NaturalPedia > Empty Calories

Quotes about Empty Calories from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

 Email this page to a friend   |  Click here for FREE email alerts

page 1 of 3 | Next ->

"Unfortunately, much of what we are eating or being advised to eat is high in the wrong kinds of fats, high-fructose corn syrup, additives, preservatives, dyes, and empty calories. So let's look at fats—which seem to be in everyone's favorite foods. Fats and Heart Disease Fats taste great, but some fats are good and others are bad. Simply put, you need enough good fats, no bad fats, and enough antioxidants to prevent any fat from oxidizing and damaging your blood vessels. Heart disease was rare in our country before 1920, but by the mid-1950s it became the leading cause of death." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.)

"What they do have, though, is lots of "empty calories" in the form of sugar and fat. These empty calories are exactly what is leading to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Here are some guidelines for making healthier eating choices: þRead labels carefully. If sugar, fat, or salt is one of the first three ingredients listed, it is probably not a good option. þBe aware that words such as sucrose, glucose, maltose, lactose, fructose, corn syrup, and white grape juice concentrate on the label mean that sugar has been added." - Michael T. Murray, Beat Diabetes Naturally: The Best Foods, Herbs, Supplements, and Lifestyle Strategies to Optimize Your Diabetes Care (Get the book.)

"Soda, juice, and energy and sports drinks contain empty calories that will make you fat; they also contain caffeine, which is addictive and makes you consume even more of those useless calories. If you are thirsty, drink water. Replacing sodas and juices with water will help you lose more than five pounds per year, solving the weight problems of most people. I don't advocate drinking any minimal amount of water above what you would drink normally based on your sense of thirst because I don't think there is evidence to support doing so." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"Along the same lines, limit refined grains and sugary foods because they contain empty calories. Focus on dietary fat. For cancer prevention, some fats may be worse than others. While high-fat diets have been associated with an increased risk of colon and prostate cancer, it's the type of fat (rather than the total amount) that looks to be most important for preventing many types of cancer, including breast cancer. We may be adding ovarian cancer to that list, too." - Elaine Magee, Food Synergy: Unleash Hundreds of Powerful Healing Food Combinations to Fight Disease and Live Well (Get the book.)

"In addition, the junk food diet fills us with empty calories, leaving us more hungry and further craving food. For example, to make this point crystal clear, shopping the center of the supermarket (where the processed foods are) can create diabetes. Adam Drewnowski, an obesity researcher at the University of Washington, wanted to figure out why it is that the most reliable predictor of obesity in America is a person's low economic status. Drewnowski gave himself a hypothetical dollar to spend, using it to purchase as many calories as he could." - Gabriel Cousens, There Is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program (Get the book.) "Junk food, empty calories, low nutrient density, high-sugar content, and low-fiber foods can never be considered healthy by the wildest stretch of the imagination. It is time we stop listening to the economic propaganda of the Culture of Death: It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that all foods can fit into a healthful eating style. ADA POSITION STATEMENT All foods and beverages can fit into a healthy diet. NATIONAL SOFT DRINK ASSOCIATION Policies that declare foods "good" or "bad" are counterproductive." - Gabriel Cousens, There Is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program (Get the book.)

"The fact that at least 30 percent of Americans have a diet deficient in vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, and magnesium surely owes more to eating processed foods full of empty calories than it does to lower levels of nutrients in the whole foods we aren't eating. Still, it doesn't help that the raw materials used in the manufacture of processed foods have declined in nutritional quality or that when we are eating whole foods, we're getting substantially less nutrition per calorie than we used to." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Get the book.)

"But when they are overloaded with too many empty calories, they are unable to keep up, and too many free radicals are generated, slowing down your cells and your metabolism. By increasing the activity of this master gene, you improve the overall function of your mitochondria, improve blood-sugar control and insulin sensitivity, and boost your antioxidant defenses. You live longer, and your brain works better." - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.)

"Encourage your child's school to provide healthy options and avoid empty calories and unhealthy additives in most packaged snacks and beverages. Top-of-the-list things to avoid include trans fats (partially hydrogenated fats) and caffeine." In recent years, many schools—in acknowledgement of the epidemic numbers of overweight kids in this country—have made an effort to include more healthful foods on their menus, but all too often, those options are still the exception to the rule. Or the school's "healthy alternatives" are just plain unappetizing." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.)

"Many alcoholic beverages can be seen as "empty calories" because they supply energy without the nutrients needed to burn that energy. Alcoholics may be more sensitive to excesses of certain nutrients. People with a history of liver disease or alcoholism may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of excessive niacin intake. For those with alcoholic cirrhosis, the safe dose of iron may be lower than the normal upper intake level of 45 mg daily. Alcoholics may also be susceptible to vitamin A toxicity at low doses. This applies to all forms of vitamin A except beta-carotene." - Dr. Steve Blake, Vitamins and Minerals Demystified (Get the book.)

