The essence of junk food is that it’s food that’s been through a manufacturing process.
- It’s been through the mill the oven or, in the case of the rissole, the piece of fish and the potato, the fat bath.
- It’s refined flour that contains over 1000Kj/100gms. Immediately that captures the garbohydrates; – bread, pasta, breakfast biscuits, sweet biscuits, dry biscuits, cake, ice cream and chips.
- It’s food that has been denatured and lacks living enzymes. That’s why rats will eat the box first!
- It’s food containing empty calories, calories that fill up the stomach but fail to nourish the cells of the body.
- It’s food that’s loaded to the gills with food additives – preservatives, flavourings, colourings, emulsifiers, surfactants, thickeners … At last count there were over 4000 additives in our food.
- It’s food with added sugar, designed to increase consumption through an appeal to the taste buds. That’s why we’re getting fatter. Love the taste, eat more.
- It’s food that contains artificial sweeteners.
- It’s food that comes in gaudy packets and wrappers, in bottles, tins, cardboard boxes, cellophane and plastic bags. Yellow ands red seem to be all the go.
- It’s food that comes with the endorsements of world famous sports nutritionists like Pat Rafter, Lisbeth Tricket, Delta Goodrem, David Beckham, Ian Thorpe and a host of sports stars as long as your arm.
- It’s food which through the strategic use of imagery and colour is marketed to fools and children as being nutritious and wholesome.
- It’s food that is promoted by association with children’s comic figures; including such luminaries of the nutrition world as Bart Simpson, Coco the Monkey, Toucan Sam and Garfield the cat.
- It’s food which is less important in the eyes of the manufacturer than the brand.
- It’s food of doubtful quality that’s marketed in association with wholesome activities, particularly physical activity and other healthful pastimes.
- It’s food that’s euphemistically labelled ‘’convenience food’. Convenience food, fast food, junk food – all pretty much the same. Strange that you never hear a piece of fresh fruit referred to as a convenience food! It’s in the manufacturing process that the distinction is created.
- It’s carbonated soft drink, containing bubbles, caffeine sugar and aspartame, the most popular of which is the cold brown syrup containing 11% sugar.
- It’s the hot brown syrup; coffee, with milk, caffeine and sugar.
- It’s the booze, beloved of sporting associations and sports stars.
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