empty calories

Idioms  

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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

empty calories

Our physician father finally conceded that tonic water—thanks to drops of quinine—might not be a completely worthless mix of food coloring and empty calories.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

"It's like dumping empty calories into a system that's been running on a finely tuned diet for hundreds of years."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2025

Added sugars are empty calories; they are added to the product during the manufacturing process to make it taste better.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2024

And they should avoid empty calories and sugars that they’re not going to burn off.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 15, 2024

But when empty calories or devitalized foods or misdigestion cuts our nutrient intake we begin experiencing tooth decay, gum disease and bone loss in the jaw.

From How and When to Be Your Own Doctor by Steve Solomon