"They are empty calories. ii. Wheat, rye, spelt and barley contain gluten that can cause problems with digestion, the nervous system and energy. iii. Yeast, mould and fungi feed bad bacteria in the gut and are found in baked goods, wine, beer, whiskey, cheese, mushrooms. iv. Refined products such as sugar and white flour contribute to poor bowel function, blood sugar instability and feed microbes in the body (parasites, viruses, bacteria and fungus). v. Artificial flavourings, colours and additives are chemicals that add toxins to the body. vi." - Heather Caruso, Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health (Get the book.)

"First, the typical American diet is one that causes an escalation in free radicals because it has too many empty calories and not enough antioxidants. Seco:id, our reduced nutrient intake (vitamins and minerals) limits the ability of our antioxidant enzymes to function. For example, without enough zinc or selenium, these enzymes can't do their job. Thats why our self-manufactured antioxidants are not enough to protect us. The single most important controllable factor regulating the oxidative stress in your body is your diet." - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.) "We often think cravings are psychological in nature, but just the way a child who is iron deficient may eat dirt, if we are overfed and undernour- ished with too many empty calories and not enough nutrients, our brains may search for more nutrients. Food cravings go away almost instantly when the body is back in balance. It is your hormones and nutritional deficiencies that drive your hunger." The doctor mentioned above told me that for the first time in his life he was not hungry twenty-four hours a day after we got his body (and specifically his insulin levels) back in balance." - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.)

"Alcoholic or carbonated beverages are empty calories. Consume the following foods freely: i. Plenty of organic vegetables and their juices. Organic foods decrease the toxic burden that pesticides cause. ii. Cilantro, parsley, dark leafy greens help to bind up toxins, such as heavy metals, for excretion. iii. Goat milk, yogurt and cheese are more readily digested than cow dairy products. iv. Rice and soya milk are alternatives to goat or cow milk. v. Cottage cheese and plain cow milk yogurt are acceptable. vi." - Heather Caruso, Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health (Get the book.)

"Practical tip: Refined carbs are essentially empty calories, providing virtually no other nutritional value. With two-thirds of Americans overweight, few people can afford to eat empty calories. Practical Guideline #10. Don't Use Unhealthy Cooking Oils The most common cooking oils—corn, safflower, cottonseed, soybean, and peanut oil and any type of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or interesterified fat—increase your risk of developing prediabetes and becoming obese. All of these oils interfere with normal insulin function, thereby altering blood-sugar regulation." - Jack Challem, Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes (Get the book.)

"Studies Show an Upswing in Sugar Intake and Junk Food Americans are ingesting so many empty calories that three nutrient-poor groups—sweets and desserts, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages—now contribute almost 25 percent of the calories we consume, recent data shows. If you then add such items as pizza, potato chips, and hamburgers, junk food makes up nearly one-third of the calories the average adult American consumes daily. "We knew people are eating a lot of junk food, but to have almost one-third of their calories coming from those categories is appalling," bemoans Gladys Block, Ph.D." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"But even more significantly, the calories in refined sugar are 'empty calories'. Sugary drinks and snacks don't provide any of the nutrients and dietary fibre children gain from eating healthy snacks like fruit, vegetables, nuts, dairy produce and grain. This means children with a sugar habit are likely to end up deficient in the minerals and vitamins found in a balanced diet. For instance, in a review of studies in 2005 the British Nutrition Foundation found that 50 per cent of children had a marginal intake of vitamin A and 75 per cent had a marginal intake of zinc, both essential nutrients." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.)

"One 20-ounce soda has 17 teaspoons of sugar, for a whopping 250 empty calories. A kid who drinks one soda a day for a week would need to bicycle for 4 hours and 20 minutes just to burn off the calories from the soda. (From the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.) • Ironically, drinking too much soda can actually lead to broken bones; therefore, drinking too much soda can put kids at risk for more activity-related injuries. They say: Parents are really the problem Responses: • Schools act in place of parents for the entire day, five days a week." - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.)

"All you get is empty calories and an occasional hangover. Some of you will read this and recall having read about a study that proved alcohol has health benefits, such as reducing the risk of heart attacks and stroke. Please don't fall for that one. Given the state of health for the average person today, the last thing we should be thinking about is making sure we get a few drinks in everyday to reduce our risk of a heart attack or stroke. We would all be better served if we focused our attention on the lifestyle choices that caused us to get into the sad shape we are in." - Craig Pepin-Donat, The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie (Get the book.)

"Still additional researchers writing in Pediatrics reported that they found dramatic evidence that the empty calories in soda and noncarbonated soft drinks promote weight gain in overweight teenagers. Researchers Speculate That Too Much HFCS Leads to Diabetes For years, fructose has been considered safe for diabetics because it doesn't trigger a rapid rise in blood sugar. Now, however, research reveals that over-consuming fructose and high-fructose corn syrup could actually be more harmful than sucrose for the very reason that it was originally considered safe." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"I was drinking more alcohol than usual, which also helped to pack on additional empty calories. I have a nice wine collection and I love drinking a good California Cabernet or other red varietals. My wine cellar took a big hit during this period. Basically, I didn't have any rules or guidelines with my diet, so anything went. Does that sound familiar? My physical appearance wasn't the only thing that started to deteriorate. My brain no longer functioned as clearly. I had to search for the words to express myself instead of having the command of language that I was used to." - Craig Pepin-Donat, The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie (Get the book.)

