Empty Calories

The news is that recent research has proved US Children are filling up on Empty Calories. An empty calorie is actually a measurement of the energy present in high energy foods including poor nutritional profiles. Although food contents comprising on empty calories have same amount of energy as that of other calories but these empty calories lack vitamins, antioxidants and aminoacids etc.
This news is surrounding because Nutrition Experts have examined the diets of US children. The result that they found almost 40% kids calorie consumption regards solid fats and added sugars. These empty calories are mainly found in pizzas, desserts, soda etc which are mostly eaten by young people as well as kids. These dont have any nutritional benefit but cause obesity and may be sometime put them at weight-related diseases like diabetes as well as heart problems like accelerated atherosclerosis and early cardiovascular disease
Jill Reedy and Susan M. Krebs-Smith from the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s division of cancer control and population sciences in Bethesda said that Product reformulation is not enough only, there must be reduced the flow of Empty Calories in food contents.
The researchers also examined the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and determined the amount of solid fats and sugars. They found that top sources of energy are grain, desserts, soda and pizza for about 2-18 years old. Soda and fruit drinks that are sugar sweetened provide 10% of calorie intake. In half of the kids, these empty calories come from six food products as given below:-
Soda
Fruit drinks
Dairy desserts
Grain Desserts
Whole milk
And pizza etc
Actually, these energy sources are dependent on age. The investigators found that energy sources for toddlers comprise on whole milk, fruit juice, reduced-fat milk, and pasta and pasta dishes while in case of kids of the age of 4-8 years, energy sources are included pasta and reduced-fat milk.

The dietitians also noted that energy sources are also varied by race and way of life of different people. As energy sources among black children are fruit drinks, pasta and pasta dishes etc. while in Mexican children these comprises on Mexican mixed dishes and whole milk.

Empty Calories