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Brits eat 22 million takeaways a week! On average that’s 1 in 3 people a week having a takeaway and for some it’s more.
I do find it strange when clients come to me telling me about the ‘diets’ they have tried and the ones they love because they can still eat junk food, and they think that they can continue to eat like that with no consequences.
However, the ‘diet’ they love won’t work in the longer term as they are not learning about food, only how to ‘cheat’ the system! I hear that a lot too! How often have you said “it’s ok, it’s weigh in night tonight so we can have a pizza afterwards”? I know, I’ve been there too, I get it! But in the long term it’s just causing more damage and that’s when the yoyo dieting starts, not to mention messing up your metabolism and other health problems.
The truth is junk food is labelled that way because that’s what it is, it’s nutrient poor, it won’t give your body what it needs to function at its best and it will leave you feeling bloated, sluggish and craving more!
Most junk food is full of fat, sugar and salt in varying proportions, most of which are put in there by the scientists that invented it (FYI, they're not chefs!) to make you crave it more, so you end up in a junk food cycle.
As I mentioned before, some ‘diets’ will have you believe you can eat anything as long as it’s within the ‘allowance’ assigned to you. You could also argue that as long as your daily calorie intake is below a certain threshold you will lose weight, but at what cost? Is there any point eating a burger, chips and fizzy drink if that’s all of your recommended daily amount of calories, and half your sugar, salt and fat intake and that’s only thing you are going to have all day? I know I would rather have better quality food and more of it.
Just recently Dr Michael Mosley put a group of celebs through a junk food experiment which proved detrimental to all that took part, with gut, liver and heart problems being cited by the end of it.
Some might say that the odd bit of junk food does no harm, and I’m a strong believer in everything in moderation, but I would say no more than once a month otherwise you would be putting strain on your body.
It’s worth knowing what your body actually needs to function and how the food you eat impacts you (positively and negatively) Next time you reach for the junk food, find out what’s in it first and you might change your mind.