"The key to reversing prediabetes and weight problems is simple in concept: cut back on the number of empty calories (mostly processed sugar and carbs) that you eat and drink, while increasing the amount of nutrient-dense foods that you consume. By following this approach, you'll get more "bang" for your nutritional "buck." Eating habits can be especially difficult to change. They are shaped by our culture, our upbringing, peer pressure, our education, stress, our income, and the amount of time we have available to plan meals and cook." - Jack Challem, Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes (Get the book.)

"Saturated simply means that these fats do not have the ability to bond in the body as they have no open bonds; in other words, they are usually empty calories that contribute to a fat buildup or weight gain in the body although small quantities of saturated fats are used by the body for certain chemical reactions. Saturated fats, when from an animal source, are always accompanied by cholesterol. (Remember that plants are unable to manufacture cholesterol.) Cholesterol, as we all know, contributes to heart disease when consumed on a regular basis." - Mary-Ann Shearer, Perfect Health the Natural Way (Get the book.)

"We're eating empty calories. We're eating plenty of food if you just count the calories, but not nearly enough of the right kinds of foods that provide nutrition in the form of phytonutrients, minerals, enzymes, healthy oils, vitamins, and other important nutrients. Malnutrition is alarmingly widespread: perhaps three-fourths of the population is deficient in zinc. Most people are deficient in magnesium. Nearly everyone who doesn't supplement with nutritional supplements in America is deficient in various B vitamins." - Mike Adams, The Seven Laws of Nutrition (Get the book.)

"Empty Calories Mean Insufficient Nutrition Alcohol is a source of empty calories; it contains seven of them per gram, almost double the calories found in regular carbohydrates and protein (four calories per gram each). The average social drinker consumes 5 to 10 percent of his or her calories from alcohol, while heavy drinkers may consume more than 50 percent in place of real nutrition. Since alcohol is replacing regular nutrition, the body receives decreased amounts of essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, causing deficiencies over time." - Elson M. Haas, M.D., The New Detox Diet: The Complete Guide for Lifelong Vitality With Recipes, Menus, and Detox Plans (Get the book.)

"You end up consuming a lot of empty calories for no good reason: You still don't have the energy to exercise, and it isn't long before you find yourself reaching for more, as the insulin rush sparks your appetite." —fitness expert Denise Austin in her book Fit and Fabulous After 40 "Within two hours after eating simple carbohydrates like a sweet roll or a bagel, your blood sugar drops too low again, and you experience the mid-morning or midafternoon slump," explains nutritionist Sally Rockwell, Ph.D., author of Blood Sugar Blues. " - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"Also, given how much soda is sold through restaurants, if people knew how many empty calories are in a large Coke, the result could be decreased beverages sales. Neither logic nor reasoning need apply To help mollify industry concerns over cost, Faircloth drafted Maine's menu-labeling legislation to only apply to chains with at least twenty restaurants. He also stressed that such large businesses already reprint their menus as well as customize their menu prices from location to location. " - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.)

"These fiber-deprived grains then "become, more or less, empty calories, which we want to avoid," Greene writes in his number one New York Times bestseller, Get with the Program. Indeed, a growing number of medical studies are demonstrating that, over time, eating too much of that innocent-looking, processed white flour used in breads, pasta, and desserts, as well as white rice, which is similarly stripped of nutrients and fiber, could lead to a host of blood sugar disorders and debilitating diseases." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"The ingestion of pure sugar (so-called "empty calories") in the form of refined sugars, sweets and soft drinks is considered unhealthy as it may lead to obesity, high blood pressure, tooth decay and other symptoms of poor health. It has been suggested that a diet of 60 to 70% carbohydrates is ideal for athletes. For endurance events, "carbo-loading" is sometimes done to increase the glycogen stored in muscle tissue. Simple sugars (monosaccharides) These sugars are very common in nature, often forming a component of more complex sugars." - Ben-Erik van Wyk, Food Plants of the World: An illustrated guide (Get the book.)

"With two-thirds of Americans overweight, few people can afford to eat empty calories. Practical Guideline #10. Don't Use Unhealthy Cooking Oils The most common cooking oils—corn, safflower, cottonseed, soybean, and peanut oil and any type of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or interesterified fat—increase your risk of developing prediabetes and becoming obese. All of these oils interfere with normal insulin function, thereby altering blood-sugar regulation." - Jack Challem, Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes (Get the book.)

page 1 of 3 | Next ->

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalPedia.com

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008, 2009 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of NaturalPedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.