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Nutrition and dietetics students join the healthy fast food challenge

Healthy, homemade meals were on the menu when the University of Newcastle Nutrition and Dietetics team hosted its inaugural Fast Food Challenge last month.

To coincide with Australia’s Healthy Weight Week, the event weighed into new survey results revealing three-quarters of young women still opt for regular takeaway meals such as pizza, fast food chain dinners and fish and chips, over cooking a healthy meal at home.

The Fast Food Challenge saw a team of female nutrition and dietetics staff and students putting fast food to the test by cooking healthy versions of a burger and fries; fish and chips; and pizza.

University of Newcastle Professor Clare Collins said the Challenge was a fun way to prove to young women that cooking at home was actually cheaper, healthier and faster than takeaway options, and it could even be ‘fancy without the fuss’.

 “With young Australian women identified as those becoming obese at the fastest rate, it is time to face the challenge. Cooking fast food at home regularly could be the answer to changing unhealthy food habits, solving weight problems and improving how young women feel about themselves,” Professor Collins said.

Proving that fresh is indeed best - it was a homemade burger and wedges that won out on the day in terms of taste, presentation and cost over its fast food equivalent.