No no, this is not an oxymoron! This is something that the food companies have come out with when they saw their junk food sales dropping. The reason for the drop was that the customers were becoming calorie conscious. But the head honchos of these companies knew that it is nearly impossible to resist junk food. Today's foodies want to indulge in junk food but still want to monitor their calorie intake. Savvy food manufacturers are only too willing to cater to these calorie-conscious consumers by offering snack foods claiming to be both nutritionally sound and soul-satisfying. A new type of product is showing up that can be labelled as "Junk Diet food."
What exactly is Junk Diet food?
It is a new concept which is all about unhealthy (termed junk) diet food. Diet junk foods are those diet foods which contain unhealthy compounds which are toxic or damaging for the body but many people unaware of such components consume these foods in large quantities. It has reduced fat, salt and sugar contents and is becoming increasingly popular with manufacturers and consumers. For example Diet Soft drinks, sugar free sweets etc.
What does it contain?
It contains unhealthy compounds like artificial sugar, artificial/modified fat, heavy preservatives, chemical stabilizers etc.
Is it any good?
Oh come on didn't you read the "what does it contain" section. Of course Not! Such foods are harmful due to many reasons:-
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Artificial sugars present in them like aspartame and other chemicals have been linked to memory loss, hair loss, and other various diseases including cancer. For example:- Diet chocolate is one of the unhealthiest products as it is loaded with fat and aspartame. The fat content makes it high calorie and the aspartame makes it unhealthy for the liver and upsets the insulin balance.
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They also contain Diet fats which are basically compounds with a processing done to create a molecule of fat which does not get absorbed by the body. They also have margarine which consists of hydrogenated trans fatty acids which ultimately lead to an increase in cholesterol deposits.
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Look around for these unhealthy foods and you will find many sweet shops making fried diet gujjiya and sweets which are fried and coated with an aspartame solution, so in effect a double trouble. Also, the low calorie chips can be very harmful to your body.
A test case of health advice gone wrong is America. A research in America proved that over consumption of sugar leads to obesity risk. The whole consumer driven country turned to artificial sugar and fresh wholesome natural food seems to have been forgotten completely!
Thankfully this trend is not so common in India. But the indications are that it will soon catch on. So it is high time we do not make the same mistake as the Americans made by eating diet junk food.
Really a nice article.