An Increase in regular practice of consuming unhealthy, easily available pre-processed or packed food with low nutritive are the main reason behind the fact that world is getting fatter and sick than ever before.
Surprisingly, you don’t really know the food we are consuming is healthy or not. Most of you consider junk food as healthy and nutrient dense.
What are Junk foods?
Junk foods include those pre-processed or packed foods that contribute lots of calories with very little nutritional value. Sometimes it’s our way of making certain food which make it land into the category of Junk Food. For an example, depending upon the way of preparation a pizza can be categorised as Junk or a healthy food.If the base of a pizza is made of refined flour filled with cheese toppings and fat fried meat, it obviously comes under the category of junk food. But if that same pizza is replaced by a thin crust made of whole cereal flour, with a single cheese and tomato sauce topping having lot of veggies, it will exit from the category of Junk food.
Major problem with junk foods are their low satiety value (feeling of fullness). Even after consuming a large portion size the feeling of hunger persists within and this results in overeating of the food. One another problem with junk foods is its addiction. This addiction towards junk food make you replace other more nutritional dense foods from your diet. For an example: Over consumption of cheese burgers and aerated drinks make you away from plenty of low-fat dairy or other healthful beverages like fruit juices or milk drinks (tea, coffee).
Remember when you gorge on high calorie snacks or fatty chips, you forget about the nutrient dense fruits and vegetables
Here is the information provided about the intake of calories from various easily available junk foods, based on different international joints
- If you consume one single Mac Donald’s Burger (Big MAC), you will ingest the total of 229.0 kcal calorie, 19 g of carbohydrate, 13 g of protein, 12.0 g of Fat and only 2 grams of fibre.
- If you feel like grabbing a Cheese burger from Burger King it gives you 260 kcal with 25.0 gram of carbohydrate, 13 gram of protein, 11-gram fat and only 1 gram of fibre. If we calculate the total calorie in a cheese burger (123 g) it turns out to be 319.8 kcal.
- You all feel the craving for Chicken Drumsticks from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Let’s have a look at its calorie load. Chicken drumstick provide 170.0 kcal, 9.1 gram of carbohydrate, 11.9-gram protein, 10.0 gram of fat and 1.4 gram of fibre. To be specific one drumstick (95 g) gives us 161.5 kcal.
So, the choice is all yours … always think before purchasing any Junk, how much calories it is going to load you with.
Taking the ‘Junk’ out of Junk Food
Now that you are aware about the nutrient facts of junk food, the big questions appear…
How can you make a wise decision in this Junk food world?
- Try to look for those food joints that offer healthier food choices. Remember where ever you go, always look for those packed foods and drinks which provide calories along with nutrients. Try to incorporate fresh juice in your daily practice. Buy a pizza topped with veggies and less cheeses, wholegrain bun sandwich stuffed with grilled chicken or a bean burrito instead of going for fries, chips topped with mayonnaise, frozen pizza rolls; fries rolls, fried chicken pieces. Avoid sweetened beverages and candies, they are nothing but plain sugars. For sweet products look for high-fructose corn syrup. Try to add fruits in diet, they provide natural sweetness in the diet.
- Avoid watching those advertisements and shows on TV which talking about high calorie foods because it helps to enhance the desire for eating. Stop believing on anything and everything you read or see. There are various catchy advertisements available on social media. Remember not every nutritional data you come across gives you right information.