What are the risks?
Carrying the extra pounds of fat linked to eating junk food can lead to numerous serious illnesses, including cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), Type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis and numerous cancers (including endometrial, breast and colon). “The food and drink industry spend millions of pounds in promoting products that are high in fat, salt and sugar that are linked to a huge range of cancers,” says Malcolm Clark, a senior prevention policy officer at Cancer Research UK. “We could avoid thousands of cases of cancer over the next 10 years if rates of obesity dropped by just 10 per cent.”
“Out-of-home” meals have approximately 21 per cent more calories than meals cooked at home. The most popular takeaway food in the UK is pizza, with the average 8-10in version containing 868 calories (around 40 per cent of female and 30 per cent of male recommended healthy daily allowance).
How much does it cost?
Britons are spending an average of £1,758 on takeaways each year (£146.50 per month). “It should be easy for everyone to eat healthily, especially children. It isn’t,” says Katharine Jenner of the Obesity Health Alliance. “Our world is flooded with cheap, convenient, highly appealing food that has the downside of being high in calories and lacking in nutrients.”
