Have you ever been to your favourite kebab shop in the light of day? Have you ever gone in and ordered your all-time favourite after-club snack? Suddenly this manna from heaven, in the light of day becomes something that most of us wouldn’t touch with a stick, let alone eat.
Just in case you didn’t know, drinking is bad for you. Worse still, it’s the combination of drinking and then going out for that greasy kebab that we all seem to crave. Simply look into any late-night fast food joint and they are overrun with drunken people looking to get their fatty food fix. And it’s not just kebabs – it’s everything from KFC to Burger King. At the end of the night we all seem to crave food that we know is bad for us.
For a lot of people, eating junk food simply isn’t an issue. Many just don’t care that they are eating food that is bad for them. I am not one of these people. I am not an obsessive calorie counter, but I am someone who after two years of university (eating and drinking whatever I like) is starting to think more and more about being healthy. I know that I will never stop going out – you need to go out to recharge your warrior spirit so you can drag yourself into the library every day. What you can do is cut out the most unhealthy part of going out – the late night snack.
For the sceptics who do not believe that the late night binge is that bad for you, I will provide a simple example. The average kebab contains 1,000 calories. A 150 pound man burns 100 calories per mile walked. This means that in order to fully burn off a kebab you will have to walk ten miles. To put this into spatial terms, walking 10 miles is the equivalent of walking from the LSE to The O2 arena. And as anyone who has been knows, that’s a long bus ride, let alone a long walk (which would take about 3 hours, assuming you knew where you were going).
The story is much the same with other types of fast food. A Big Mac with fries and a Coke comes to around 1,010 calories. At Domino’s, a medium Americano has 248 calories per slice. This means that if you eat an entire pizza (8 slices) you will have had 1,984 calories, and that’s before you factor in toppings. A Burger King XL Bacon Double Cheeseburger has 933 calories even before fries snf soft drink. If you’re just getting regular chip shop chips you’re looking at 956! And that’s just the calories – it’s not taking into account the low nutritional value and the high amounts of fat and salt.
However, there is good news for those of us who like to eat after few drinks. Eating late at night is not, as the myth says, worse for you then eating during the daytime. While it’s true that if you exercise during the day you are more likely to burn off the calories you have eaten, eating at night in itself is not especially unhealthy. What matters is that you stay within your recommended calorie intake (which 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men). This not mean that you should starve yourself during the day so that you do not go over your calorie intake at night, because eating at regular meal times helps you regulate the amount of food you eat. So the good news is that eating junk food is always bad for you, not just at night.
The bad news, for we who like a late night snack, is that, after four units of alcohol the ability for your brain to regulate food intake decreases. The alcohol affects the hypothalamus gland in our brains, making us crave high fat foods in larger quantities than we would normally eat. Combine this with the reduction in inhibitions that also comes with alcohol and we are far more likely to eat unhealthy and normally unappealing food.
So, what are the alternatives to getting a kebab? If you are determined to go down the Mediterranean route, you can always get falafel. While being reasonably high in calories at 376, it can boast a higher nutritional value than a kebab, especially if you have a couple of vegetables chucked in – and they taste amazing. And if you’re really hungry I would suggest a curry. While you can’t exactly say they’re healthy due to the large amount of ghee, you can still have a slightly healthier meal. Popular favourites like Rogan Josh and Jalfrezi can be reasonably healthy and they provide vitamins C and antioxidants like lycopene. Order some saffron rice alongside (335 calories) and you have yourself a delicious meal. So, the next time you’re out and craving flavoursome food, head to your local curry house, especially if you’re near Brick Lane where you are practically guaranteed a decent curry.
To be honest, after a few drinks most people aren’t going to resist that kebab at the end of the night. Beer goggles work just as well for food as it does for the opposite sex. However, if you’re like me and are trying to live a little healthier this year, rethink your kebab eating ways and spring for an alternative.
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