We Get a Quarter of Our Calories from Outside Food

Ordering a takeaway was once an occasional luxury – a way of celebrating a special occasion or treating the family. But it is now so common that a quarter of all the calories we consume come from food produced outside the home, experts have revealed. Britain is set to be put on a nationwide diet from March as public health officials impose new calorie caps. The health body's chief nutritionist Alison Tedstone said Britons were consuming 200 to 300 calories a day too many.

She said meals "out of home" were a major cause, with retailers selling high-calorie foods as "treats" which encouraged overconsumption.

"This is all about things like pizzas and ready-made sandwiches. We will need to set out guidelines and, I suspect, a series of calorie caps," she said.

Eating a meal or snack on the move does not fill you up as much as sitting down to a meal at a table. Even when calories are equal, if people think of their food as a ‘snack’ they will eat 50 per cent more later on than if they regard it as a ‘meal’.

The most recent nationwide statistics, published last year, showed that some 63% of adults in England were too heavy, with 36% overweight and 27% registering as obese.

Rates of obesity were particularly high among older people and in deprived areas, with men more likely to be overweight or obese than women.

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Source-Medindia