survey:"junk" what foods do u consider to be junk food?

hmaddpear · September 2013

While I don't want to demonize food, I do have a personal definition of junk food. That's food which smells divine but somehow doesn't follow up on the taste. So most fast food burgers fall under the the definition, cheap cakes, pies and pastries. And Krispy Kreme donuts. Urgh. And I used to eat them, even though they didn't taste so good, because they looked and smelled so nice.

This is personal, btw, so if someone were to love the taste of, say, a Big Mac, then it wouldn't be junk.

I'm still learning to say no, but I'm getting better!

Cindyinpg · September 2013

Anything highly processed, cookies, ice cream, chips, takeout foods are high in salt and sugar so they are big no no.
the list goes on, but as long as you eat grains fruit veg mainly, bit of meat and fish, poultry and dairy, and only occasional sweet in a week, id say you shouldn't worry too much

I have ice cream and chips and processed food every day. Why are they a big no no? What is wrong with salt and sugar? Until I hear properly sourced evidence that any of that is unhealthy for me, I will continue doing what I am doing, which is not worrying one bit about sugar/salt/processed food, losing weight on a sustainable calorie deficit and exercising, all while NOT depriving myself. I want a plan I can live with forever.

HeidiMightyRawr · September 2013

Foods that have significant calories, but little to no nutritional value.

jenilla1 · September 2013

High calorie, low nutrition foods.

Lemongrab1 · September 2013

Crisps, cookies, candy bars, sweets. The regular.
I don't avoid junk food, I just limit it.
But I don't eat crisps ever EVER because it makes me look like my face is about to explode :explode:

Ophidion · September 2013

Sarauk2sf · September 2013

Kale. it's gross, otherwise nothing.

And pineapple.

Sarauk2sf · September 2013

Junk food is food-like substances manufactured in a factory, containing several chemical additives and that provides little to help me meet my nutritional goals. A better definition is what junk food is not: my grandmother's apple pie, homemade brownies, basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, and a grape tomato on a toothpick, a banana and Nutella crepe,oh, I do eat some pre-packaged items, Dutch Cocoa summersaults. They look like tiny cookies, but are full of seeds. I just found them recently.

Out of interest, why does Nutella not fit into your definition?

Oh, and the salt and pepper somersaults are delish.

neandermagnon · September 2013

I'm trying to move away from defining any food as "junk" or any other term meaning inherently bad

some foods are more nutritious than others, i.e. they contain more nutrients

some foods are more difficult to fit into a healthy diet than others, because they contain high amounts of things like fat and carbs that are easy to overeat on

but there aren't any foods that are inherently bad in isolation. Someone's diet can be healthy or unhealthy, because the body needs specific nutrients, in the right ratio, and too little of any essential nutrient is bad for health, and too much of certain specific nutrients is bad for health. Taking in more energy than you burn off on a regular basis for years is bad for health. But the foods themselves are not healthy or unhealthy, if you plan your diet and ensure that you are getting a healthy balance of all the nutrients you need and are not gaining body fat from eating more than you burn off all the time.

Also, I think that food puritanism, i.e. the attitude that enjoying food is bad and wrong, and that food is only for nutrition and you should only eat foods that are considered by food puritans to be "healthy" or "clean" or whatever, can lead to someone having a really unhealthy relationship with food, which is not healthy from a psychological point of view, and an unhealthy relationship with food can lead to behaviours around food that damage both physical and mental health, such as cycling between excessive restriction and binge eating, accompanied with beating yourself up over the binges and punishing yourself with more excessive restriction..... not healthy at all.

So given all that, I tend to think terms such as "junk food" and anything else that labels individual foods as good or bad, should be scrapped and people should learn to focus on the overall diet, i.e. whether it's giving you all the nutrients you need in the right balance or not. and from that mindset you do quickly learn that some foods are a lot harder to fit into a balanced diet than others, and also how to fit them in and still be getting a healthy, balanced diet.

When I hear the word "junk food" I think of "fast food" (even though I try not to call it junk food any more, it's what the term calls to mind) - I eat fast food periodically when bulking or for a refeed when cutting. It's high protein, high fat, high carb food, perfect for boosting your calorie and protein levels (I leave out the fries and drink, and order two high protein things, e.g a burger and chicken nuggets, and drink water with it... or tea if they do tea). The downside is that it's high in sodium and low in vitamins and minerals, but there are ways to balance that out through what you eat and drink the rest of the time. i.e. it's about focusing on the diet as a whole, not demonising individual foods.

