How to save calories by eating right

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27th Jun 2017 00:20 (UTC)

Is it true that junk food slows metabolism?

Well first we have to understand what we mean by junk food and how we can distinguish it, because a lot of us may immediately think fast food, but just because a meal is prepared quickly doesn't mean it's junk. Junk in this sense refers to the quality of the ingredients and how far they have been processed, what additives they contain and how far their nutritional value has dropped.

Take for example a simple burger and the variety of quality you can have in processed cheese versus non processed or cheap high fat meat versus leaner cuts, even bread and salad can vary in nutrient quality. So when we say junk food what we're talking about is low nutrient foods for the same amount of calories or more and it seems this inherently does reduce our metabolism.

The body obviously does not need to spend energy breaking down or metabolising the nutrients that aren't there, so it slows down the energy consumption for the simpler process of breaking down the sugars and proteins. This means that less energy is being used by the body, the caloric demand is reduced because of this and the amount of calories it takes to consume the food is reduced.

On a longer time scale it also means that the body is less likely to receive the nutrients it requires, meaning it will likely adapt to hold on to nutrients it has for longer. The processed chemicals and low nutritional value of what we commonly refer to as junk food means that on such a diet you are most certainly going to see a decline in metabolism and potentially an overall decline in bodily function.

When choosing ingredients remember to keep at least some highly nutritional, vegetables on mass are the quickest way to get your nutritional requirements but not the end all solution. Different fruits, nuts and berries contain high concentrates and are also a quick way to give a little back to your body. You could also try to reduce the processed ingredients and use their fresh equivalent.

On an average of 3 meals a day and living to an average age, that can be over 82'000 meals. So even if the difference in metabolising high nutrition meals is only 5 calories more per meal, that's 410'000 calories you can lose just by eating right!