18. Ready Meals
Ready meals may seem like a convenient choice when time is not on your side, but they lack many of the nutrients you’d otherwise get if you prepared and cooked your own meal. Like takeaways, ready meals have a very high sugar and salt content, and a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that ready meal consumption is linked to abdominal obesity and poor compliance with healthy nutritional recommendations.
Another study, by the National Institute of Health, discovered that people who eat ultra-processed foods like ready meals consume about 500 more calories per day than people on an unprocessed diet. Theirresearch also shows that people who consume ready meals eat faster than people who consume minimally processed foods – another factor which could cause you to gain excess weight.
Ready meals might well be a quick option but as most portion sizes are smaller than the average takeaway, they are much less likely to fill you up, making you want to eat again soon after. As they tend to be packed with chemicals and preservatives as well, they really aren’t the best choice for your health, so you’d be much better off reaching for a less processed meal or snack.
Also Read: 10 Everyday Foods That Can Increase The Diabetes Risk
