When I say “fast food” I primarily mean anything such as Kentucky, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King?
Health advocates say “Junk food is bad and to cut it out” but what exactly is it?
Would you describe other types of take away as being “fast food or “junk food” such as Indian take away and Chinese take away?
What primarily are the “bad parts” of “junk food”?
What types of restaurants, food outlets would not be considered “junk food”?
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“Junk Food” typically refers to food that has relatively little in terms of useful nutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber), high caloric content, and particularly high in things that are bad for you in large amounts (sodium and saturated fats in particular). In short, you get a lot of calories, not much nutrition, and a lot of stuff that’s hard on your body in large amounts.
If you want to have nightmares, take a look at the sodium content of fast food or frozen prepackaged foods.
For example, a single slice of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut has 28% of your DV of sodium. Spicy chicken sandwich from KFC? 89% DV of sodium.
Mainly high sodium, high fat, high sugar, and generally being higher in total calories overall. Our bodies need sodium, fats, and sugars but one fast food meal can contain your daily requirement of each or even more. Fast food is also generally low in dietary fiber which primarily comes from vegetables and fruit. Most fast food restaurants now try to offer healthier options which would be something like a salad or wrap that contains more vegetables and less of things that I listed earlier. You may also hear the term “empty calories” which is food that is high in energy but has very little nutrition like sugar.
EDIT: To expand on “nutrition” a bit. Protein, fat, and carbs are referred to as macronutrients that make up the bulk our of diet, but we also need vitamins (A, B, C, etc.) and minerals (iron, zinc, calcium, etc.) in smaller amounts which are called micronutrients. Dietary fiber mainly helps with digestion and, in the case of fruit, slowing sugar absorption to prevent blood sugar spikes. This is also why eating whole fruit is better than drinking just the juice.
Fast food doesn’t *have* to be junk food, it just has to be fast. There are fast food salads, for example.
A lot of the foods sold by those chains are heavy in salt, sugar, and grease, and light on vitamins and nutrients. I don’t know that i’d consider them junk food in the same vein as Cheetos or Little Debbies, as they do typically have *some* nutritional value (protein, calcium, uhhhh….pickles count as a vegetable). But they’re often higher in calories, sugar, sodium, and fat than similar dishes a person would make at home. So while they’re not totally empty calories, they’re not the best option most of the time.
These issues can absolutely apply to locally owned Indian and Chinese restaurants or any other fast food regardless of its country of origin or how big the business is. What makes food healthy or unhealthy, junky or not, isn’t the name of the business selling it, or even if it’s being sold at all (while a burger you make at home is likely to be a bit healthier than a McDonald’s burger, it isn’t necessarily). It’s what is actually in the food, and probably most importantly, how often you’re eating it.
If you buy a salad at McDonald’s it doesn’t magically become unhealthy because it’s McDonald’s. If you buy a greasy salty pile of lo mein with fried chicken bits in a sugar-sweetened sauce from a local Chinese restaurant, it doesn’t magically become healthy because it was made by a local family and not Panda Express. And most importantly, you don’t magically become healthy or unhealthy for eating either of those meals once.
That would depend on which huge food corporation funded the latest study, but from my point of view, the sugar content and the kind/type of sugar.
What even is fas food?
In addition to the other excellent answers – one of the things that makes KFC, BK and McDonald’s particularly bad is how the food needs to processed to make it fast.
Deep frying potatoes creates acrylamide, which is a possible carcinogen and neurotoxin. At home, you’re frying the taters and generally not reusing the oil more than a few times, so you get just a bit of it. In restaurants, that oil is used for days or weeks allowing the acrylamide to build up and attach to your fries. The same issue would be present for breading on chicken.
The increased time at high temperatures also means the fat in the oil starts oxidizing. Oxidized fats are a large contributor to blood vessel blockage.
Fast food is often held at ‘danger zone’ temperatures for a long time. Regulations say you have to toss it before enough bacteria builds up enough to make you very sick. A burger held at 100 degrees for 10 minutes will still have excess bacteria on it, and that bacteria is not doing you any good. Even if your stomach acid kills it all, it can release endotoxins that paralyze your blood vessels, preventing them from expanding when called to.
This will make you feel like crap if you’re healthy, but if your blood vessels are narrowed already, this could cause major heart problems.
The main harm is in the amount of fat. There is probably enough fat in every item for an entire day’s worth of fat.
Second, they are filled with processed foods, where all nutritional value has been removed.
Third, there is lots of animal products, which are very bad for you.
But mostly, the percent of calories from fat is the problem.
My criteria for “junk” food is how processed it is.
Highly processed foods like chips, chocolates, canned food, etc likely have preservatives and tend to have high sodium, fat, and sugar content.
Certain fast food i would consider to be “junk” food. Burgers from McDonalds/burger king maybe highly processed and relies on a lot of salt for flavor, you can add stuff from taco bell too. Ice cream from any fast food maybe pumped with extra sugar or artificial flavors/sweeteners, same goes with coffee and other drinks.
I would say tho that pizza might be the best or healthiest option. The only things there that are highly processed could be the meats. Aside from that, toppings like peppers are mostly fresh, sauce might have high sodium, cheese is cheese so it already is highly processed. The crust/bread you can’t really process the same way. It has to be fresh since it doesn’t last long.
High fat, carb, and sodium content, but that can be said about most restaurants. (The secret to making food taste as good as restaurant food is to add tons of butter and salt!) What’s special about fast food is the copious levels of industrial finesse and corner-cutting that make it possible for franchises like McDonalds to get you a fresh-tasting burger and fries within seconds of ordering it.
Fast food restaurants often have most of their menu prepared in advance far away in a factory and kept frozen until ready to eat, and they usually stick to very quick methods of cooking food like deep frying, all in the name of speed. That alone is enough to explain most of why fast food is considered less healthy, but beyond that, fast food companies have been party to all sorts of shady food handling practices over the years, which increase efficiency at the cost of consumer health. Due to the use of hydrogenated oils, fast food often contains trans fats, a kind of fat molecule which is indigestible because of a sort of twist in its shape, causing it to build up in the bloodstream of those who consume it. There’s also been countless other scandals involving fast food health hazards, including one I remember where toxic chemicals used to keep oil from soaking through the food packaging were discovered to be leeching into the food itself.
In other words, fast food is unhealthy because greasy food is unhealthy, but the real answer is the corporate greed and neglect that is rampant in most fast food companies.
They’re designed to be over eaten with salt, carbs, fat, and msg. Which can, and usually does, result in being fat.
You can eat “junk food” and not be fat. It just requires you eat less of it than most people do. It’s just nutrients and you can fit it in your diet as long as you’re not dumb and have self control.
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