One of the most difficult aspects of maintaining a healthy diet that has calorie restrictions is meeting your daily calorie goal while still satisfying your appetite. Although you can limit the number of calories you consume each day by reducing the amount of food you eat, by choosing low-calorie or zero-calorie food items you can fill your stomach without packing on extra calories.
Calorie Density
One of the concepts behind choosing low-calorie food items is calorie density. Calorie density, the Mayo Clinic explains, is the number of calories present in a given volume of food. Foods with a low calorie density can be thought of as good choices for a low-calorie diet because they allow you to feel full without adding too many calories to your daily food intake.
Examples
Many fruits and vegetables can be classified as low-calorie foods due to their low calorie density. For example, 100 g of broccoli contains only 30 calories. Similarly, dried runner beans, Brussels sprouts, and lentils are low in calories, with a 100 g serving providing only 25, 32 and 50 calories, respectively. Nonfat dairy products, such as yogurt, can also be good low-calorie foods.
Misconceptions
Some diet books and weight loss sites claim consuming "negative calorie foods," such as cabbage, celery, lettuce and cucumber, can help you lose weight. The theory behind is that these foods have such a low calorie density your body actually burns more calories while digesting them than they contain, the New York Times explains. Negative calorie foods are high in fiber and water, but the extra calories the body may burn digesting these foods are minimal, which means they will not provide much in the way of weight loss.
Artificial Sweeteners
Some zero- or low-calorie foods derive some of their flavor from artificial sweetners. These chemicals, such as sodium saccharine and aspartame, "trick" your taste buds into thinking you have eaten something with sugar, but they cannot be metabolized by the body and thus add no calories to the diet. Although some claim these compounds can increase your risk of cancer, there is no scientific evidence these products pose any health risks except in a very small proportion of the population who have specific metabolic problems, MayoClinic.com notes.
Considerations
One thing to consider about low- and zero-calorie foods is that many contain minimal nutrition. Not only do these foods contain little in the way of carbohydrates, proteins or fats, which are all critical parts of a balanced diet; they are also low in vitamins and minerals. So while you can consume these foods to help you satisfy your appetite, you should not use them as staples of your diet; if you do so, you will run the risk of malnutrition. This is not true for all low-calorie foods, such as nonfat dairy, so you should check the nutrition label to see what, if any, nutrients these foods contain.
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