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”?
In: 135
I tried to make a 2 by 2 matrix over what is expensive, cheap, unhealthy, and healthy, but I didn’t really manage to pick good categories to put in. Anyway: I do think Junk Food refers to any food that is cheap and unhealthy.
||**Unhealthy**|**Healthy**|
|:-|:-|:-|
|**Expensive**|Michelin Star Food|Superfoods|
|**Cheap**|Junk Food|Plain vegetables|
The concept of “empty calories” is a good measure of whether a food is a junk food. The other component is how processed it is – the more processed, the worse it is.
Something that has high calories (mostly in carbs and fats) and low in vitamins, minerals, and low in fiber is what one would call nutritionally poor food.
So things like candy, fast foods, chips, soft drinks, and many ready to eat items are all in that junk category.
The less processed the better – and some people talk about items available on the outer perimeter of a grocery store being better: fresh fruit, vegetables, unprocessed fresh meats, dairy that isn’t processed much.
Indian and Chinese takeaways are not universally considered junk food because they’re all different. McDonald’s all serve the same food.
If you order the right dishes Chinese and Indian food is very healthy. You can lose a lot of weight and beat diabetes and other similar diseases if you stick to veggies and steamed/stewed chicken. However you need to choose the right foods. Eating fried general tsos or samosa isn’t gonna be good for you.
Eating stir fried greens with chicken or veggie curry with roast goat kabob is.
Fried, fatty and high carb foods are bad for you. The problem us fast food franchises sell barely any vegetables at all. The key is Eating lots of veggies, lean protein and carbs in moderation.
Fast food tends to be very high in saturated fat, refined sugar, and/or sodium.
Humans are hardwired to crave fat, sugar, and sodium because they were very important to our survival for most of our time as a species. (Keep in mind how common famines used to be and you’ll start to understand why.) Thus, if you put lots of them into food that’s not necessarily of the finest quality, our brains and taste buds will still enjoy it.
Most types of fast food have at least some nutrients, but they tend to be low in fiber and one can get the same amount of protein, calcium, etc. so on from sources that don’t have such high amounts of saturated fat, refined sugar, and/or sodium.
Oh no, you mentioned “Pizza Hut.” I’m screwed, I work there. I get one free meal a day! My poor body.
High Sugar
High Saturated fat
These lead to high cholesterol
That leads to heart attack and stroke
That leads to death
Almost every single restaurant, both fast food and dine in has these in spades because it makes the food taste good.
If you eat out all the time, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Buy some veggies at the grocery store, stay home, and eat ’em.
Mainly it’s just high caloric density and tastes so good you overeat. Which means you eat too many calories to be full and thus become overweight if you eat that kind of food alot.
There are other concerns such as salt levels and low nutritional content but it’s mostly the calories
Relatively high proportions of salt/fat/sugar. Relatively low proportions of fiber and vitamins. Protein varies, but tends to be mitigated by high fat contents.
The commenters complaining about sodium are misinformed. Unless you have a diagnosed heart problem and are told to cut sodium, you don’t need to worry about it.
Saturated fat is a more valid concern, but the main issue is these foods make it really easy to eat a lot of calories without feeling full, causing people to gain weight.
If you are not overweight, and overall eat a balanced diet with some vegetables (or even take supplements), then you have no reason to avoid fast food.
Very high levels of sugar, sodium, and fats. These things are all super convenient if your distribution network is…slower. As these things are great at preserving food. Fats don’t provide the same hydration to bacteria, so replacing genuine moisture with fats helps slow spoilage. And the human mouth is bad at telling the difference between moist with oil vs moist with water. So *we* can’t tell the difference, but the bacteria can. So stuff lasts longer.
Sugar and salts (sodiums) are also one of the oldest food preservation methods known to man. They’re very effective. These days we have more than sodium chloride to work with, MSG is another one and there are plenty more (just look at the packaging on some food in your pantry, you’ll find them with (preservative) next to it.) These keep foods from going bad also.
Fast food is also about providing a consistent food experience, by controlling for as many variables as possible (including spoilage) they deliver that. Unfortunately that means loading the stuff full of sugars, salts, and fats to ensure consistency across all destinations.
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