What is Junk food? When doctors advise to avoid junk food, what does that mean?

Question

A doctor has advised my friend to leave off eating junk food.

Following are things which he eats generally, but which are junk among them?

1. Pizza(Dominos)
2. Fruit Juice
3. Pastry (Chocolate)
4. Soyabean (Roasted or Roasted Creamy nut butter)
5. Milk
6. Soya Cheese
7. Indian Puchkas (having Mint water, asofoetida water, gauva water)
8. Spring Roll (Fried in Olive oil)
9. Veg Momos
10. Burger

Answer 1

Junk food is a somewhat generic term that basically includes calories from food that has no real nutritional value, or is so loaded with artificial flavors, added sugars/fats that it overwhelms the nutritional value that was there.

Many of the items on your list could be considered junk food, depending on how they are eaten, how much and how often.

For example, a Domino's thick crust pizza with pepperoni, sausage, extra cheese is loaded with saturated fats, lots of calories for not a lot of substance. However, you could get a thin crust pizza with a light amount of cheese, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives, and while still not the best of foods would be a much better option.

Same for fruit juice - If you get a pure juice such as a squeezed orange juice with no additives, it will be much better than a cranberry juice from extract with added sugar.

Also, as noted in this WebMD article on junk food, these foods tend to be less satiating, that is they satisfy hunger much less than "real" foods, so that you typically end up eating more of them to satisfy hunger, which in turn leads to higher caloric intake.

Other items, such as the chocolate, spring roll may not be the best (Depending on what is in the spring roll), but in little bits are ok. It's very hard to eat a clean diet, especially if you are busy, but with some planning and cooking ahead, you can make a diet very healthy, and still leave room for some items like chocolates, candies.

As long as the junk food is limited in intake, and doesn't make up the majority of the diet (As a personal rule, I try to limit "junk" calories to no more than 10% of my weekly intake), a little bit should be fine.

However, in light of this being a doctor's recommendation, and given the lab values in your other question, it might be a good idea to have a consultation with a dietitian/nutritionist to help create an achievable, healthy eating plan.

Answer 2

I don't know if there is an official definition of junk food. I think similar to pornography, it's best put by "I know it when I see it." Most everything on your list is quite bad for normal consumption, especially the pizza, pastries, burgers, and fruit juice.

I would really recommend you see a movie called Fed Up. It came out last year and addresses:

• What makes food "good" vs "bad".
• How food manufacturers use their lobbying power and marketing skills to trick the general public.
• The real damage that comes from high sugar diets (which the one you listed is loaded with).

You can buy it on amazon for $5. I would watch it and then get as many others as you can do the same.