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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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.
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