Health and Junk Food

Junk food from fast food chains are foods low in health nutrients yet high in calories, fats and sugar. However, food from supermarkets in the form of ready meals, biscuits, cakes, sweets, fizzy drinks and so on also come into this category as they are just as empty of nutrients.

If your diet is a good one with plenty of fruit and vegetables, and well balanced for good quality protein, fibre and carbohydrates the occasional “junk food” meal will not cause lasting harm. The danger seems to come from eating these kinds of foods to the exclusion of everything else.

Junk food can be addictive, and this addiction is leaving millions malnourished- some are even developing problems usually associated with famine victims.The number of hospital patients diagnosed with malnutrition in the UK has risen by 44 percent in five years, with almost 4,000 cases in the last year alone.

But experts warn this is the tip of the iceberg, estimating that up to 6 per cent of the population – 3.6 million – are malnourished. In the most extreme cases, the results are pot-bellies, wasted limbs and emaciated bodies, similar to those of famine victims in Third World countries.

While malnutrition can be fatal, in milder forms, it can cause symptoms from hair loss to muscle wastage and lethargy. Doctors, nutritionists and celebrity chefs are joining forces to highlight the scale of this problem.

The modern diet contains many other foods which come under the label of "junk" foods. Top of the list are refined foods, which are stripped of their original natural content and fibre, leaving behind a more concentrated, unnatural sweet version of the original food.

Refined white flour, margarine and white sugar are some of the most common examples. These ingredients are used to make a multitude of other so-called foods like baked cakes and biscuits, chocolates, and white bread, to name just a few. These types of "food" are the types filled with preservatives and additives to give them a longer shelf life.

What are the health dangers?

Health watchdogs warn that our continuing consumption of fast food and ready meals are making many people deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. Essentially it is up to parents to educate children on healthy eating but if parents are not having a good diet themselves, the problems are perpetuated from one generation to the next.

Refined foods cause havoc to the health of the body as the body is not designed to deal with these nutrient-depleted, industrial "false" foods. The sugars rush to the bloodstream, causing blood glucose disturbances and sugar cravings. Eat too many of these foods and you will undoubtedly have mood swings, and may become depressed, angry and irritable. Excess bad carbohydrates such as these are stored in the body as fat and can lead to diabetes.

On the subject of fat, Junk foods are filled with bad fats like hydrogenated and saturated fat which are heavy and cause health problems such as hardening of the arteries, which can leave you at risk of heart disease and stroke. High bad-fat diets raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels and cause liver stagnation. Again, the body is not meant to deal with these types of fat to excess as hydrogenated fats are turned to trans-fatty acids which can cause cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Children get connected to junk food in a way that can become obsessive. Children often do not get educated at school about what good nutrition is or even where their food comes from. If parents are not strict enough about what food their children eat when they get home from school, then they don’t get enough essential nutrients like iron, calcium and vitamins.

This is having a huge effect on children’s brain power, their ability to concentrate and learn, and their behaviour patterns. The artificial additives in many of these junk foods actually cause Attention Deficit Syndrome, hyperactivity and generally bad behaviour. It also makes children more susceptible to illness as their immune systems are weakened.

The warnings follow estimates that 40 per cent of hospital and care home residents are malnourished with staff lacking the time to help the elderly and weak to eat the meals, and that these meals often have poor nutritional value in the first place.

Increases in Sugar

The UK already has one of the worse obesity statistics in Europe, with almost a quarter of adult classed as obese. Foods with traditionally healthy appeal have up to twice the amount of sugar in them compared to thirty years ago.

Breakfast cereals, whole meal bread and soups are among those which have become a lot sweeter over the years. While the Government and health watchdogs have focused on encouraging a reduction of salt in food manufacture, sugar levels have gone up almost unchecked.

The Food Standards Agency wants food companies to reduce hidden sugars in their products and is considering imposing legal limits. Our sweet tooth is causing us to have many health problems. Sugar is cheap to use and it’s one of the things that are first added when a company wants to make a product a bit different.

Experts have warned that unless the government acts soon, there will be a huge surge in numbers afflicted by malnutrition, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. So the question must be asked - is eating junk foods really worth the risk?

Dont forget: There is no food on this planet that is worth dying for!

Further Reading

What are the health dangers of too many additives in food? Find out here.

How smoking causes far more disease that was at first thought
Smoking is associated with lung cancer but there are other illnesses and diseases caused by smoking that you may not realise.

An intolerance of certain foods can be the cause of many problems

What does the effects of junk food and a poor diet have on children? The effects are many especially in mental health.

Safe drinking does not just mean cutting back on alcohol
Find out what safe drinking means here.

What hormones are being added to our food?
There are many dangers associated with eating unlimited amounts of beef and dairy products

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