Eating a lot of processed foods may even increase your risk for depression. Five of the most unhealthy fast food options

Pop into a medium-hot dry frying pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until the tortilla has taken a lovely golden colour.

From light bites to big hearty dinners, we’ll help you bring the family together around delicious food that is easy to prepare, wholesome and perfect for all tastes. To understand your food spending you can sit down with pen and paper and go through your bank statements and credit card bills once a month. Alternatively, there are a number of handy tech resources at our disposal these days. Pizza: The average slice of pepperoni pizza contains about 680 milligrams of sodium, 12 grams of fat (including 5 grams of saturated fat) and 300 calories. But who eats just one slice? Three slices from a large pie provide more than 2,000 mg of sodium — almost the daily limit for average Americans in just one meal.

If you’re looking for easy ground beef dinner recipes, this hamburger casserole is the ultimate cheese lover’s dream come true! It’s made with just a handful of cheap ingredients, and is just as good leftover for lunch or dinner the next day. Two meals in one! Cheeseburger Casserole Recipe & Instructions Rebecca Wilson - Sunday Times bestselling author and mum behind the phenomenally popular family food account @rebeccawilsonfood - shares a whole new range of simple, healthy and delicious everyday meals that you can cook with just 10 minutes of prep time. In addition to food, the weekly shop often includes household cleaning products like dish soap and laundry detergent, as well as personal products like soap and toothpaste. They're not cheap. How much do we really spend on these items?Dr Nasha’s mobile medical clinic gets life-saving help to where it’s needed most, fast – so when her team arrived in Meera’s village after it had been destroyed by flooding, she rushed to the clinic to get her children the treatment they needed. Come together as a parish, so that families like Meera's can get help from doctors and other local experts when they need it most. But if burgers, French fries and greasy breakfast sandwiches become centerpieces of your diet, they could take a serious toll on your health. Unhealthy diets increase your chances of developing depression, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions. What is considered fast food? When you eat a diet that’s high in saturated fat, sodium, sugar and refined carbs, you’re not only getting too much of those things, but you’re also missing out on a lot of other important nutrients. Fruits and vegetables — beyond the iceberg lettuce and tomato slices that come on fast food sandwiches — are rich with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that nourish your body and improve your mood. Note, we did not ramp figures up by inflation stats for the last section, food spending by income. We suspect that inflation is impacting household spending differently depending on a household's income level; at the time of this update, it didn't seem right to create figures for that section using one inflation figure. Since the real point of that section is to show differences across income levels, not necessarily exact figures, we have left the year-end 2022 figures as is. In reality, all households will be spending more on food now across income levels.

Note, these figures include canteen and catering spending, which was not included in the figures mentioned above, since not all households have these expenses. For completeness, they are included here. Spending on household cleaning and personal products Dietary fiber also helps your good gut bacteria flourish and keeps you feeling full. If you rely heavily on fast food, you’ll struggle to get the recommended amount. For example, a coffee-shop blueberry muffin will give you nearly 20% of your daily carbohydrate needs but only a gram or two of fiber. Lead to weight gain

While this attempts to take into account different food needs for family members of different ages and genders, please keep in mind that these are estimates. And the calculations don't take into account savings that larger families can achieve by buying in bulk, or that some families are a lot more budget conscious than others. If you have people in your family who eat less (e.g., a really small child) or are an efficient shopper who is careful with prices and takes advantage of sales or buying in bulk (e.g., to feed a large family) then keep this in mind when comparing your own spending to the figures presented here. Cheap Eats: How to Save on Food

Burger and fries: A typical double cheeseburger and large fries provides about 1,200 calories and up to 1,700 milligrams of sodium. Make it a combo with a large soda, and you’ll top 1,500 calories. Then there’s the sugar factor. Sugar is a major culprit in the obesity epidemic. It hides in a lot of foods, including drinks and sauces. Guess how much sugar is in your morning café mocha? Upwards of 25 grams. Or in that vanilla milkshake? More than 80 grams, if you make it a large. That’s nearly 20 teaspoons! Drain your energy Note: we updated our estimates for household food spending below in June 2023 to reflect rising food prices (including inflation through April 2023) but beware that food prices are still changing. Poll: How is your household affected by rising food prices? Another way to reduce your food budget is by taking a look at your nonalcoholic beverages spend. The average UK family spends a whopping 8% of their at-home food budget on coffee, tea, juices, mineral/sparkling water and sodas. While we'd never suggest eliminating your daily cuppa (coffee and tea aren't the budget problem anyway), there is really no room for soda, juice and fancy water in a tight budget. We have two words for you: tap water. These are our best guesses as to current spending, but please keep in mind that they are estimates.In this study we’ll show the breakdown of household home food budgets per week and per month across food categories, typical amounts spent eating out and finally how food & drink budgets change with income levels and family sizes. Food prices in the UK rose again last year, making this an important budget category.