BrainyBurro · September 2013

junk foods:

black licorice
brussels sprouts
asparagus
quinoa
greek yogurt
nutella
cauliflower
almond milk
anything made from soy
PB2
shakeology

darkrose20 · September 2013

Stuff with numerous ingredients that are difficult to pronounce. Stuff that can live on inside a package for many months... Even years.

What you eat something that was made up of the below?

Alpha-Linolenic-Acid, Asparagine, D-Categin, Isoqurctrin, Hyperoside, Ferulic-Acid, Farnesene, Neoxathin, Phosphatidyl-Choline, Reynoutrin, Sinapic-Acid, Caffeic-Acid, Chlorogenic-Acid, P-Hydroxy-Benzoic-Acid, P-Coumaric-Acid, Avicularin, Lutein, Quercitin, Rutin, Ursolic-Acid, Protocatechuic-Acid, Silver, Tryptophan, Threonine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lycine, Methionine, Cystine, Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, Valine, Argenine, Histidine, Alanine, Aspartic Acid, Glutamic Acid, Glycine, Proline, and Serine

Yes but the apples I eat do not come in a plastic bag/container nor are they wrapped and they will expire in a relatively short time unlike some manufactured product such as a Twinkie or something along that nature.

Umm...my local grocery stores sell apples in a nice 3 lb plastic bag. Sometimes they sell an apple and oranges mix in that plastic bag.

Tho, they most definitely do expire long before Twinkies, etc. (why, oh why did they make a come back, anyway..yuckky!)

funkythreads2004 · September 2013

Everything is junk if you eat too much of it. You can eat anything in moderation, you just have to prepare. Saturdays are my treat day, so i exercise harder in the week to compensate. it gives me an enjoyable goal to look forward to...

Chadomaniac · September 2013

Junk food

1. Food you find in the junk

kelly_e_montana · September 2013

overly processed food with little nutritional value, for example most convenience store-type snacks. i don't care if some things are a treat like real homemade ice cream etc. with ingredients found primarily in nature but I don't care about moderation for things like Doritos, canned French onion dip, powdered sugar donuts from convenience stores, etc. Those things make me feel icky whether or not I use them in moderation. I would rather have cheat meals like pizza with real meat and real mozzarella than overly processed chemically engineered foods any day. I believe you can eat anything in moderation but if it's more food-like than food, you probably shouldn't. I would have no qualms about eating anything my grandmother might have made in her day for a dessert because it was actually food with ingredients like flour, sugar, and eggs, not chemical this and chemical that.

jfauci · September 2013

To me, junk is anything that has calories and no nutritional value. Things like chips and candy bars.

Please explain this "no nutritional value" statement.

I look for protein and at least some vitamins or iron.

kelly_e_montana · September 2013

And to clarify, I don't think you can get accurate info in the U.S. or possibly anywhere on the nature of your food especially regarding GMO stuff in the U.S. My point is we don't know what certain things (preservatives, genetically modified foods, etc.) will do because we have not been eating them for generations to understand the long-term effects. I like to eat things that people have been eating for a couple of generations instead of turning myself into a lab experiment. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing about genetically modified foods because we don't have truth in labeling. I just know what feels good to me when I eat it and what does not, and I try to eat things that make me feel good or at least not too bad. I try to keep track and avoid those things that don't work for me.

CollieFit · September 2013

Mostly food products that are manufactured and advertised. If a company is spending more money trying to convince you to eat the product, than the cost of the product...its junk.

:drinker:

amsipub · September 2013

Things that are basically all carbs and little to no vitamins, minerals, proteins. Things that are high in bad fats and/or high in added sugars. Or stuff with a ton of preservatives and processes added.
Still has its' place though, for the noms.

I agree. That's exactly my definition of junk food. There's a lot of it around.

NonnyMary · September 2013

well, for me, cookies can be junk or can be exquisite. Oreos are not junk food, they are excellent cookies. But cheap wafer cookies at the dollar store are junk. Or if you go to an expensive store, you can get expensive $5.00 cookies made with chunks of expensive Belgium chocolate, nuts, etc... this is NOT junk, and its a cookie. So I consider the quality of the ingredients to be the difference between junk and non-junk food.

soupandcookies · September 2013

I tend to be a binge eater, so "junk food," for me, is anything that triggers me to eat everything that's not nailed down. Here are a few examples from my personal list:

pretzels (especially the honey wheat kind)
animal crackers
Pop-Tarts (these are the worst, for me)
marshmallows
granola bars
oreos
Baked Lays
cold cereal (even the low sugar varieties are very triggering to me)

mumblemagic · September 2013

For me I make the distinction between junk food and real food that's unhealthy.

