The No Junk Way
Easy to Cook | Healthy to Eat
We understand! Impossible right…. to cut down on all the junk food and consume all the greens in the world.
But wait. Who is telling you to sacrifice on all the flavours and pleasures that junk food offers. You can still have all the delicious food packed with flavours but without the “junk ingredients”. All we are saying is you can practise the ‘no junk way’ or at the least try by minimizing the consumption of high calorific foods. A perfect diet can be achieved only when the mind and body both are happy…but with a full tummy. Full with flavours and health.
What is Junk Food? And what do we mean by the ‘No Junk Way’?
As per the Healthline Journal on Junk Food, Junk Foods are highly processed snacks, contains calories in large amounts, especially fats and sugars and very less amounts of vitamins, minerals and fibres. And these include soda, chips, candy, cookies.…the list is long.
Junk food comes in various forms and ways. One can consume junk food in the form of packaged goods, at a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) or at a fine dine restaurant or even at home where one includes ingredients high in calories and low in its nutritional value.
Consuming junk food has become a way of life. Due to easy accessibility and availability in a variety of cuisines and at wide range of prices, people from all parts of the world and backgrounds have the privilege to consume and enjoy it. Globalization has made it even easier to deliver the best of the best fast-moving goods to reach any part of the world.
But we cannot overlook the fact that specific geographical regions demand a specific diet need. Crops are grown depending on the climatic condition of the regions and certain cooking techniques are practised. These practises have been studied for generations and hence are well suitable for the body.
Globalization has immensely helped all the industries to expand in various parts of the world where delivery and distribution are made easy but we shall also consider that even though it is easy to have access, the frequent consumption of such processed food items can cause significant problems in the long term.
Another theory being if any food ingredient which is even though packed with nutritional benefits can prove to be unhealthy if the cooking technique is wrongfully practised that doesn’t serve the purpose of healthy or clean eating. For Instance, one can consume soya chunks for its extremely good protein and fibre content but if cooking methods like shallow or deep frying are used, the purpose of consumption gets hindered due to the intake of large amount of fat coming from the oil.
A blend of healthy and joyful eating can be achieved by consumption of nutritionally enriched ingredients, practising suitable ways of cooking and by reducing on the intake of favourite food items labelled as junk although comparatively unhealthy in nature. A good combination of diet practises can keep both mind and body satisfied and fit. This implies that you might only rarely and in moderation enjoy all those delectable foods rather than having to give them up completely.
The adverse health effects of junk food can be seen on 8 areas of the body increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Numerous research have shown that eating a lot of ultra-processed foods increases our risk of chronic diseases. There has been a rapid rise in the processed food sale in India over past 10 years.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the most recent Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), which shows that the percentage of income spent by rural Indian households on beverages and processed foods has surpassed that of cereals.
Practising No Junk Way
Junk food, sometimes referred to as optional or discretionary food, is not necessary for any diet.
As mentioned earlier in this article, it can be very difficult to resist the temptation of your favorite (junk) foods.But how do you achieve the balance? Can we find any healthy alternatives for the ingredients without compromising on flavour. OHH Yesss. We can!
We will be sharing a bunch of exciting recipes loaded with flavour in our upcoming recipe blogs. But before we do, let us dive a little deep into the logic behind achieving the balance and how we do it.
Your favorite food is appealed to you primarily because of the texture and the additional flavours used to enhance the taste of the ingredient. Lesser times is the food consumed for its original taste.
We will take an example of a potato. The Global favourite versatile food icon.
A potato can be consumed and relished by cooking it in 10 different ways. You can steam a potato, fry a potato, bake a potato, grill a potato…
A potato can be potatoed in so many ways!
But what distinguishes a peri peri french fry from mashed potatoes? The crispy texture and the burning peri peri. Now you know how a choice is made based on the flavour used and the cooking technique.
But a potato can be replaced with a better alternative and by also replacing the flavours which are not highly processed in nature like powders consisting of flavour enhancers.
Although you don’t need to stop on eating the potato preparations. Well, you can’t. Almost impossible right? But you can definitely reduce the frequency of consumption and increase the consumption frequency of nutritionally value adding ingredients like legumes, pulses millets.
Using the flavours and cooking techniques comparatively healthier, we can achieve a good combination of taste and health.
There are a lot of clean eating practices and exciting recipes without compromising on the taste.
Stay tuned to know more about benefits of traditional and healthy Indian cooking techniques and no junk way ideas in our next blog!