Do I need to give up junk food?

From news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/whats_rea...our_food/7106400.stm

Do I need to give up junk food?

'Junk diets' rather than junk food is often the cause of obesity
The answer to how bad junk food is for you depends on how much of it you eat.
According to the experts we consulted in making What's Really In Our Food?, having a burger or pizza now and again as part of a properly balanced diet that includes plenty of vitamins and nutrients is not going to damage your health.

Instead, most of the experts agreed that the real problem lies with what they call \"junk diets\". This is when people eat junk food to the exclusion of everything else.

Having a sugary breakfast, a burger for lunch and a pizza for dinner every day - and no fruit and vegetables - is the kind of diet that over the long term can lead to serious health problems including Type II diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

Almost one in five children under-15 are currently obese, and if current trends continue, more than half of the adult population could be clinically obese by 2050.

To help us make more informed decisions about what we eat dieticians sometimes refer to what are called \"Guideline Daily Amounts\" or GDAs for short.

These are daily targets to aim at in order that we do not eat the quantities of food that can lead to health problems.

Guideline daily amounts for men, women and children

Women......2,000..90g.....70g.....20g........6g
Men........2,500..120g....95g.....30g........6g


Using this scale it is possible to assess how some types of fast foods can contribute a huge number of calories, salt, fat or sugar in a single portion.

For example, a Burger King double whopper with cheese contains 923 calories. That is almost half what a woman should eat in an entire day.

A muffin from a high street coffee chain can contain 500 calories. This is a fifth of a man's guideline daily amount in one snack.

Equally a single slice of Domino's double decadence cheese and tomato pizza can contain 1.9g of salt, or about a third of the guideline daily amount for both men and women.

With this in mind, the recommendations of the experts we talked to was that we should view junk food as a treat and not a staple.

We should be careful about not eating it too much or too often and try to eat small portions.

And we should also try to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. This is something many fast food companies have already taken on board and are trying to offer a greater range of products.

So if you love junk food - do not worry - you do not have to give it up.

Post edited by: Karl, at: 2007/11/27 18:58<br><br>Post edited by: Karl, at: 2007/11/27 19:01

Children fattened on TV junk diet
By Angela O'Connor
September 14, 2005

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TOO much time watching television and too many TV ads for junk food are being blamed for the epidemic of childhood obesity and its associated ills.

A state health minister and VicHealth chief Rob Moodie have called for a ban on junk food advertising in chil- dren's peak television viewing times.

Television viewing should be regarded as an important contributing factor to childhood obesity, according to the authors of a New Zealand study of 1000 children at ages five, seven, nine, 11, 13 and 15.

The more time children spend watching television, the more likely they are to be overweight, the study found.

Researchers at the University of Otago said the connection between childhood television viewing and body mass index was stronger than the connection of BMI with diet and exercise.

The researchers studied children of European descent born between 1972 and 1973, recording their viewing habits and BMI at regular intervals between the ages of three and 15.

One of the study's authors, Bob Hancox, said the study showed TV viewing was more strongly associated with an increased BMI than diet or activity levels.

\&quot;At 26 we found the amount of television they watched as children was associated with a range of adult health problems,\&quot; Dr Hancox said.

\&quot;They were unfit, had high blood cholesterol, they were overweight and more likely to smoke. They didn't have advertising of smoking on television then, but they certainly had lots of product placement of smoking on TV as they were growing up.\&quot;

Australian children were exposed to at least 77 junk food TV ads a week, according to a nationwide survey released yesterday by NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos.

He said campaigns by parents and schools to promote healthy living would never work while junk food ads were screened during children's TV shows.

Mr Hatzistergos said studies showed children as young as 15 were showing signs of heart disease, liver damage and type 2 diabetes, a condition usually associated with overweight older people.

He called for either a ban on junk food advertising during children's television shows or a fairer spread of ads that did not target these programs.

\&quot;We are calling upon the Commonwealth Government to take action in relation to advertising for foods which are high in fat and sugar in order to be able to meet the objectives which it sets out itself in its plan to deal with obesity,\&quot; Mr Hatzistergos said.

Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said the Government would not consider restrictions on junk food advertising.

\&quot;Draconian action like that never works,\&quot; Mr McGauran said. \&quot;You've got to bring people along with you by way of information and education.\&quot;

Mr Moodie called for a ban on junk food advertising in children's peak television viewing time, between 5 and 9pm.

He said Australia was the \&quot;gold medal holder\&quot; for advertising junk food, outranking the United States and Britain.

The foods advertised were the ones least needed, with high fat and low nutrition, Dr Moodie said.

With AAP

If people just got a take away/junk food occassionally &amp; eat 5 pieces of fruit &amp; veg a day

We all like take aways/junk food from time to time, but not every day for every single item we eat.

Scott <br><br>Post edited by: Scott_1984, at: 2007/11/28 02:42