Rethinking Our Relationship With Junk Foods

Can addictive junk foods be the culprit behind the surge in global health issues like obesity and diabetes? Join us in this eye-opening episode of Discover with Shaheen as we unravel the truth about our unhealthy obsession with fast food, frozen meals, and processed snacks. Inspired by Mexico's bold move to ban junk food in schools, we dissect what truly makes food 'junk' and question the reliability of nutrition labels. With surprising insights from European countries' color-coded labeling systems, we explore whether consumers are genuinely aware of what they're eating and if there's a real shift toward healthier diets.

Unpack the myths and realities of trendy diets like keto and the supposed benefits of green tea compared to our ongoing love affair with salty and sugary snacks. As we highlight the serious long-term effects of junk food consumption, including heart disease and diabetes, this episode encourages a critical reflection on our eating habits. We aim to inspire you to prioritize your well-being by offering a fresh perspective on the choices we make every day. Join the conversation and discover how you can make informed, healthier decisions for a better life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Fast food or homemade salad, frozen meal or freshly baked lean chicken? What is your preference? Think about it, because life is all about the choices you make. Hello everyone, welcome to the third episode of Discover with Shaheen. The topic of the day is our addiction for junk food. This subject is trailing in my mind after I read that Mexico has cracked down the whip on schools selling junk food to children, and with this, once again, junk food has started hogging limelight at a big scale. Now, since we are going to talk about junk food, let me answer the question of what is junk food?

Speaker 1: 0:47

Junk food is any type of food which has zero or low nutrition value and, at the same time, it has high content of salt, sugar or white flour. That makes it addictive and tastier. Examples of this variant of food type is frozen meals, packaged juices, chips, health bars and fast food that have high amount of fats and carbohydrates. See, it's not that we are not aware about the health hazards associated with junk or fast food, yet most of us royally ignore it, and most of the packaged foods actually have nutrition fact label at the back of the packet. Perhaps we see it and leave it at that, without bothering about the authenticity of the label. Now the critical question here is are the nutrition facts accurate, see firstly. Firstly, we don't even bother to see the label. Most of us few who see it it's, it's really good, hats off to you. And most of us just leave it at that.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Now my experience is something different. I, you know, by researching for this topic, I picked up a packet of chips and turned behind to see the contents. Strange, really strange it is. You know. I found out the sodium in that particular packet was only 0.08 mg. Sugar, 0% trans fat, 3 mg and no added preservatives. I had the chips. The chips were delicious and I mean it goes. I mean, I don't have any second thought on it. It, every chip packet, has high sugar and salt and trans fat. They said that is why it is addictive. You know, these qualities make it tastier. This is highly debatable, for sure. I don't know what to say how packaged foods like the one I picked misinform consumers and how they get government approvals with incorrect information. It puts me off.

Speaker 1: 2:49

But there are a few good examples too. Now, few European countries have very strict regulations on packaged food brands and they are directed to use bright and alarming color labels, like that of traffic lights on their packaging to show the amount of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in food, so to say. Labels are color coded according to whether there is a high, low or high you can say high, medium or low amount of sugar, salt and trans fat. Red is used. You know it's alarming. If it's a high content of sugar, it will be displayed in the red label and that's the way it is. And it's very interesting to know that countries, cities in New Zealand and Australia have this health star rating system when overall nutrition content of packaged food varies from half a star to five stars. The more stars a product has, the healthier it is. So these are two good examples.

Speaker 1: 3:50

There must be many, I am not too sure about it. And in reality, do people actually bother about ratings and warning signals on packaged foods? Well, we are unsure and see, I am seeing reports here and there where masses are shifting their preference to healthy eating. They are having keto diet and you know they are having green tea. They are having more of, like you know, healthy beverages. They are cutting down on their carbohydrates, but there is no confirmed data on it and there cannot be a confirmed data on, you know food habits like these, which come and go. It's a fad. People start talking about food and friends.

Speaker 1: 4:31

I personally feel we have to think about our long term complications, health complications that junk food can have on our health. Health complications that junk food can have on our health. Perennial illnesses like weight gain, diabetes and heart problems are on the rise due to unhealthy eating patterns. And, see, we don't need a World Health Organization report or directive to tell us that we have to consume less than 5 grams of salt per day and we have to limit our intake of added sugars. It's not needed. We understand it right. See, even if you go to a general physician for your routine checkup or say you have mild fever, what does the GP say, the general practitioner? He always says, okay, limit your sugar and salt, Okay. And he gives you a diet and we follow that diet for a few days because he's an authority.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Doctors take care of our health. We respect them and we will be on a diet, we will have boiled stuff and, as we get better, we are tempted to eat junk. We are, most of us, and those who I mean are into healthy eating. Really lots of respect for you and really, because these people, those who are away from junk, have actually liberated themselves from packaged food. Once again, kudos to them, and I sincerely request all of you who are on this healthy food pattern, please subscribe, share your tips and tricks with us. And let me be honest I love chips and I also love canned fruits which are dunked in sugar syrup. Sad, I don't deserve bad health. In fact, we all must be in the pink of health with good food habits.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I am also trying to cut down on these. You know it is junk food. It is adding no value to my eating habits at all. And what see? What happens is now, whenever an episode like this mexico crackdown comes up, people start talking about why are these unhealthy foods present in the market? See, it's simple, it's the demand. Supply theory is in place. If there is a demand, there will be a supply. You know, and we are see we also talk of many people. You know they just talk about. You know they get into this blame game episode.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Some people say you know, food regulators must be strict with junk food brands, because junk food brands, you know, pay a lot to the government and food regulators and they have impressive marketing campaigns and this is how we are lured into buying these products. Some say strong lobbies control food regulation. They buy out politicians, hence these junk foods are launched in the market. Some also say there should be proper front label packaging on junk food like sugar, sugary colas and cold cuts and even health bars, which are not so healthy. Actually, points taken, agreed with all of all of these. You know arguments or pointers, but less introspect, I feel.

Speaker 1: 7:37

The owners lie. The owners lies with us more than anyone else. Why are children buying junk at school? Why it's because they are given pocket money by their parents. Can't this be replaced with a healthy lunchbox full of greens? And see, forget children.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Even as adults, we are lured into buying things. When we are in stress, you know, we stack up colas that are in our fridge and we have it and we feel okay, I'm not in mood, mood, let's munch on to crisps or something similar to beat our stress. Little we realize. Little do we realize that we are walking, or rather striding, toward health hazards of sorts? And see, it's not that we don't have an alternative. We do have alternatives like see, there are cloud kitchen. This thing is going on everywhere in the world.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Even homemakers are running catering services you know, and they customize food according to your requirement. They're very honest at it. The food is good, at least what you're eating out. Say, for example, if you go to a fast food joint, they do have this, a health health menu, where you have creamy salads. I really doubt whether they are low in calories and carbs. So why don't we shift our focus to homemakers who are running catering services or to cloud kitchens which serve real good food I have tried it. They're nice and healthy and forget everything. It's time we rise and make healthy eating a big responsibility, because when diet is wrong, medicines are of no use. I hope you all liked the third episode of Discover with Shaheen. If you want to toss in any idea for our next podcast, do write to me at shaheendiscovers at gmailcom. You can also follow me at discoverwithshaheen on Instagram. Until then, take good care of yourself. See you all next time.