Is this what you call junk food?
The British government wants to encourage children to abandon junk food and adopt healthier eating habits. Junk food is generally seen as any food high in fat, salt or sugar. But what exactly is junk food?
Some highly-respected and fashionable haute cuisine dishes are in fact more fatty than foods like McDonald’s notorious burgers and fries. There are also trendy burger restaurants which are, in reality, serving food which has more calories and fat than junk food outlets.
This false labeling applies not only to the names of food outlets, but also to the food itself. Pate de fois gras and roast potatoes are respectable items in upmarket restaurants but are just as fatty, even fattier, than so-called junk foods like burgers and fries.
The description junk food is thus applied selectively and misleadingly: perhaps we need new and more accurate ways to classify food.
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