When it comes to food, most of us only crave for junk food to even consume in high amounts. Its the human tendency to crave for tastier than healthier. Here we are going to the difference Between healthy food and junk food.
Before jumping directly onto the healthy food vs junk food, let’s look at the definition of healthy food and junk food to understand them better. Some food just look at the junk food as the bad one for our health and skin, but is it really a case?
You will know everything in this article.
Healthy Food
While there is no precise definition for healthy food that exists, we might define it as any food that is high in fiber, proteins, minerals, and various nutrients. This kind of food especially natural food is considered to be good for your health. Therefore, healthy food is one that offers a lot of nutritional value that is good to keep you fit and healthy.
Junk Food
Basically, junk food can be defined as an unhealthful food that contains lots of calories while lacking the nutritional content. However, junk food seems more attractive and appealing as they are processed foods.
Healthy food vs Junk food
So far now, you might have understood what is healthy food and what is junk food. Further, we will look into the difference between both of them. The primary difference between junk food and healthy food depends upon the calorie and fat content it contains. Therefore, below are the elements that define healthy and unhealthy foods.
Oil Difference
Cooking oil might be a debatable thing because there are so many varieties of oil that come into the market. But choosing healthy oil over an unhealthy one is important for our health. Therefore, the best thing that can discriminate between unhealthy and healthy oils is the amount of saturated and unsaturated fats they contain.
Look for the oils that contain a high amount of unsaturated fat because they are considered to be good for health. So, the oils that contain a high amount of unsaturated fat comes in the healthy category, while oils with a high amount of saturated fat come in the unhealthy food category.
Nutrient Sufficiency
The foods that contain a high amount of nutrients that are good to keep you healthy and fit are healthy food. Therefore, the foods that contain a high amount of dietary fiber, calcium, vitamins, potassium, should be consumed in daily diet.
- Foods that are a rich source of calcium:
Leafy vegetables and dairy products low on fat
- Foods that are a rich source of potassium:
Vegetable and fruits including banana, avocado, strawberries, apricots, and cucumber
- Foods that are a rich source of vitamins:
Eggs, fish, fruit juices, and fortified milk
On the other hand, junk food contains all this in a very less amount that offers your body no benefits.
Refined And Unrefined Food
The refining process makes the food to lose lots of enzymes, vitamins, and fibers. Therefore, refined food becomes unhealthy to some degree. On the other hand, unrefined food is the one that goes through no process, and thus, unrefined food is considered to be better for health.
Antioxidants
Undoubtedly, antioxidants shield our body against free radicals that can become the cause of cancer. Thus, healthy foods contain antioxidants while junk food does not contain enough amount.
Healthy Diets and Unhealthy Diets
The main difference between healthy and unhealthy lifestyles could be clarified with healthy diets and unhealthy diets.
Healthy diets possess:
- Fruits
- Legumes
- Vegetables
- Whole-grains
- Low-fat dairy products and so on
Unhealthy diets possess:
- Fast foods
- Foods that contain a high amount of saturated fats, added sugar, trans-fat and sodium
- Sugary beverages
Healthy food vs junk food chart
Healthy Food | Junk Food |
Rich in nutrients viz. protein, carbohydrate, dietary fibres, fats, vitamins, minerals | Low or no nutrients, but rich in saturated fats, salt, sugars, artificial flavours… etc |
Prevents consumers from cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, and obesity | Causes the consumers to have cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, and obesity |
Not convenient to access and prepare | Very convenient to access and mostly prepared and ready to eat |
Mostly natural | Mostly artificial |
These are some of the differences Between healthy food and junk food. No doubt, junk food is not good for your health. So, you should incorporate a diet full of healthy foods to keep the diseases away from your body.