Ayushmaa Ganbayr

AENG123
Sukhmaa Adiya
April 26th, 2022
JUNK FOOD
     In today’s modern world, the lifestyle of people has been changing drastically due to the
busy lifestyle and the social impacts. This includes their food habits, such as being tempted to
junk food that is high in calories but low in nutritional content. In particular, junk food
includes every kind of fast food, sweets, and other types of processed foods. According to the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the CDC (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention), from the years 2015 to 2018, on an average day, 46.6% of
grown-up people would eat fast food, and it has been increasing year by year.
Only statistics in the United States show that there are more than 200 thousand fast food
restaurants and approximately 50 million Americans eat at one of them every single day.
Although this quick service industry employs millions and millions of people and still
counting, it has its own disadvantages and we should take a look at this problem carefully.
Given the fact of increasing eating habits, some problems causing this phenomenon as
coupled with the solutions would be discussed in this essay.
     To begin with, modern people are not getting enough time at home to cook their food on
account of their hectic lifestyle. Thus, they prefer the easier and more economical option,
which is junk food. For instance, while cooking homemade food takes approximately 30 to
60 minutes to serve, ordering the food and having it ready in our hand spends far less time
than it. Second of all, junk food is tastier and looks exceptionally tempting since its main
priority is to make it attractive to be attributed to the visual appeal. By way of an illustration,
the fast food industry uses color contrasting advertising methods on their menu to attract
customers and also advertise the most outrageous deals on signs, posters, and TV
commercials. Therefore, the overtake of junk food has been popular among kids and young
adults. Since kids demand their needs very often, it leads the whole family to end up
following a bad diet, whether it is healthy or not.
     As a consequence, eating junk food regularly has been shown to lead to chronic diseases
such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. The most immediate result
of junk food intake is affecting the energy levels to reach the peak and these energy levels
sometimes remain the same and could cause sleep disorders because it has an excess of oil
and calories and is not easily digestible. On the other hand, there is quite a range of harmful
yet not immediate effects such as obesity. Further, the specific content of many fast/junk food
can also have negative side effects on our appearance and mental health. Junk food that is
high in carbs can trigger outbreaks of acne and in fact, it can actually aggravate, may even
lead to, stress and depression.
     To maintain a healthy lifestyle, we should consume nutritious food with a high number of
vitamins and minerals. On the other hand, we could take several steps. From my point of
view, it is efficient for governments to take action by developing policies. It could be starting
a few restaurants which can provide only home-cooked food with the service of delivery.
Moreover, food could be cheaper, so busy people would pick this healthy option happily
rather than buy low nutritious food. Additionally, we should spread awareness about the
adverse effect of consuming junk food by teaching/ educating the kids. As a result, the
demand for young generations to buy junk food would reduce.
To sum everything up, although consuming junk food is easy and affordable option, we
should take a moment to analyze its negative side effects on our body and mental health. As
mentioned above, junk food is rich in fat and in calories yet has no essential nutrition in its
ingredient. There is a common proverb that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. It means
if we partake healthy foods, we will remain in good health and will not need to see the doctor
often. Since quality food consumption is important for our better health and a sense of well-
being, we should avoid junk food in general. On the other hand, constantly being on a healthy
diet can be challenging for some people who used to eat junk food too often. As a result,
they could easily break their diet and go back to an unhealthy eating habit, thus, we should
take an action step by step. Health is the wealth.
 Reference:
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey”
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm
2. Statista. “Fast food restaurants in the US”
https://www.statista.com/topics/863/fast-food/#topicHeader__wrapper
3. Southgate Medical. “The Bad Effects of Eating Junk Food”
https://southgatemedical.com.au/the-bad-effects-of-eating-junk-food/