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Many nutrition professionals don't like the term "junk food." Only a total dietary pattern can be junky, they say. An occasional high-fat, high-sugar, low-nutrient item can fit perfectly well into an overall healthful eating plan without all the negative, guilt-ridden connotations that the word "junk" carries.
At least as important, there's not total agreement on what a junk food is. To some, the term conjures up images of sugary snacks and desserts. For others, it's fastfood burgers and fries. Many would concur, however, that in general, junk food is food that has relatively few nutrients for all the calories it provides (which, incidentally, correctly characterizes most sugary sweets and fatty burgers and fried potatoes).
Americans have apparently not been deterred from choosing what are sometimes referred to as "empty calorie" foods. A study of some 15,000 adults nationwide shows that more than 25 percent of our calories come from the following items: cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, ice cream, puddings, cheesecake, sugar, candy, syrup, soda pop, sweetened noncarbonated beverages, corn chips, tortilla chips, potato chips, and certain fatty spreads and dressings. One in three people, according to the research, averages 45 percent of calories from those foods-all of which have few nutrients for the caloric wallop they deliver. Indeed, as the number of these items in the diet goes up, down goes the consumption of vitamins A, B6, Bi2, C,...