How to DeJunk Your Diet
SALTED SNACKS, SODAS, POTATO
CHIPS, CANDY BARS, COOKIES,
FRENCH FRIES, AND DOUGHNUTS—it’s
not hard for most people to identify these
as junk food. What’s much more difficult
for most Americans is to eat less of them.
And therein lies the problem.
By definition, junk foods lack nutritional value, and people who eat a lot of them leave less room for foods that provide good nutrition. In addition, the primary ingredients in junk foods—fat, sugar, and salt—are unhealthy in themselves and are linked with an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
So, should all junk foods be banned? While it’s not a bad idea, unhealthy foods are here to stay.
Even so, cutting back on them is worth the effort.
To make it happen:
- Learn label logic. Reading labels
on food packages or fast-food menu
brochures is one of the easiest ways
to identify junk food.
To make use of labels:
- Check out the ingredients. If sugar, fat, or salt is one of the first three ingredients, that food is low in healthy nutrients.
- Check out the fat. Look at the number of fat grams. For every 5 grams of fat in a serving, you’re eating the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of fat. Hence, when you down a supersize hamburger with lots of extras that contains 62 grams of fat, consider the 12 teaspoons of fat you’re eating.
- Check out the sodium. It should be 700 mg or less per serving.
- Check out the sugar. To do the math, divide the grams of sugar by four to get the number of teaspoons of sugar. A cereal with 28 grams of sugar per serving has 7 teaspoons of sugar per bowl.
- Dejunk your pantry and refrigerator. To do so, read package labels and determine which foods are over the top in fat, sugar, salt, and calories. You don’t have to totally avoid these foods, but make them the exception rather than the rule.
- If you eat at a fast-food restaurant, choose a chain that offers some healthy options. Then, order regular rather than supersize meals, and avoid deep-fried foods, such as French fries, onion rings, and breaded-and-fried chicken or fish.
- Choose more healthy alternatives for the junk foods you and your family crave; for example, frozen yogurt instead of ice cream; pretzels or baked tortilla chips that contain fiber instead of potato chips; a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a deep fried chicken sandwich; and water or 100 percent fruit juice instead of soda.
To learn more: American Dietetic Association, www.eatright.org.
