except maybe for marketing material from 'diet companies

and BigFood
and the FDA... have you seen their new recommendations?
Children's cold cereals are rated higher than everything in nutrition.

I was hoping that it was a BabylonBee spoof, but it was not.

But yes, most real nutritionists don't use calories, unless it is like,
1000 calories of protein (beef, lamb, chicken) when discussing body building diet.

If you constrain it to a very specific food group/category, than comparing calories between them is just one metric.

But when comparing the calories of 1 soft drink to 1 bag of chips to 1 sandwich... there is no real comparison.