'No excuse' for abandoning home cooking

A spokesperson for the nutritional information website Weight Loss Resources (WLR) has said that Britons should make more time to cook healthy food as opposed to relying on takeaways.

Pat Wilson, member service manager for the site, said many people are eating takeaways on a regular basis because they don't make the time to cook at home, which could be contributing to the widely-publicised obesity epidemic.

She pointed out that, although picking up food from the local Indian or Chinese may be a convenient option, it should be viewed as an occasional treat in the same way as going out for a meal.

"We all say we're too busy in our lives to cook food but I don't think we really are, I think it's just a case that we have our priorities wrong somewhere or we have the balance wrong in our lives," Ms Wilson said.

A Which? report from June 2008 found that an Indian takeaway could contain more saturated fat than a person should eat in a day. Some Chinese takeaways had a lower amount of saturated fat but contained nearly three times as much sugar.

However, WLR added that there are healthy options to take out - they include Burger King's LA chicken sandwich with 322 calories and their flame-grilled chicken salad with less than 140 calories. McDonalds offer a penne pasta salad with Italian style chicken that contains 266 calories and Kentucky Fried Chicken have a warm chicken salad with 256 calories.