The Trashing of Junk Food

An informative look at recent Holistic Fitness News

DR KAPLAN'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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So-called 'Junk food really got it this week in the media, but this time it wasn't the usual suspects, the burger chains and fried food joints. This time it was ice cream that took the flak and what flak it was. Take a deep breath and then read what the men in white coats in the USA have to say about American-style ice cream.

1. Parlour-type ice cream often contains more fats and calories than average hamburgers, hot dogs and pizzas.
2. The Week cited the following comparisons:
   a. 'A Ben and Jerry's waffle cone dipped in chocolate and filled with a single scoop of Chunkey Monkey ice cream contains more saturated fat than a pound of spare ribs.'
   b. 'A Haagen-Dazs sundae called the Mint Chip Dazzler has 1,270 calories and is equivalent, in terms of fat, to eating a T-bone steak, Caesar salad and baked potato with sour cream on the side.' (This is an incredible statistic considering that most of us only need about 2500 calories a day in total, and that just to maintain a reasonable body weight.
3. The Daily Mail nostalgically remembers Mr Whippy style ice creams which contained 65 (yes, 'sixty five' calories)

So I have to ask: Has the taste of ice cream improved so much that we need to consume half our daily need for calories in one portion? One frozen orange juice for me please!

But Pizza gets some good press!

In a week when ice cream really got the cold shoulder, pizza got some really unexpected good publicity. Pizza always contains tomato and tomato skins contain a lot of an anti-oxidant called lycopene. I have mentioned this in a previous article where I made the point that it is the cooking process which makes the lycopene more absorbable by the body. Thus it seems the process of making the tomatoes into pizza sauce may make pizza a rich source of lycopene. This may be the explanation behind the fact that scientists have shown that people who eat pizza at least twice a week have 59% less cancer of the oesophagus, 34% less throat cancer and 26% less colon cancer (which unlike the first two, is one of the commonest cancers). But be wary of eating too many pizzas! They are still full of fat and can therefore make you put on weight and increase your cholesterol, both risk factors for heart disease - a much more serious risk than the illnesses mentioned above. They also contain a huge amount of salt, which isn't great for you either, but that is another story. And guess where the men in white coats, who did this research, live? You got it in one. Italy!

Homeopathic Tip

Let's stay with the subject of food, pleasure and health. I love the occasional ice cream and pizza myself, so am I rocked by the revelations above? Not at all. Moderation is the key. I'd prefer to get my lycopene from cooked tomatoes than pizza but the occasional ice cream is fun. The trick is to eat it rarely but when you do really enjoy it as a special treat. With this attitude you could even enjoy a Mint Chip Dazzler, say once a year. Skip your next meal though;-) When you have really over-indulged in fatty foods there is a homeopathic remedy you could safely try. It's called Nux vomica. Take Nux vomica 6c, one pill every two hours for a few hours and see how you feel.

Dr Kaplan's personal website is: www.drkaplan.co.uk and his practice website is www.140harleystreet.co.uk and he can be contacted on (020) 7487 3416