Junk food is high in fat / sugar and low in protein and vitamins, high in E numbers, is heavily processed or deep fried. E.g. deep fried chips, thick pan pizza, processed burgers, sugary soft drinks, gelatin sweets, fried crisps, cheap sausages, some party nibbles. I don't eat a lot of these, some because they tend to have very little flavour so I see no reason to, and others (e.g. crisps) because I feel guilty after.

Unhealthy food is fatty or sugary food that has some nutritional value but is nevertheless a no-no if you are trying to lose weight. I do have a weakness for these E.g.s:
greggs steak bake: lots of "real" ingredients, lumps of lean steak, covered in fatty pastry. High quality and yum but pastry is always quite fatty.
Posh pasties: again, comparatively unprocessed ingredients as if you made them at home, vegetables, potatos, but again covered in pastry.
Fruity yoghurty smoothies: lots of fat and sugar but lots of fruit too.
Thin crust pizza: veg toppings, but lots of bread and cheese. Eat with salad to reduce guilt
Battered fish: deep fried, but has omega 3s. Interestingly fewer calories and fats than a deep pan pizza.
Sausage rolls made with good sausage meet: protein, but again with the fatty pastry.
Salad dressing: contains oil and sugar, but you have very little of it in one go and it's so tasty!
I tend to put cake in this list lthough it might more appropriately belong in the junk food column.

And then there chocolate, which I have a massive weakness for. But, as every girl knows, if you put chocolate on a high shelf for an hour before eating (or it's on a high shelf in the shop), most of the calories fall out, and any remaining don't count if you eat it with your eyes shut, are stressed out, or it's a day ending in "y" :-P

0somuchbetter0 · September 2013

well, for me, cookies can be junk or can be exquisite. Oreos are not junk food, they are excellent cookies. But cheap wafer cookies at the dollar store are junk. Or if you go to an expensive store, you can get expensive $5.00 cookies made with chunks of expensive Belgium chocolate, nuts, etc... this is NOT junk, and its a cookie. So I consider the quality of the ingredients to be the difference between junk and non-junk food.

Agreed!

When I was in high school (early 80s), convenience stores didn't have "healthy" options like they do now. My friends and I would go to the corner convenience store every day for lunch, which often consisted of a bag of chips, a candy bar, and a soda. Oh and bubble gum for dessert. That would be my definition of junk food.

cleotherio · September 2013

well, for me, cookies can be junk or can be exquisite. Oreos are not junk food, they are excellent cookies. But cheap wafer cookies at the dollar store are junk. Or if you go to an expensive store, you can get expensive $5.00 cookies made with chunks of expensive Belgium chocolate, nuts, etc... this is NOT junk, and its a cookie. So I consider the quality of the ingredients to be the difference between junk and non-junk food.

I totally agree with this. Like cake that looks really enticing but has a bad texture. Or cookies or candy that look good but leave a weird waxy coating on the roof of your mouth. Or a hamburger that's unseasoned and overcooked. Basically something that's not worth finishing. As in not worth the money or calories you spent on it.

SezxyStef · September 2013

Stuff with numerous ingredients that are difficult to pronounce. Stuff that can live on inside a package for many months... Even years.

You mean like Honey? They have found honey in pharohs graves from 1000 years ago....:laugh:

I don't attach negative words like "junk" or "bad" to the word Food. It's all food. I eat what want as long as I stay within my goals.

BTW Kale is great in a smoothie...can't taste it then...:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Wildflower0106 · September 2013

iceberg lettuce... Seriously what's the point...

Andreaviolet89 · September 2013

Any packaged food that has a shelf life of like ten years such as things like pop tarts, twinkies, cookies.

magerum · September 2013

Any packaged food that has a shelf life of like ten years such as things like pop tarts, twinkies, cookies.

Pop tarts have a shelf life of ~6 months, cookies the same and twinkies, contrary to popular belief, even less. Do you always repeat information you've heard from older generations without actually verifying it? All old wives tales.