How to eat junk food: A guide for conflicted humans
Many people will tell you that to be healthy, you have to cancel certain foods.
The offending edibles: Those brightly-packaged, cartoon-endorsed, highly-refined, ultra-delicious foods often found in center aisles of the grocery store.
According to popular opinion, these “junk foods” come with lots of calories, but hardly any of the stuff the human body needs for good health.
And yet:
This isn’t a “don’t eat these terrible foods” story.
That’s because…
Delicious food serves a purpose, even if it contains little to no nutritional value.
Low-quality foods can actually be good for you.
100 percent abstinence isn’t necessary (and usually backfires).
Those statements might seem controversial. That’s why we’re going to back them up—using what we’ve learned from coaching over 100,000 clients, and some fun charts.
Plus, we’ll reveal a 5-step process that can help you savor the foods you love, without guilt—and without harming your health.
Three good reasons to embrace junk food
Although there are exceptions out there—the people who actually prefer carrots sticks to BBQ chips—the vast majority of us delight in the ultra-flavorful, often neon-colored world of processed foods.
This article isn’t for the carrot-eaters. (Y’all are doing awesome. You’re freaks, but you’re awesome—and don’t need to change a thing.)
This article is for the majority, who love these foods but also often experience an internal conflict around them: On the one hand, they taste SO good; on the other hand, you don’t want to ruin your health.
Our pitch: If you love junk food, you CAN include it in your diet, without feeling guilty or worrying that it’ll ruin your health.
We’ve got three reasons why.
Reason #1: You’ll likely eat junk food anyway.
If you’ve ever said, “That’s it. I’m never eating this stuff again!” you probably assumed your future would look something like the Zero-Junk Fantasy.
In reality, aiming for 100 percent self-restraint often goes more like the “Screw It” Cycle below.
You say you’ll never again eat donuts with pink frosting. Then you eat one. That leads to, “Screw it! Give me all the donuts!” At some point (perhaps January 1, or any given Monday) you try again with a new declaration of abstinence, and the cycle continues.
Imagine how things might change if you ate half a pink-frosted donut on a regular basis, and didn’t feel guilty about it. In other words, you welcomed a little bliss into your life, every day.
As you can see, when you eat your favorite foods regularly and intentionally, you’ll likely consume less of them than when you eat a lot, then none, then a lot, then none. (Plus, you’ll feel a lot less spun out and defeated.)
For most people, including a bit of what you love regularly actually helps to curb cravings and feel more satisfied.
However, you know yourself best.
If a certain food makes you feel totally out-of-control—you have trouble managing your portion, or feel mentally and/or emotionally “checked out” while eating it—sometimes it’s easier to abstain from it completely, at least for a period of time.
Reason #2: Junk food won’t stop you from progressing toward your health goals.
You don’t need to eat perfectly 100 percent of the time to make progress.
(In fact, aiming for perfection usually backfires because of Reason #1.)
From coaching over 100,000 clients, we’ve learned that while there’s no “magic” percentage, generally all you need to improve health, athletic performance, and body composition is to:
Eat a diet composed of about 70 to 80 percent nutrient-dense minimally-processed foods.
And that’s your end goal.
(If that guideline sounds unrealistic, you can improve your health by just slightly tipping the ratio toward more minimally-processed foods—wherever you’re starting from.)
Even if you’re trying to become your healthiest and fittest ever, you never have to aim for 100 percent “virtuous” (a.k.a. no treats ever).
That’s because as food restriction goes up, so can other problems such as food obsession, anxiety, and disordered eating.
Due to the steep costs, we only recommend highly restrictive diets for clients who are prepared for the tradeoffs.
These people—the pro athletes, physique competitors, and celebrities among us—often earn their living based on how their bodies look and perform. (And also tend to be surrounded by people who help them make it all happen.)
Even so, our pro clients only occasionally reach the 90 to 99 percent mark—and often only during the time leading up to a competition, event, or role.
Then they shift to a more sustainable approach.
Reason #3: Reasonable amounts of junk food can boost health.
It’s true that consuming high amounts of low-quality foods likely worsens your physical health.
However:
Your physical health only makes up a part of your overall health.
As the graphic below shows, your relationships, sense of meaning and purpose, mental clarity, emotional wellbeing, and surrounding environment round it out.
At PN, we refer to these intersecting aspects of wellbeing as deep health. While certain foods in certain amounts likely harm some aspects of deep health, they may actually improve others.
(If this is confusing, we promise it’ll make more sense in about 30 seconds.)
To understand how this works:
Think of the deep health dimensions as a battery pack.
▶ Some choices and experiences charge some batteries; others drain them.
▶ If you charge more than you drain, you feel great.
▶ If you drain more than you charge, problems happen. Maybe you develop a health issue, struggle to get out of bed, or just feel kind of “blah.”
Too much junk food over time can drain your physical health battery.
Depending on how much you consume, low quality foods might also bring on brain fog and sluggishness, draining your mental battery. And this often leads to feelings of guilt, shame, and frustration, draining your emotional battery too.
HOWEVER… if you move regularly, sleep well, manage your stress, and center the majority of your diet around lean proteins, veggies, fruits and other minimally-processed carbs, and healthy fats, you can keep those physical, mental, and emotional health batteries pretty well powered up.
You can help minimize the negative effects of junk food by maintaining overall good health habits.
But here’s something most people miss: Junk food can actually charge other batteries—assuming you consume it intentionally.
By intentionally, we mean:
You choose to eat the food on purpose (not just because it’s there), with joy and contentment (rather than guilt), in an amount that aligns with your overall health goals, and after weighing and accepting the tradeoffs.
Do all of that and you might see an increase in…
✅ Social health if you consume the food with a friend or loved one
✅ Existential health if that yumminess alights your soul with pleasure—and doesn’t make you feel guilty (cookie dough for the soul, anyone?)
✅ Emotional health if small, intentional indulging helps you feel content, relaxed, and satisfied (rather than deprived and, eventually, resentful)
The result: that burger may actually boost overall health (even if it doesn’t directly benefit physical health).
We all deserve pleasure.
Trying to be too perfect often leads to diminishing returns.
So, instead of denying—or demonizing—junk food, approach it like you would that wild friend you had in college.
You might not want to live the party life 24/7, but darn, it sure is fun in small, regular doses.
We’ve got your back!
At Jetts, our mission is to inspire people to live a better life. Whether you prefer to train on your own, need extra motivation or simply love group exercise, our Jetts community has got you covered. You’ll love the results. Share your journey with us! Tag us @jettsaustralia