Modern age has a drastic effect on our lifestyle. Modern lifestyle has changed the food habits especially in school children. Consumption of junk food is common. The word ‘junk’ means useless or worthless. In ordinary language, junk food means packaged or processed food having no or less nutritional value.
Junk food includes pizzas, burger, soft drinks, samosas, French fries. Children consume junk food mainly due to the taste but it does more harm than good. It is very common to see kid having junk food while sitting in front of television.
According to estimates one out of every five children are obese. And the reasons why they are obese are unhealthy food practices that are consumption of junk food. Junk food is low in nutrition and high in calories.
According to estimates 44% of the children population takes of soft drink everyday, 39% prefer soft drink with a burger and 31% take pizza with soft drink. The changing eating habits are exposing them to diseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc.
It will not only have bad effect on health but also cause mood swings, laziness, weight gain, decreased enthusiasm to handle workouts etc.
Negative Impacts On Health
- Poor nutrition: children tend to avoid consumption diet. This lead to poor nutrition and weak immune system. Children are more prone to cold and fever and other health problem. Problem of constipation is come. Processed food has no fiber content that is why people suffer from constipation. Soft drinks contain phosphorus and other chemical which have negative impact on their body, including teeth and bone
- Weight gain: consumption of junk food lead to weight gain and sometimes obesity. Soft drinks, fried food pizza burger etc. add hundreds of calories to our body.
- Cardiovascular diseases: high level of saturated fat increases the cholesterol level leading to risk of cardiovascular diseases like stroke, heart attack, etc. such people also suffer from high blood pressure.
- Irritable bowel syndrome, depression among teenagers, fluctuation in blood sugar level, risk of cancer increases.
- Laziness is another problem. The capacity to handle daily workout reduces. People fell sleepy.
- The level of efficiency reduces.
- Risk of diabetes is there. The risk of kidney failure is also there.
- Moodiness is another problem due to intake of junk food.
- Bad effect on brain due to lack of oxygen supply to brain and liver.
What Should Be Done???
- Instead of consuming junk food, children should be encouraged to have a healthy diet. Healthy diet includes required level of protein, vitamins, fiber, carbohydrates and fat. Children should be encouraged to have whole grain cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, nuts etc.
- Parents should ensure that appetizing and healthy food should be cooked at home in an innovative manner to temp the kids.
- Say NO to JUNK FOOD.
- School and media should play an important role to educate the students on harmful effect of fast / junk food.
- Rallies should be conducted at regular intervals to spread the awareness at school and college levels.
- There should be ban on fast food in school canteens.
- Do thirty minutes of physical activity to burn calories and stay healthy.
- Parents should keep a constant view on their kid’s consumption pattern.
Conclusion
Looking at the ill effects of junk / fast food, we can conclude that junk food does more harm than good. It will definitely ruin everyone’s health despite of their age. To stay healthy, it is important and the need of the hour is to reduce the level of junk food consumption.
Children are the future asset of any nation and government of that nation should take steps to prevent consumption of fast food. Television advertisements often promote junk food, so the government should put restrictions on such advertisements. Restrictions should be put on vendors selling fast / junk food
Parents can play a dominant role regarding this. They should take extra efforts to feed their kids with healthy food and educate the ill effects of junk food on their health.It can be said that junk food is just for a minute but health is for life. By taking small things into account, parents can help their children for a better future and better life ahead of them.