What are Empty Calories?

These are the calories, or food energy units, that come from refined sugar, fats and starches. They include white sugar, vegetable oil, white flour and all foods made from them.

Confectionery is mainly sugar and soft drinks are sugared water. Cakes, biscuits and puddings are usually high in all three - sugar, vegetable oil and white flour. Crisps and other savoury snacks are very high in fat, and also in salt. These foods provide little more than fuel because they have lost their vital nutrients and fibre.

Having lost all or most of their minerals and vitamins, they do not contribute to health maintenance. Because they are so concentrated, they are not filling, and the temptation to overeat is hard to resist. They make a very major contribution to obesity and health problems of every kind.

Healthy and active people can usually cope with small amounts of junk food on an occasional basis, especially if they exercise vigorously to burn the calories up. If junk food is a large part of the diet, there is a price to pay in present or future ill health, or both.

Danie de Villiers - Freelance Writer

Interesting facts on sugar

Sugar is a popular part of peoples’ everyday lives. They spoon it into coffee. Stir it in cakes, and enjoy it in hundreds of foods known to be high in sugar. There are also dextrose, fructose, mannose, maltose and more. 

Sugar is found in many processed food. If the label on food products is scrutinized carefully, a person may be surprised to note its presence - as dextrose, or under some other lesser known name - in beans, soups, yoghurt, baby food, canned ham, vegetables, bread, even non-sugar coated cereals, tomato sauce, peanut butter, salad dressing, chilli and many other foods.

Sugar refining is the process which extracts the sugar from the cane or beet, separating it from those elements which permit its proper digestion and assimilation.

Thus it becomes actually a very negative substance with the following 6 of many side effects:

·         It causes irritability;

·         It leads to obesity and restlessness;

·         As it really does not provide quick energy, it actually on the long run, drains the body of energy.

·         With a high intake of sugar, the pancreas must constantly produce insulin.  Eventually the pancreas can wear out and is no longer able to clear sugar from the blood, and diabetes is often the result.

·         In women, it can increase PMS symptoms

·         Sugar causes the brain to release the chemical serotonin, boosting a person’s mood, and causing a mild feeling of happiness.

To avoid the negative side-effects of sugar, the best is to cut down on the consumption of sugar, by trying the following:

·         Always read the label on processed foods and avoid those with sugar - or other sweeteners such as dextrose or fructose - high on the list of ingredients.

·         Switch from soft drinks to fruit juices or water.

·         Reduce the amount of sugar you use in coffee or tea – or eliminate it altogether.

·         Do not keep sweetened foods in the house, or use them to reward children.

·         Serve more fresh fruit and fewer baked goods for snacks and dessert. Beware of the high sugar content in the syrup of many canned fruits.

·         Experiment with gradually cutting down on the amount of sweetener in recipes. Adding a grated carrot to a recipe can replace some of the sugar in tomato sauce, salads and even biscuits.

In conclusion, while some popular scientists link sugar and heart disease, there is no specific support for such speculation. However, a diet high in sugar - or, of course, high in any source of kilojoules - may lead to obesity, which is often associated with heart disease as well as various other health problems.