How much of your calorie budget goes to non-essentials? Discretionary calories explained

Over the last couple of weeks, the students in my discussion groups at UMass have heard (or slept through) my lecture on the food pyramid. I think that my readers might benefit from a little explanation as well. The food pyramid is pretty confusing, and there is a lot of information I could bore you with. But for now, I'm going to focus on what I think is the most important and least understood aspects of the pyramid: discretionary calories.

If you haven't seen the food pyramid in a few years, you probably haven't even heard this term. It is a new category, a substitute for the "fats, oils, and sweets" group depicted at the very top of the old food pyramid. Oils have now been recognized for their beneficial nutrients (e.g. essential fatty acids) and given a group of their own. The other fats and added sugars now comprise the "discretionary calories" (DC) group.

In a nutshell, DC are the calories left over after your nutrient needs are met. They are not unlike the money you have left after paying your bills; money you have for discretionary spending. These are the calories you can "spend" on whatever you like. The MyPyramid Plan site will tell you exactly how many of these calories you have to use each day, based on your age, BMI, gender, and activity level. For example, a 120 lb. lightly active 5'4" 25 year old female has a daily allowance of 195 discretionary calories.

One could use this allowance on approximately 6 oreo cookies. This may sound like a generous amount of junk food to be able to eat daily. But, what many people don't realize is that these nutrition-less calories are not only found in the obvious places-- cakes, cookies, fried foods, and the like-- but also lurking in less conspicuous staples of the American diet. For example, a cup of 2% milk has 41 DC, a single slice of cheese 83 DC, and a small hamburger patty has 74. Even seemingly harmless foods like low-fat yogurt (97 DC), granola bars (59 DC), and fruit sorbet (82 DC) can quickly whittle away your discretionary calorie allotment.

The important thing to remember about these calories is that they provide no valuable nutrients. They are truly "empty calories." All they do is give you more energy which, if not needed, will be stored as excess fat. The flip side of this is that foods high in DC tend to displace more nutritious foods. So, not only are you getting more calories than you need, but you may also not be getting enough nutrients because you are foregoing healthful things like fruits and vegetables in favor of the junky stuff.

If you want to know how much of your daily calorie budget you're spending on foods that don't do anything good for you, go to the MyPyramid site to find out your DC limit, and then check out MyFood-a-pedia.gov. It has a searchable database of foods with complete information about the food groups they belong to and their exact number of discretionary calories (called "Extras").

While I am at it, a final word on the food pyramid: I don't think it is anywhere near the best nutritional guidance we can come up with. For an alternative view, you may want to consult Walter Willett's Food Pyramid. This one is actually based on science, not input from agricultural lobbyists.