Food aggregator and delivery apps make life easier and simpler for us. When we are hungry, an app can present the fewest hurdles between us and a hot meal or cold dessert. 

Celebratory food is three-four clicks away. This would have been an organised trek with friends and/or family for a get together or celebration. Eating out is expensive. But the paper cuts don’t feel too deep nor do they bleed enough each time you click ‘make payment’. But the calories and bucks add up over the course of meals, weeks and months. Our most frantic impulses are enabled with the least fuss by food aggregators. What porn is for lust, food delivery apps are for hunger. A quick fix for a problem which requires thoughtful deliberation and time intensive action. 

But that convenience and lack of friction has a cost. That is usually a surfeit of starch and vegetable oil. Cream, butter or some lard also makes an appearance usually in excess. We’ve spoken about why this is the case in the past. Restaurants favour more affordable ingredients that are calorie dense and make more flavour rich meals. Vegetables are harder to prep and protein is more expensive. 

We are not arguing against the weekly, fortnightly or monthly indulgence. We are arguing that the calorie dense, impulsive indulgence that might seem like the convenient thing to do is not helping your efforts to create a deficit or eat enough protein or vegetables. The app makers tease and coax you into making quicker decisions with dubious discounts and billing practices that would make an Enron accountants head spin. 

Takeaway:
A mix of abstinence from apps with the one-off ice cream or pizza indulgence at a prescheduled time.