Fast food or Junk food refers to food that is easily and quickly prepared however, it refers mainly to food that is prepared from precooked or preheated ingredients, which are then packed and sold in stores or restaurants. In 1951, the word “Fast food” was first added in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Fast food is mostly available in hotels, cafes, school canteens and restaurants. They are easily available in market or bakeries. Junk food are sugary drinks, pizzas, white bread, most fruit juices, sweetened breakfast cereals, fried, grilled, boiled food, pastries, cookies and cakes. We can carry fast food anywhere with us, easily.
There are different kinds of junk food. Junk food or fast food are good in taste and rich in calories but they are of a very low nutritional value, Fast food are usually rich in sugar, rich in fats or rich in salt. Good health is the necessity of living a healthy life for every one of us, which needs to maintain a healthy diet and healthy habits all over the life. The term junk food means food that harms the body’s health in anyway. It has less nutrients and is harmful to the body’s digestive system. Generally, junk foods look so attractive and delicious to every age group.
However, it is a most interesting question that why everyone likes to eat junk food even after knowing it is bad for health. Nowadays every one of us is enjoying well the taste of junk food because it is delicious, affordable, readily and easily available. Junk food is not consider healthy to the health. They have been proven unhealthy in some ways but not in all ways. However, the consumption of junk food is increasing day by day. The younger generation is being attracted to junk food. Junk Food is very injurious that is slowly eating away the health of the present generation. To live a healthy life, you need to eat a balance diet. The term itself denotes how dangerous it is for our body.
Bad things can sometime be beneficial and good things can sometime be bad, it all depends on how they are used. The most important about fast food has been proven by one of the scholarly journal article named “Tufts University Health; Nutrition Letter” .It declare that such food can help people lose weight and become healthier. Because of high energy that junk food contains it can easily fill a person up, and the sugar that is in the junk foods helps maintain a person’s blood sugar level (Robinson, 2006). Besides having high calories that make junk foods a good diet meal item and the sugar that can maintain blood sugar level, they also contain many nutrients.
On the other hand, the amount of calorie your body requires to stay fit is not fulfilled by this food. For instance, foods like French fries, burgers, candy, sandwiches and cookies, all have high amounts of sugar and fats. These foods can badly effect the body. Therefore, this can result in long-term illnesses like diabetes high blood pressure stomach problem. This may also result in kidney failure. Junk foods are high in trans-unsaturated fatty acids and saturated fats, which can raise levels of triglycerides. High levels of triglycerides increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Junk food actually contains different kinds of nutrients that the body require. According to the scholar of Tufts University Health & Nutrition stated, that every bit of junk food we consume there is a small amount of nutrients that we consume along with the junk food. For example, vitamins A, B6, Bi2, C, folate, calcium, protein, and iron. These important nutrition elements are actually in the junk food, a source of food that people believe to be harmful. Junk food provides some dietary fibers, which are very essential for metabolism. It contains a high amount of protein, which helps in the muscle building.
On the contrary, Junk food that contains meat carries bad cholesterol that has dangerous effects on the human body. Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in many of the junk food Therefore, the accumulation of cholesterol molecules in arteries will result in their thickening and clogging that will in return result in congestion of blood vessels and will obstruct the normal blood flow, which will lead to disorders in the blood pressure. Moreover, if the artery affected was one of those that carry blood to the heart, it will may lead to a heart attack. After that, it may cause heart failure.
The best thing about junk food or fast food is that it can be prepared in less time and easily. It just saves time. Fast food usually takes 15 to 20 minutes to prepare. The biggest advantage of junk food or fast food is that they are cheap as compared to other foods. That is the reason why young people like college or school students love fast food as they are looking for cheaper option. Moreover, they are available anywhere which makes it easy for the people eating such foods as they do not have to go too far to eat their favorite food. Another advantage of fast food is that they are very easy to carry and one can carry it anywhere without any problem, so one-carry foods like pizza, burger, French fries to any place they want because junk food requires small space as compared other food items. They are very good in taste that is the reason why they are addictive. They are available in so many varieties so in case of pizza you have the option to eat different types of pizza like cheese pizza, thin crust pizza, tomato pie pizza and so on. Hence, individual can eat the variety of junk food every time he or she goes to eat outside.
On the other hand, many studies have shown that eating foods high in sugar and fat actually alters the chemical activity of the brain making it more dependent on such foods. Student of the University of Montreal on mice showed that they suffered with withdrawal symptoms after their regular junk food diet was discontinued. In humans, these withdrawal symptoms can lead to the inability to deal with stress, make you feel depressed and after that, you would turn back to those foods to comfort yourself and handle these feelings. In addition, by consuming too much fast food you may miss essential nutrients like amino acid tryptophan, the lack of which can increase feelings of depression. An imbalance of fatty acids is another cause why people who consume more junk food are at a higher risk of depression.
In conclusion, as one can see from the above that junk food has advantages as well as disadvantages but its disadvantages are far more serious than its advantages and that is the reason why these foods should be avoided and should be eaten occasionally and not regularly by an individual. We just need to follow the instructions of nutritionist. In addition, we have prefer homemade foods because they have more nutrition than junk food.