Gurushala

Life & Well Being

Junk Food and Its Impact

Food is the basic need for human beings which, provides energy to the body and protects them from diseases. Today, in our diet fast food is common. Fast food is such a type of food that is prepared and served very quickly, but fast food is less nutritious as compared to traditional foods. Fast foods are immensely popular among the younger generation due to being commonly available, low cost, and easy to carry, but fast food has a much adverse effect on human health.

Junk refers to fast food which is easy to make and easy to consume. Michael Jacobson aptly coins the phrase junk food in 1972 as slang for foods of useless or low nutritional value. Junk food is so-called HFSS (High fat, sugar, or salt). Various type of Junk food that is available in restaurants is cold drinks, pizza, burger, sandwich, etc.

Reasons for the popularity of Fast Food:

Lifestyle: In modern life, every moment is considered valuable and important. As a result, everybody looks for extra time to work, recreation, or family. One of the time-saving methods is to use fast-food services, which offer lower prices than traditional cafes and restaurants.
Time: People prefer to eat them at the same time as looking television; they shape themselves many hassles and times while they're in a hurry consuming pizza and burgers as they are served at their doorstep warm and ready to ingest.
Taste: Fast ingredients get their flavor owing to regal usage of oils, salts, and sugar.
Advertisements: Advertising is a commonly applied marketing strategy to promote fast food products and to reach out to the wider public. The key food marketing vehicle to reach children is television.
Cost: Since there are diverse kinds of fast food available in the market, many varieties of fast food are pocket friendly too.

Impact of Fast Food on health:

Obesity: Junk foods are loaded with sugars, calories, and fats that are a prime factor resulting in weight gain. Further, obesity is the starting point for issues that originate like diabetes, joint pain, and various heart ailments.
Learning and memory problems: High intake of sugars and fats tend to suppress the function of the brain that helps in learning and memory formation. This phenomenon is especially observed in growing children when their learning is at its highest.
Loss of appetite and digestion: One of the bad effects of junk food is overeating. One may end up eating more than they require due to the fluctuation in their blood sugar levels. It makes the brain demand more food than the normal requirement. Further, there are problems in the digestion of such foods, which add up to the harmful effects of junk food consumption.
Mental impact leading to depression: Excess consumption of junk foods changes the chemical composition of your brain. This change makes your body more dependent on such junk food and craves them more and more. It almost acts as addiction and people go through withdrawal symptoms which can lead to depression. It further causes hormonal imbalance in the body leading to wanting more of those junk foods.
Inadequate growth and development: A healthy body requires essential nutrients for its growth and development. While the bad effects of junk food are evident, they lack basic nutrition too. These unhealthy habits, coupled with inadequate nutrition levels, hamper the brain and other parts of your body.