Energy-dense foods and cancer prevention

WCRF UK recommends avoiding sugary drinks. Also, limit consumption of energy-dense foods (particularly processed foods high in added sugar, or low in fibre, or high in fat).

Choosing healthy foods and drinks instead of those that are high in fat, sugar and calories (energy dense) can help us avoid being overweight and reduce our risk of cancer.

What are energy-dense foods?

Most foods provide us with energy (calories), but some foods contain more energy weight-for-weight than others. Foods that contain a lot of calories are known as energy-dense foods. They tend to be high in fat and/or sugar and can contribute to weight gain and obesity.

For example, 100g of chocolate contains around 10 times more calories than 100g of apple:

• 100g of milk chocolate = 520 kcals
• 100g of apple = 52 kcals

It can be difficult to control how much energy you are consuming if you eat a lot of energy-dense foods because you only need to eat a small amount to take in a lot of calories.

It’s OK to eat energy-dense foods occasionally, or in small quantities, but try not to make them the basis of your diet.

By choosing a diet based on lower energy-dense foods, you can actually eat more food but consume fewer calories. Lower energy-dense foods are high in water and fibre and help us feel fuller for longer. Why not try our healthy diet quiz to see how you are doing at the moment?

Sugary drinks and weight gain

Regularly drinking sugary drinks contributes to weight gain. More and more of us are drinking these, and often in ‘super-sizes’. They are easy to drink in large quantities but don’t make us feel full, even though they are quite high in calories.

Sugary drinks include fizzy drinks like cola and lemonade, as well as cordials and squashes like blackcurrant juice drinks.

We should try to avoid these – water is always the best choice and unsweetened tea and coffee are also preferred (aim to limit coffee to no more than four cups a day).

Natural fruit juice counts as one of our recommended 5 A DAY portions of vegetables and fruits, but it does contain a lot of sugar and does not provide the fibre that whole fruits do, so it’s best not to drink more than one glass a day.

Find out about our other Recommendations for Cancer Prevention

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