Empty calorie

The phrase empty calories describes the content of high-energy foods with poor nutritionalprofiles, typically from processed carbohydratesor fats. An "empty calorie" has the same energy content of any other calorie but lacks accompanying micronutrients such as vitamins, mineralsor amino acidsas well as fiber such as is found in whole grains.

Michael Jacobson, head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, coined the term in 1972.

Example of foods containing mostly empty calories:

• Candy, Soft drinks, and other sweetened foods
• White breadand other products of white flour
• White rice
• Margarineor shortening
• Beer, wine, and other alcoholicbeverages
• Butter, lard, and other highly-saturated fats.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty+calorie Wikipedia article Empty calorie.