I use Michael Pollan's definition.... anything my great-grandmother wouldn't have recognized as "food". That means pretty much all the stuff on the "inside" grocery aisles (I hardly ever shop at regular stores like Safeway anymore, and when I do I'm floored by how many aisles aren't "food" at all!), but it doesn't include stuff like cookies and cakes, because of course cookies and cakes existed in my great-grandmother's time. I see those foods as high-calorie treats to be indulged in only very rarely, but not as "junk". Junk would be the 100 calorie packs, the go-gurts, the doritos, diet coke, the weird shelf-stable stuff that really shouldn't be shelf-stable.... junk!
My idea of junk food is alot different then it used to be, before I started my journey.
It used to be like candy, cake, cookies, chips. Not ice cream though, that was apart of my everyday diet.
Now it's anything processed, or almost anything in the frozen food section of the grocery store.
Pizza, chips, ice cream, cookies, cake, candy, frozen meals like smart ones and lean cusine (I used to live on them!). Along with things like Mac & Cheese, anything fried. Meat alternatives like Boca burgers and brats (something I used to also live off). Pretty much anything that is not a whole food, and is extremly processed, I now consider junk food and stay completly away from. Anything that is fast food, and anything that has the word "instant" in the name. Soda. Also any food that has no nutritional value. Foods that you are simply eating for taste and satisfaction.
Thats just me personally though. I know alot of people lose weight by eatting things like smart ones. As well as sucessfully maintain a healthy weight by eatting cookies or cake once in awhile.
Food that doesn't satisfy my body and mind are junk food.
I can sit there and eat a burger and fries and within a few hours feel hungry- but I can sit down and eat a large salad with romaine, cucumbers, cauliflower, tomato, cheese, and so on, and feel satisfied for hours. I'm finding that foods filled with fiber really help!
Ack those fiber one bars make me so gassy I'm not buying anymore!
This is an interesting thread. It's the white bread talk that finally made me think, okay ... "it's a spectrum of junkitude," as kaploids put it. Because I don't know where white bread falls exactly. I make white flour-dominant breads and even plain french bread sometimes, and it is in a gray area for me. I have it less, and yet, it is real food to me.
I regard my weekly diet soda as junk, but I don't look at my 3 or 6 oz glasses of wine that way. Yet wine, though touted with health benefits, does not have "nutritional value" either. So make sense of that.
When surveying some summer veggies the other day, I dismissed corn as junk. Why, I am not entirely sure. Doubtless there is something nutritional going for it, but it just strikes me as 'filler.'
Yet I have never regarded pizza as junk food -- really! I always notice people referring to it as junk. And I know there are oversized, particularly greasy slices that are a far cry from my homemade pizzas, but I am comfortable with most pizza I encounter. I feel like I know what it is and it's "real food."
Getting back to the spectrum of junkitude -- love that, btw -- I have never regarded my luna bars as junk food, but recently I picked up some flavors I'd never had. Sunrise luna bars in strawberry and blueberry. I noticed that they had slighly less protein, etc and instead more sugar/carb, but didn't think too much of it as I was wanting to try a new luna bar. Well, I didn't like them, and I was telling my husband that they felt like ... junk food. They were sweeter ... it's weird how little it takes to tip the scales. Because they are not actually that much different than my regular luna bars. I still don't consider my regular luna bars to be junk, but I suppose they are closer to my idea of junk than I realized.
Very interesting thread! I also agree with the idea of a spectrum or continuum for 'junkitude'.
Some of you have mentioned white bread and I'd like to add that I think even in the case of white bread, there is a continuum. For example, pre-sliced brand name white bread in a package? I may consider that 'junk'. But a nice fresh white bread baguette from the bakery? I may need to limit myself around that food, but I would never consider it 'junk'.
Great post...truly junk is in the tummy of the beholder. I suppose I fall on the overly-processed side of the fence. I think Marion Nestle said don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients, and I personally avoid anything that lists sugar (or a like substance) as one of the first 3 ingredients on the label.
But darn it...that peanut butter/chocolate Haagen-das does call to me sometimes.
