Online Takeaway Giant Celebrates Third Birthday

Thousands of Brits are balancing their New Year's resolutions with healthy takeaway curries and pizza in a bid to avoid depriving themselves of the food and achieve their weight-loss ambitions.

Sales stats from the UK's largest online takeaway food portal show that in the last week, rather than give up on takeaways altogether as part of their New Year's resolutions, over 60% of British takeaway lovers are going for the healthier options. Thousands of searches have been made since New Year for ‘healthy takeaways' to order online, according to www.Just-Eat.co.uk.

Since 28th December 2008, healthy option takeaways such as Rogan Josh have seen a huge surge in popularity, to the detriment of more typically popular choices.

A survey of 1078 of Just-Eat.co.uk customers shows that selecting a healthier choice takeaway is part of a plan to complement weight-loss plans rather than forego all luxuries - 63% confessed that they are more attracted to the healthy option takeaways as a method of aiding in their weight-loss. 66% of the customers surveyed planned to lose weight this year.

Three in four of those polled believe that they are more likely to be successful in their weight loss attempt if they "do not deprive themselves of foods they enjoy", but be more astute about it.

The top ten most popular healthy takeaway options by sales are as follows:

1. Chicken Madras with boiled rice (Indian) - Boiled chicken is high in protein and low in fat. Boiled rice has approximately half the calories of a fried portion of rice and madras sauce has been proven to prevent people from overeating, due to its spiciness.

2. Thin crust Margherita (Italian) - As far as pizza goes, a Margherita is the healthiest option and the best selling. Specifying that the restaurant use less cheese will ensure that the tomato based pizza is lower in carbohydrates and therefore calories than many other takeaway options.

3. Rogan Josh and boiled rice (Indian) - Rogan Josh is cooked in a comparatively low-calorie tomato based sauce and comes with vegetables which are full of fibre.

4. Salmon and tuna wasabi (Japanese) - Fish is low in carbohydrates and extremely high in protein which through aiding with the growth and repair of muscle tissue raises your metabolism.

5. Prawns with ginger and spring onions and boiled rice (Chinese) - Prawns are high in protein, with ginger providing taste without dramatically raising the calorie count.

6. Grilled chicken wholemeal kebab (Greek) - Grilling chicken ensures that there is little fat, whilst the wholemeal bread helps lower the grams of carbohydrates per serving.

7. Chicken and Lemon Sauce with boiled rice (Chinese) - A simple takeaway meal high in protein and low in carbohydrates.

8. Chicken with arrabiata (Italian) - arrabiata is a tomato based penne pasta dish, which can be substituted at point of order for wholemeal pasta to provide even fewer calories.

9. Crunchy tofu salad (Japanese) - Tofu is a high protein and low in fat vegetarian option.

10. Chicken in oyster sauce with boiled rice (Chinese) - Oysters are one of the most nutritionally well-balanced of foods, containing protein, carbohydrates and lipids (fats).

David Buttress, CEO of Just-Eat.co.uk said,

"People make New Year's resolutions with the best of intentions, but depriving themselves of what they enjoy often leads to failure. Our customers seem to find the balance between treating themselves and sticking to their resolutions, by choosing the healthier takeaway options."

www.Just-Eat.co.uk is the UK branch of the highly successful European model, which provides an average of more than 30,000 meals for customers in any given 24 hours. Just-Eat have a strategic partnership with Coca Cola.

The service supplies customers with a large directory of varied restaurants and eateries in their area, which when selected provide the user with a full, up-to-date menu including prices. The site also gives the customer an estimated delivery time, as well as beverage options.