I challenge you to avoid eating what we call empty calories.

To understand what empty calories are, let's take a look at sugar.

5 teaspoons of sugar will provide 80 calories, or about 20 grams of carbohydrates.

Those calories are empty calories--there are no substantial amount of any other nutrients that come with them.

If you were to enter eating 5 tsp of sugar into MyFitnessPal (image to the right) and scroll down to see the nutritional value—you’ll see zeros across the board for all other nutrients (except a little potassium—but not any substantial amount). 

For healthy eating, calories should always be accompanied by other nutrients (at least 10% daily value).

For example, 1 cup of pineapple (which provides roughly the same amount of calories as those 5 teaspoons of sugar)  provides a bunch of other essential nutrients:

• 21% daily value of Calcium

• 78.9% daily value of Vitamin C

• Even the potassium is more—179.8 mg

Because these calories come "buddied up" with other nutrients that our bodies need, we would consider a cup of pineapple to be the healthier choice than 5 teaspoons of sugar. 

Not to mention would it be more filling and satisfying, due to the amount of water and fiber in pineapple.

So the bottom line is, avoid empty calories in your eating.

Try to always check MyFitnessPal or the nutrition label of the food you eat, and make sure that the calories you’re eating are buddied up with at least 10% of the daily value of at least one essential nutrient.

About the Author

Jayd Harrison is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media.