Ordering food online is making you fat and broke
Instant food delivery to our doorstep has made us Impulsive, unfit, and broke. Find out how they make you choose “now” over “later”.
Last month I spent over Rs 20,000 only on Zomato. No, I am not super rich — I am a victim of poor Impulse control.
And If you thought being impulsive only destroys relationships, well here’s a bad news, because it also burns pockets.
Like me if you too struggle with ordering food online daily, wasting money, and hurting your health — read this till the end.
But first,
Why do we have 0 self-control?
1. The science behind it
Because we are evolved to feel first and think later. Early humans developed over hundreds of thousands of years to deal with immediate risks like hunger and danger with the fight-or-flight reaction.
Today, we rarely encounter such risks (imagine fighting ice age mammoths). Instead, our problems are more complex — financial issues, climate change, obesity, work pressure — which require rational solutions.
But our thinking systems are not well-adjusted to handle these modern problems. Our body’s response to these problems is still similar to how it would react to a physical threat.
This emotional, fear-based mindset makes us prone to irrationality. And when we’re stressed, our body also releases a hormone called Cortisol aka the stress hormone.
<But wait, what does all of this have to do with our eating habits?>
Well.. this hormone makes us crave food high in fat and sugar — Ice-cream, burger, pizza, chole bhature — the so-called ‘comfort foods’. Thus, improving our overall mood.
And buying something that makes us feel better every time we’re upset drives us to be more and more impulsive.
2. Instant deliveries, Discounts & Pop-ups
This along with instant delivery on our doorstep tempts us to keep ordering. The endless (trying hard to be funny) notifications from the delivery apps, have also made it challenging for us to control our impulses.
To make it worse these apps lure us with discounts. How often do you fall for this?
Well I have. Every time I’d see — “buy any 2 items and get a cheesecake free”, I’d just order without thinking. And after placing the order I’d promise my inner-self — “bss ek last baar bahar ka khaungi” and then, the next day, order waffles again while coping with the intrusive feeling of regret.
3. Colour psychology
Did you know that warm colours like yellow and red can raise our heart rates and increase hunger. This is why most fast-food companies have warm hues in their brand colours.
And it’s no surprise that our beloved delivery apps are red, orange and yellow.
4. UPI
Back in the day, eating outside was a privilege plus you had to have physical cash to pay for it. And if you didn’t have the cash, you had to go to an ATM and withdraw money.
But now, I pay for even the smallest of the online orders with Gpay and use it so often that you’d think I have millions in my bank account. Easy Peasy, no?
Rethink.
UPI has made us impulsive over-spenders. Just a tap and orders are placed. No hassle or anxiety of waiting with cash 10 minutes before the order arrives.
And when money doesn’t physically leave your wallet, you don’t feel like you’re spending any.
Why does it even matter to you?
Yes of course, impulsive spending will lead to poor savings, difficulty in creating emergency funds, and overall poorer financial health. But the downside of food delivery apps’ widespread presence isn’t just restricted to shrunken financial savings.
A few months ago, a 10 year old girl from my hometown (Patiala) died after eating a birthday cake that her family had ordered from Zomato. Poor child.
That’s when it hit me, a lot of what I used to order was unhealthy too. It made me sick mentally and physically. Gaining weight, increasing cholesterol levels, bloating, poor sleep, all of these issues were common. It also made me lazy, ugh.
Your saved money would have no value if your health is at risk.
On top of that, the variety of food options these apps provide can be overwhelming. I’d spend hours struggling to figure out what to order (pizza, chaat, samosa, thali, biryani, waffles, dosa 🥲) and then end up ordering more expensive and extra food than what I actually wanted.
How did I overcome impulsive eating?
One day I wanted to eat something healthy. I went to the kitchen to prepare Daliya for myself but suddenly I realised I was too tired to even turn on the stove. So I ended up ordering Daliya :)
Ordering online isn’t entirely our fault. Many young people like me, who are living away from home, are busy working long hours. By the time we return home, we’re so exhausted that we hardly find the strength to cook.
So many problems duh.. but how do we overcome this?
Here’s what I did —
- Control your stress. Not just expenses, I try to control my stress levels too. Get up, throw your phone away (not literally, just put it on silent, pause notifications) and go for a walk daily.
Eating comfort food to deal with stress is like using fevikwik to close open wounds (Ik Ik, weird analogy, but you got the point). Instead, note down and analyse your issues.
- Hire a cook. Instead of ordering online, get a cook for around 2k per month. It’s cheaper and healthier.
- Order only on a weekend. I treat that order as a reward for eating home-made food for the entire week.
- Make easy to cook meals on your own, like Daliya or Khichdi.
- Track your Zomato/Swiggy spend. At the end of every week I’d reflect on what else I could’ve done with that money. Like cutting my monthly Zomato spend from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 5000 and and saving rest to fund my short term goals (a week long vacation is all I want). You can track your spendings using this calculator — https://fooddy.in
- Carry cash. Using UPI, as convenient as it is, can also adversely affect our spending habits. I keep 2k-5k cash handy and use it to make small purchases.
- Challenge yourself. I used to play a game — “How many days can I go without ordering food online”.
- Slow down your decision-making. It’s one way to be more rational.
Lastly, you can go broke, then you wouldn’t have any money left to spend on Zomato or Swiggy (not recommended). Choice is yours :)
Till then, remember — “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”
