empty calories

1. Food that has little or no nutritional value. For example, Snacking on beer and potato chips makes for a lot of empty calories. [1960s]

Example Sentences

While undeniably fun, there’s a vacuousness to them, ungrounded as they are in place or message—empty calories expelled as quickly as they’re digested.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

You don’t feel that guilty gobbling her empty calories.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sometimes, we need to drive over the speed limit or consume some empty calories to feel alive.

Read more on Salon

The right seeks "evocative empty calories" so they can feel without having to think.

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“Then the excess of sugar that isn't needed for fueling activity is just empty calories triggering an insulin response, leading to inflammation, extra calorie consumption, weight gain, increasing the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and all the rest.”

Read more on Salon