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The Truth About...

Takeaways

Duration: 59 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC One HDLatest broadcast: on BBC One Northern Ireland HD

As a nation, we’ve never eaten more takeaways. Two-thirds of us now feel we don’t have time to cook healthy meals at home - and these days, why bother? Ten million of us now use delivery apps that allow us to swipe and tap an order in seconds and get our favourite dinner brought straight to our door. The three biggest apps between them offer us a choice of 100 cuisines from 60,000 restaurants. Put it all together with the fast food carry-outs we eat on the go, and we Brits now put away more than three million takeaways every day.

Journalist Nikki Fox loves an occasional takeaway but wants to find out what they’re really doing to us. She's putting this question to the test as never before, in a groundbreaking experiment with scientists at Liverpool John Moores University and Imperial College London. 15 volunteers eat two takeaways every day for two weeks, from a list of the nation’s biggest sellers, which includes fish and chips, pizza, Indian and Chinese. Before and after, they’re put through a barrage of tests - from blood sugar levels and body fat to gut bacteria, mental wellbeing and cognitive sharpness. The results will reveal what takeaways are really doing to our bodies, and the shocking truth about the impact they can have on our brains.

Nikki will also undergo brain scans and ultrasound tests to see how eating the occasional takeaway affects her body and brain, and with the help of expert scientists, she will uncover what’s really in the nation’s favourite convenience treats - from the hidden horrors to the surprisingly healthy. Why exactly are takeaways so delicious? Can takeaways become addictive? How can you kick the takeaway habit? Nikki looks behind the scenes to learn the trade secrets of the most popular takeaways in the UK. She also investigates whether there are healthier alternatives to consider when choosing your next tasty treat, and she learns more about the fastest growing area of the sector: vegan takeaways. Show less

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