I googled all of them. Cheetos weren't quite what I thought they were (I was thinking they were more like Cheezels or Twisties). Sun Chips look exactly like Grainwaves, so they might just be the same thing with a different name? Swedish Fish just look like gummy fish. Sunny Delight looks like a vile "orange juice" sort of thing. I drink loads of coffee - at least seventy cups a day. I drink tea if there's nothing else but it's not really my thing. I pretty much never drink soft drinks. I sometimes drink fruit juice. I don't normally like coffee-flavoured things though.
This intrigues me, as I've never heard fast food excluded from the term 'junk food' before (certainly as it's used in the UK media), so I had a Google. A man call Andrew F. Smith who wrote a book on junk and fast food apparently said "While not all fast foods are junk foods, most are" according to the junk food Wikipedia page (which is a thing that exists), so he at least allows an overlap.
I'm from the UK and have travelled in Asia on several occasions - if I haven't found tea I like then it probably doesn't exist. I am used to this befuddlement though, in a land where the first thing you hear on entering anything is often 'tea or coffee?', with quite often no option but tapwater if you don't partake. This is particularly the case with small events that say 'refreshments available'. How hard is it to get hold of a bottle of squash at least? Green tea is definitely nicer than the 'English' type, particularly when milk is added to the latter. But otherwise I tend to side with Eddie the shipboard computer from Hitchhiker's Guide, who was forced to shut down all ship functions on the most advanced craft in the Galaxy in order to generate enough processing power to answer the question of why Arthur Dent particularly wanted to drink dried leaves in boiling water...
I never considered tea as a junkfood but I'll join you Maguari in the dislike of tea; although I did once drink it I now dont'. Tis a terrible sin in the family to be the only one who doesn't drink tea! Of course not drinking tea nor most fizzy drinks tends to mean water is high on the list; it bemuses me how much it annoys one of my brothers that I'll often drink water rather than anything else when going out.
No, tea isn't really in the scope of the thread, though I suppose it depends how much sugar you put in! (the stuff my Granddad used to drink would certainly count...)
tea and coffee just slid into the thread through the side door, I don't think anyone was making the move to include them in the junk food territory.
maybe some other Australasians can make some comment also, because it might be something from our side of the world or it might just be me. "Junk food" is stuff like crisps (except here they're chips not crisps), ice-cream, chocolate. But also the McDonald's, Burger King, fish and chips style of food. "Fast food" also includes the latter type of junk food (McDonald's etc), but then you have fast foods like kebabs, Chinese food, souvlaki which are not junk food. I guess the definition of that last type of "fast food" could be takeaway food which is real food.
Slightly unfortunate examples - why are fast foods from English-speaking countries 'junk food' but ones from elsewhere 'real food'? There's plenty of unhealthy Chinese and Middle-Eastern foods. I love this page, which this thread has drawn me to: How to have a healthier takeaway - Live Well - NHS Choices UK National Health Service advice on what is a relatively healthy takeaway (it does not recommend Doner kebabs!). EDIT: this may just mean Doner kebabs are different in the upside-down parts of the world, but here I don't think anyone would suggest them as a healthy option without a fair amount of modification - they tend to be quite fatty meat and be dripping in high-calorific toppings.
I think you might know what I was trying to say, but just in case think of it this way: heavily-processed foods (e.g. McDonald's) or fried foods (e.g. fish and chips) would be junk food. Others would be fast food. Things like crisps and sweets and so forth would always be called junk food and never fast food. I really have no idea on what a Doner kebab would count as because I've never seen one in real life. What would you call something like a curry? Junk food?
I was being slightly cheeky, but my main point was that it's odd to give Chinese or Turkish food, say, a free pass to not be junk food, when it has plenty of deep-fried things and other tasty-but-nasties as well. (though again, maybe you have healthier Chinese and Turkish food in your part of the world!) So, 'Chinese food' isn't junk food, but being Chinese food doesn't mean an individual foodstuff isn't junk food. Doner kebabs in the UK are pretty much the poster boys of unhealthy takeaways! Certainly. Hmmm. A curry could be junk food, certainly (salted-up ready meal ones in particular); a lot would depend on which curry you choose. My own favoured curry is (the anglicised version of) Rogan Josh, which is very definitely a fatty dish (and so delicious!). I'm not sure I would call it junk food, but I can see why someone might!
gotta say that Turkish food isn't a huge influence in Australasia. I have seen a couple of Turkish restaurants in NZ but I think you'd really have to be searching Turkish food out to find it. The basic takeaway foods here - apart for pies and fish and chips - are American (or Americanised), Asian*, and Greek. Overall I think there may just be a basic cultural difference between our and your use of "junk food" and "fast food". *Asian in our terms meaning southeast Asia, China, Japan, and India. Not your side of "Asia".
Recently the term "Street food" has been used in the UK to distinguish between good fast food and junk fast food
Hershey's chocolate actually has slightly more sugar than other brands, I believe - the strange taste is because the company adds butyric acid, the chemical which gives vomit its primary smell/taste, to its chocolate in order to improve shelf life. As this taste is what consumers in the USA have grown used to, many other brands in the country do the same thing now. As such, many people who have been exposed to non-US chocolate brands find the American offerings repellant Now, I love both black pudding and haggis, but I would have imagined the latter would be more of an acquired taste than the former. Most people I know who dislike black pudding are put off by the origin and the mouthfeel rather than the taste. Now, I am fully onboard with any dislike of tea with sugar added I last drank that 17 years ago when I had a bicycle accident on the Isle of Skye and tore my knee open; fortunately a farmer came across me and gave me vast amounts of sweet tea for the shock whilst he and his wife used both human and veterinary antiseptic creams and dressings to clean me up! As a proud Northerner I have to take exception to your classification of fish and chips as junk food
My top 5 … (no-goers): 1. Hamburgers and all ilk. 2. Fried fish and chips / KFC others fried chicken meals. 3. Popcorn / nachos … 4. Sweets / ice-creams / milkshakes 5. Longdrinks / beers. All or some: too high in fat, carbs, salts, added sugars et cetera. Basically, what we should all avoid regardless of any health concerns or not. A YES top: I would rather have a regular meal like burrito - beans / couscous + chicken / medium rare steak with vegetables and some jacket potatoes. Sadly, the YES top is rarely to be had in your average road side dig and if it is … it is rather too expensive and smallish portions (that might have you still running for a FAT, SUGAR, SALT junk dive).
The older I get, the less appealing junk/fast food gets... https://amithirty.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/barney-stinson-im-too-old-for-this.gif However, some of the peculiar culinary repulsions uttered here make me wonder whether the particular individual stating such would be an easy travel companion...
You will never EVER see me eating chocolate. I hate that stuff. Also even though this counts as a drink, I hate any kind of soda.
Maybe in New Zealand, but Australia definitely has a lot of Turkish and middle eastern offerings. I grew up in a country town with more kebab shops than maccas/kfcs/hungry jacks etc. As for junk food that I don't like, I'd have to say sweets. Even cake and biscuits are too much. Give me salty and oily any day.
I've had a few, and they fit into the category of junk food for the reasons Maguari listed: mainly very fatty and dripping with high caloric sauces. Somebody did a food analysis years ago of the fast foods chains in Australia, and the healthiest was pizza, although it was still less healthy than a normal meal at home. Hix
