You often consume foods which are abundant in calories, but some of these foods have no nutrients in them and only offer the extra calories. These calories are termed as empty calories.

So if you are working for weight loss, you need to understand it properly. The food you in-take, provides you with both nutrients and calories. Body fulfills its energy requirement through the calories provided by these foods. So when you are focused on losing weight, your focus should be on the foods with balanced calories which provide all the essential nutrients as well. So there should be a balance in the consumption of calories.

But, in our cases, we often eat things which are full of these empty calories and are totally unhealthy. Obesity, stress, heart diseases, diabetes and other life style diseases can be caused due to these kinds of foods.

So, we should be completely aware of the foods which have empty calories. Here’s a list of such foods that you can avoid to eliminate the risk of empty calories.

1. Sugary Beverages

Sugar Sweetened Beverages and Obesity
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As we all know sugar can be damaging our health, this is because of the amount of empty calories it contains. Most of your favorite soft drinks and other beverages contain sugar in excess. The sugar in them along with preservatives and additional artificial flavors make it all a deadly combination. One can of your favorite drink can have as much as 11 tablespoons of sugar in it. This sugar not only harms you with the empty calories it offers, but it also makes you crave for it and a vicious cycle starts and continues. You can avoid this cycle by using naturally sweetened drinks coming out from jiggery, dates, raisins or other fruits.

2. Alcohol

How much weight can you lose by not drinking alcohol
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Alcohol is consumed all over the world in excessive amounts. Well, you don’t see health advisory regarding alcohol for nothing. It provides so many empty calories, and we can estimate it through the fact that 1 milliliter of alcohol can have at least 7 empty calories. A drink or two can make it to hundreds. The situation worsens when you add other cocktails like juices or creams with it and take other unhealthy snacks with alcohol. All of this only makes way for more and more kilos of fat on your body. Alcohol should be replaced with alcohol-free wines, unsweetened lemonade, sparkling drinks and kombucha etc.

3. Mayonnaise

Is mayonnaise empty calories
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Mayonnaise is the heart of most of the fast foods and is loved among our young generation. But you should be aware of the fact that only 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise can have almost 200 calories and also 25 grams of fat. This amount of fat equals that of a small meal, while mayonnaise is not even considered a meal. The fats that it contains are also one of the unhealthiest, called trans fats. These fats are rich in empty calories and increase the risk of heart diseases by increasing cholesterol levels. If you’re craving for mayonnaise, you can make your own homemade peanut butter or almond butter as its substitute while keeping in control the portion size.

4. Frozen Desserts

Packaged Frozen Desserts
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Ice-creams, jellies and frozen yogurts are some of the frozen desserts that are consumed in a large quantity among our masses. 14 grams of sugar and 150 calories can be a part of your system by having only one serving of ice-cream. And as far as nutrient count is concerned, the answer is zero. Same goes for the frozen yogurt that is present on all our general stores and is recommended as a healthy food, but it also contains the deadly combination of preservatives, artificial flavors and sugar. To satisfy your craving for frozen desserts, you can make it in your home with mashed bananas by adding in it natural sweeteners such as raisins, jaggery and dates etc.

So, you should keep this in your mind that however you behave with your body today, it will behave with you the same way when you grow old. So try to eat fresh and homemade foods and stop the use of frozen and preserved foods just to satisfy your taste buds. Commit to a healthy dietary routine and you will feel the difference in your health from that day and it will also help you in your old age.

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