We all love to gorge on processed foods and wish our life would be much better if we could live on pizza, burgers, steaks and food that is rich in calories, salt and sugars. We are fully aware of how damaging to our body these foods are, if taken regularly and in large quantities. But we chose to ignore the ill effects and continue to incorporate these processed junk in our diet.
Just to show how harmful to body and mind these processed foods can be, if taken in large quantities over a period of time, four gym addicts in Britain decided to take on the junk food challenge. They had to forego their gym based lifestyle that included eating right and in proper amounts and swap it with unhealthy junk food, eating whenever they wanted, whatever they wanted and in any quantity; all for a week.
The result on their bodies and mind was telling as each of them had their own story to tell after foregoing a healthy lifestyle for a guilt-ridden one. Here is the experience of four fit individuals who went on a junk food binge for a week and lived to tell the tale.
Fast food or Junk Food is one of the unhealthiest eat dietary options out there in the world. This food is advertised to you and your kids in a very enticing way through TV and social media. Junk food is often highly tasty and addictive, but they come at a cost. Fast food affects everyone in a different way and there is no way to definitively say that it is the only offender harmfully affecting an unhealthful person’s way of life.
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Junk Food usually consists of addictive substances and salt. It has harmful fats, huge number of calories and is full of sugar, just to make young children addicted to the junk food. Even one fast food meal may contain a full day’s worth of calories for one person. Now imagine a person living on a diet of junk food and consuming it for three full meals in a day.
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Fast food or junk food has long-lasting effects on overall health of a person. That happens for a normal person who tends to have fast food or junk food once in a while. Imagine what will happen if people who eat healthy food all their lives, decide to live off just junk food for a whole week?
This is something that happened when four gym addicts decided to let their healthy lifestyle go for a toss and gorge on junk food three times a day, for a whole week. David Templer, 27, of Tooting, London, Paige Modeste, 25, of Stevenage, and James Tilley, 25, and his partner Emma Taylor, 25, of Devizes, Wilts took the challenge and the amount of ill that happened to them was documented for all to see.
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For personal trainer by profession, James Tilley the challenge was like a nightmare revisited given that he was an overweight teenager weighing 17 stones. He worked hard on his body and now maintained a healthy weight of 10.5 stones.
His normal diet consisted of Protein Porridge, lime chicken with Quinoa for lunch and Chicken and veggie stir fry for dinner. He has chicken and protein bars for snacks and he followed his diet religiously. He said, “I was anxious heading into the challenge because I've been there before. I ate a diet packed with takeaways and fast food and after transforming myself, have no intention of ever going back to that place”
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In his challenge, he ate Three cereal bars, a glass of milk, a glass of orange juice for breakfast. For lunch, he had Footlong Meatball Marinara Subway sandwich, double chocolate cookies. He munched on Goat's cheese pizza, 6 chicken nuggets, garlic bread for dinner. For snacks, he had double chocolate mint ice lollies, Crème Egg McFlurry, and custard cream biscuits.
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His body changed almost immediately, as his washboard abs disappeared. He said that his body felt spongy. Mentally too, James started to feel like his teenage self, when he was a fat, overweight person, and it started making him anxious and frustrated.
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Emma Taylor is James’ partner owns a salon. She is also a gym freak and works out with James. However, she was the most hit by the sudden change in her diet as her body reacted badly to the new diet of fast food.
Emma’s normal diet saw her eating Satay Chicken and rice pot for lunch, protein porridge for breakfast, Chicken Pad Thai for dinner and chicken noodle soup for snack.
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Her junk food diet saw her eating Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon in breakfast. For lunch she used to have roast lamb, roasted potatoes and cauliflower, and double chocolate cheesecake. Galaxy Easter egg, and chocolates in snacks.
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She said: “I have a sensitive stomach so filling it with all those E numbers and sugary foods left me feeling sick and bloated. I was really lethargic and found I couldn't concentrate.” She also experienced headaches, her energy levels went down and she started to feel lethargic. Her concentration levels too went down.
Emma said that it was only after going back to her normal routine did she felt energetic and headaches went away.
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Paige Modeste, who works as a shop assistant at Harrods’ and is a blogger, also felt a huge change in her both outside and inside, after taking up the challenge. Her normal diet contained porridge, Rice Pot and black beans chicken, Chicken Fajita Stir Fry, and protein bars for snacks.
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Paige went all out on her junk food challenge. She had croissants, Nutella, golden syrup porridge, sausages, fired egg, bacon, and bagels for breakfast for a week. Pork Sausages, fried eggs, Prawn Linguini, Thai Red Chicken Curry, Chicken and bacon tortellini with pasta sauce, deep fried chicken, bacon and chicken pasta, garlic bread and BBQ pulled beef and rice in her lunch for a week.
Pizza, BBQ rib, paprika fries, Rump steak, deep fried calamari, Chinese fried rice, pizza and garlic bread were the menu for dinners during the week. Kellogg bar, honey cashews, chocolate, Nutella on Bagel etc were her snacks.
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Her system was shocked thanks to the influx of unhealthy junk food for a week, after living on balanced diet. Paige said: “I felt terrible by the end of week one. I had no energy, my skin was spotty and itchy, I had a constant feeling of nausea and huge bags under my eyes.”
She felt the biggest change in her system came when her waist measurement went from 69 cms to 73 cms in just 7 days. “Considering waist size over 80cm in a woman is now an indicator for type 2 diabetes, that's a frightening amount to put on,” she said.
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David Templar who works as a marketing specialist was the fourth and the last gym addict to take on the junk food for a week challenge. He started following his roommates’ diets that were binging on takeaway meals and junk food.
His normal diet consisted of Protein Porridge for breakfast, Thai Chicken Curry and Rice for lunch, Oriental Beef Stir Fry for dinner and Protein bar, and chicken for snacks.
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David decided to have a full English breakfast of triple sausage sandwich, two fried eggs and hash browns for breakfast. Lots of cheese and beans on toast for lunch was the call of the week for David. Fried chicken takeaways, fish and chips plenty, and Domino’s pizza sometime with supermarket ready meals was gorged on for dinners.
Crisps and multiple packs of chocolate bars were downed in the process of enjoying the junk food. David also drank a lot of beer.
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However, things didn’t sit down well with the junk food bringing David down in energy. He says, “Physically I felt tired, found myself getting out of breath walking up a couple of flights of stairs, began to develop spotty skin and I started to put weight on.”
It also hit him mentally, that he was away from gym and eating things that were bad for him. David said,
“Staying away from the gym hit me mentally and physically. I use gym time to train but also to think, destress and gain some perspective. I didn't realise quite how important that was to my mental health.”
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Army dietician Rachel Hobbs opined that the biggest impact of living on junk food diet will happen on the mental aspect rather than the physical one. She said: “One week consuming a highly processed diet with minimal physical activity may not have a huge effect on an individual's physical health; however, it's impact on their emotional and mental health can be huge.”
According to her, a diet of crisps, biscuits and takeaways have less vitamins than a diet of fruits, vegetables and wholegrain. Good balanced diet gives you vitamin B, zinc and omega 3 which are required for a healthy mind. Mental wellness is affected when one is deficient in Omega 3 proteins.
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