A Time For Everything

Mark your calendars for Thursday, July 21--it's National Junk Food Day. I'm suggesting to the fam that we, as part of my anniversary celebration, have junk food for dinner. Now do we all have to have the same thing...or do we each get to pick our poison?

I supposed it depends...

If fast food is on the table, we all have to agree on the place. If were going a la cart from the grocery store, we might have to have junk food every night depending on what each person wants.

A frozen pizza costs $4.50, whereas a box of, say, really good corny dogs costs about $10--which would then mean we have corny dogs in the house for a bit. On the other hand, a meal at a fast food place could cost as much as $10 with no leftovers...so, what's the better deal... 

What is junk food, anyway?

According to WebMD, "junk food generally refers to foods that contribute lots of calories but little nutritional value. Of course, what's considered junk food depends on whom you ask." 

But Wikipedia says junk food is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from sugar and/or fat, and possibly also sodium, but with little dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, or other important forms of nutritional value.

Is most fast food -- let's say a Big Mac and McDonald's fries -- junk food? There's definitely a lot of calories from sugar (a byproduct of the carbs) and fat--but does the burger at least have NO nutritional value ? Or does the bad stuff outweigh the good stuff?

Here's a list of what I'd consider junk food:

1. soda
2. baked snack treats like cookies, donuts, Pop Tarts, Twinkies, etc... (sadly, I think 99% of cereals fall into this category)
3. candy
4. ice cream
5. chips

I could probably add a few things to this list, but I think that covers the bulk of the really bad stuff. Also, I think there's sooo much stuff that's borderline...

Fast food, for instance. 

Also let's take pretzels...one of my favorite snacks...they're baked not fried--so that's a plus. They have salt usually, so that's a minus for some people. They're a carb, so that's also a minus... but if you're eating a serving size of pretzel sticks (43 of them) a couple times a week--is that horrible?

As they say--anything in moderation, right? But I think moderation is also open to interpretation, lol..

What about pizza? The crust can be problematic, but everything else aside from high-fat, greasy pepperoni could be considered healthy or healthy-ish. And cauliflower crust, if made properly isn't that bad--however, to be fair, it doesn't give you the true pizza experience. But it's still good.

Now...

As many times as I've read the above ramble while writing and finalizing it, it still seems a bit chaotic. Usually I try to find a logical path through the topic, but I'm not sure I accomplished that this time.

But let's end with me mentioning my favorite junk food: pumpkin cake, cereal, Pecan Pralines and Cream ice cream, and blueberry cake donuts...

Am I proposing any of those for my anniversary dinner? Nope...

If we go fast food, and I get to choose, I'm picking Burger King...

If we go grocery store options, I'm probably choosing pizza with toppings I don't usually choose.

I'll let you know which way we go.

Have a great week.