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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

2 Answers 2

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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.

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  • Thanks for your response. The above things are not eaten the other day but like once or twice a week. Like you say artificial flavors, does it applied to fried products? or is all fried products bad? When doctor advise to stop it completely then question arises what to eat? Like Burger with Cucumber and tomato? Now what breads in burger, whole wheat or processed. The above list are those item which are not self cooked but taken from eating joints only. Jul 7, 2015 at 4:13
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    @fatherazrael - unfortunately, those kinds of answers would take much more than this site, and I can't really answer in comments either. I would highly suggest extra reading and working with a dietitian or nutritionist, they can get you the answers that you need. There are many many variables that will affect the health of foods.
    – JohnP
    Jul 7, 2015 at 15:00
  • +1 "This post has the makings of a very good answer, but here on Health, we strongly encourage using references. They are the only way in which we can tell if information is reliable or not.". IIRC WebMD is a paid for content advertising portal! Pizza; flour, tomato, cheese, meat, oil - therefore plenty of energy and nutrients. Probably most people just eat more than they need because the standard servings are too large?
    – TFD
    Jul 8, 2015 at 7:34
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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.

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    I'm not among the downvoters, but.... Most everything on your list is quite bad for normal consumption -- That statement is in serious need of supporting evidence. Half that list is arguably not bad for regular consumption at all.
    – Carey Gregory
    Jul 6, 2015 at 23:16

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