Corn syrup solids


• Dextrose


• Fructose


• High-fructose corn syrup


• Honey


• Invert sugar


• Lactose


• Malt syrup


• Molasses


• Nectars


• Pancake syrup


• Raw sugar


• Sugar


• Sucrose


• White granulated sugar


• Names not recognized by the FDA like cane juice, evaporated corn sweetener, fruit juice concentrate, crystal dextrose, glucose, liquid fructose, sugar cane juice, fruit nectar. Good grief!

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A healthy diet habit is to limit empty calories as much as possible. A great lifestyle solution is to allow a small treat daily and limit it to around 200 calories. Choose a food that you love, like a few chips or cookies for lunch. This will help end feelings of deprivation. Otherwise eat for health and avoid junky calories!