Kidding...but anything fast food (NOT Five Guys though...I'm allowed it once a month!!!) is my trigger so I stay away. So I say fast food, chips, ice cream, and anything fried. I'm working on not eating fried food anymore. EXCEPT FOR FIVE GUYS (which I'm allowed once a month...you can't take that from me, people!!!)!!! *LOL*
Kidding...but anything fast food (NOT Five Guys though...I'm allowed it once a month!!!) is my trigger so I stay away. So I say fast food, chips, ice cream, and anything fried. I'm working on not eating fried food anymore. EXCEPT FOR FIVE GUYS (which I'm allowed once a month...you can't take that from me, people!!!)!!! *LOL*
I had never heard of 5 Guys, just looked it up online. Hamburger and regular fries 1460 cals? Yikes!!! I guess I won't be trying that
One piece of fruit or a serving of whole grains or a small handful of nuts is healthy, but at some point too many servings even of a healthy food becomes junk. I think anything that tips the balance can become "junky."
This falls closest to my own definition of junk food. It has less to do with the nutritive value of the food itself and more to do with the circumstances I'm eating it under. Anything that I'm eating because I'm sad or bored (not hungry) is junk food. Anytime I have an unreasonably sized portion of something, it's junk food (at least to the extent that it's unreasonable).
Yes, I avoid highly processed foods (and "soul-less foods"), but that's because eating them doesn't make my body feel good, not because they fit into my idea of junk food. The difference between my perspective and the majority here is really just semantics, not a difference of opinion on the value of foods.
I think the reason that I think this way is probably a derivative of my intuitive eating philosophy; I try not to think of anything as inherently junk, but the way that I eat it can make it junk.
To me, "junk food" is any food that's highly processed, consisting of refined sugar, refined flour "enriched" with a few vitamins, plus artificial ingredients, flavors, and preservatives, and containing little actual nutrition. Twinkies, Ding Dongs, virtually all donuts, Snackwells... most corn chips, most potato chips, frozen french fries made from mashed potatoes shaped like fries... like that. In other words, it's junk--it has no value. To me, that burger PhotoChick described isn't really junk food except for the bun, maybe the cheese.
What's your take on junk food?
Jay
I agree with most of what you consider junk food---except for the cheese. I don't consider most cheeses junk food (processed cheese--yes).
This is an interesting thread. It's the white bread talk that finally made me think, okay ... "it's a spectrum of junkitude," as kaploids put it. Because I don't know where white bread falls exactly. I make white flour-dominant breads and even plain french bread sometimes, and it is in a gray area for me. I have it less, and yet, it is real food to me.
. . . .
Yet I have never regarded pizza as junk food -- really! I always notice people referring to it as junk. And I know there are oversized, particularly greasy slices that are a far cry from my homemade pizzas, but I am comfortable with most pizza I encounter. I feel like I know what it is and it's "real food."
I often buy artisan Italian or French bread, and even though it's made with white flour, I definitely do not classify it as "junk." I also do not consider good pizza junk----I'm talking about a NYC-style pizza, not one from Domino's (I guess I must be a snob against most chain restaurants!)
For me, junk is anything that isn't "worth" the cost.
I consume a limited amount of food in the day. How much I eat is limited by the number of calories my body needs, my appetite, my stomach's capacity, etc. I also limit my diet via exchanges.
Every food I eat has a cost associated with it on each of those lines. Chocolate costs a lot of calories, but not a lot of appetite. Some foods even shift the other way - sugars tend to increase my appetite.
I look for the "sweet spot" where appetite is satisfied, my stomach is content, my exchanges work out right, I feel satisfied and the calorie number is reasonable. Classifying a food as "junk" or not at any given time depends on the state of all those factors.
When I've just cycled hills until I couldn't move enough oxygen to do it anymore, am taking a 10 minute rest and going to do it again - a milky way midnight or a bottle of gatorade isn't junk. I have minimal appetite, my body needs significantly more calories, and my body doesn't have many resources to spare for digestion. A salad, or dried fruit and nuts would be utter junk, because it takes too much from me to eat/digest and provides little usable energy. I've done it before, and crash five minutes into continuing my bike ride.
When I've done nothing more than clean my house and answer email - a candy bar is junk, and gatorade is even worse. A big salad or a bowl of brothy, beany soup is usually great for me, then.
