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.
Image Source: wikimedia.org
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.
Image Source: dailymail.co.uk
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.
Image Source: dailymail.co.uk
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.
Image Source: dailymail.co.uk
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.”
Image Source: dailymail.co.uk
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.
Image Source: express.co.uk