Fast food food (Junk food) refers to prepared and served very quickly, first

popularized in the 1950s of United States. While any meal with low
preparation time can be considered fast food, typically the term refers to
food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients,
and served to the customer in a packaged form fortake-out/take-away. Fast
food restaurants are traditionally distinguished by their ability to serve food
via a drive-through. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by
MerriamWebster in 1951.

Introduction:
Fast food (Junk food) refers to food that is easily and quickly prepared, however, it
refers mainly to the food that is prepared from precooked or preheated ingredients
then packed and sold in stores or restaurants. In 1951 the word "Fast food" was first
introduced in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Junk or fast foods taste good and are
rich in calories but they are of a very low nutritional value, Fast foods are usually
rich in sugar, rich in fats or rich in salt.
About 40 per cent of children and 37 per cent of adults depend mainly on junk food
in their lives, they have higher levels of fats, saturated fats, energy, soda drinks,
and sodium, and on the other hand lower intake of milk, vegetables, fruit and
essential vitamins such as C and A.

There are many examples of junk food such as Pizza, French Fries, Burgers, hotdogs,
fried food, candy, ice cream, and soda pop. Other kinds of junk food are just like the
imitation juice that you find nowadays in most of the markets, you may think it is
healthy but the truth is that it has loads and loads of sugar, artificial flavors, and so
little of the pure natural juice.

Fast food has appeared in the world during Ancient Rome age, they sold wine and
bread in the streets of the cities, also in the Far East noodles were prepared and
sold while in the Middle East there were the flafel and the flatbread, Indians
introduced dahi vada, vada pav, and panipuri.

Although fast food is tasty and delicious, it has many disadvantages, people must
nowadays be aware of those disadvantages, fast food has real damage on the
human health, and the most important bad effects that the fast food may cause are
obesity, high cholesterol level, cardiovascular disorders, and nutritional deficiencies.

Actually fast food may not contain any nutritional benefits to the body because it
usually contains harmful fats, carbohydrates, and cholesterol that don't provide the
body with any useful energy.

Consuming fast food is increasing in a very rapid way nowadays and that increase is
cause mainly by 2 main reasons which are:

Convenience: Since it is fast and we live our lives in a hurry nowadays, there is no
time to prepare healthy and well prepared food.

Ads: Advertisement is the Fast Food marketers' weapon; they use anything possible
to advertise including TV commercials, Radio stations, vending machines and
internet pop-ups.
Different Types of Junk Food
Eliminating Junk food completely from our lives is impossible, as most people
irrespective of age, enjoy indulging in these irresistible delicacies once in a way.
Nevertheless, foods that produce harmful effects on the body that ought to be
avoided at all costs is listed below.

Pizza
Although there are contradictory views regarding the health aspect of pizzas,
heavily laden with sodium and carbohydrates, flour and cheese they contain high
calorie counts a harbinger of cardiovascular diseases.

Burgers
With its deadly combination of mayonnaise, cheese, high levels of dairy fat, deep
fried patties, topped with unhealthy sauces filled with sugar and sodium, they tend
to increase cholesterol levels owing to saturated fats. Hence, Burgers occupy a
primary position as being one of the worst junk foods, offering 1360 calories per
serving.

Deep Fried stuff

Deep-fried snacks such as French fries, potato chips, fried chicken, kebabs are the
ultimate sources of transfat, elevating cholesterol levels, leading to clogging of
arteries on the arterial walls of the heart. Since most of them are deep-fried in
extreme heat, they also contain cancer causing carcinogenic substances. Besides
being served with Acrylimide, with increased levels of carbohydrates, they are
overloaded with sodium that increases the risk of obesity, hypertension and heart
diseases.

Breakfast cereals
A healthy breakfast is essential to kick-start the day full of vigour and vitality.
However, most people prefer breakfast cereals that claim to be extremely
unhealthy.

The fact remains that cereals, like porridge, oats and cornflakes, covered with
unhealthy sugars are nonetheless unhealthy. This is especially so in case of sugary
fruit loops dense with synthetic sugars, which create sweet cravings throughout the
day.

Candies
The easily available vibrant colourful array of desired candies, lollies, toffees, jellies
and candy buttons packed with high doses of fructose and sucrose create an instant
feel good factor increasing blood sugar levels. However, frequent consumption of
these colourful delights, due to the presence of nitrites, may produce carcinogen
substances detrimental for health.

Donuts
The epitome of Junk food and a universal favourite, Donuts drizzled with sinful
mouth-watering chocolate, jam and tempting sugar toppings, increase the risk of
developing cancer.

Pastries and cakes

Rich creamy delicious wonders, cake happen to be one of the best options for
desserts. However, a tempting wedge contains sugar in high magnitude combined
with a highly raw processed variety of carbohydrates, that contain high glycemic

index thereby increasing the. blood glucose levels in the body. Besides the cream
prepared with rich sinful chocolate and eggs, dense with trans fat, is detrimental for
health.

Ice Cream
Rich in sugar and fat, the enticing ice creams, generally cause an expanding
waistline, due to metabolic imbalances caused by the elevated levels of fat in the
dessert. Therefore, this sinful concoction leads to obesity and decreased appetite
resulting in an unhealthy digestive tract.

Carbonated Beverages
Cold Drink
With high quantities of sugar, insignificant amounts of minerals and harmful
chemicals, fizzy carbonated drinks, popularly known as soft drinks, are sweetened
colas available in the market. Apart from this, they contain high levels of caffeine
that are harmful for health. These cause acidity caused by the carbon dioxide
released in the body.

Instant noodles
Due to the inclusion of certain sodium additives, instant noodles contain increased
carbohydrates and sodium, lacking in essential proteins, vitamins, fibre and
minerals. Another aspect is that the container of instant cup noodles, discharge
certain substances and chemicals akin to hormones, along with dioxin, a chemical,
which saturate the noodles when hot water is added. Covered with wax, substances
like Propylene glycol and MSG (monosodium glutamate) they have negative effects
on health often resulting in hypertension, stroke, organ damage, cancer and a
weakened immune system.
Some of the unhealthy indian snacks are
1. Pakora
However, Pakora though might build relationships has the capacity of destroying
bodies. It is that sweet poison which increases bad Cholesterol, decreases good
Cholesterol and makes one obese
2. Samosa

they are injurious to your health because each Samosa has 25g of fat, the same as
that of a large slab of butter. Yikes!!
3.Cholla Poori
If you were to eat two bhaturas and the cholle which is soaked in oil you would be
packing in almost 1200 calories and 50 grams of fat. Acidity and heart burn are the
common side effects we forget about while digging into this treat. Saturated fats
ingested in such large quantities clog arteries as well as lead to diabetes and blood
pressure.
4. Vada Medu Vada
These items are deeply fried in an ocean of oil which increases transfat in our
body. Eventhough they are healthy they are determinant to our health.

5.Pani Puri
The deep fried puris are not at all healthy (you never know if it was prepared in
stored oil). In addition, the mixture of chutney too can cause a problem
If considered burger without cheese would be better option than these sacred
snacks.
Fast food is a real problem that has many horrible and sometimes fatal effects on
people especially youth and children. Our ancestors used to respect their planet,
they took care of their health, and on the other hand we looked for Fast food.

Reasons of the increased consumption of junk food:

There are many reasons beyond the increased consumption of fast food around the
world, the most common reasons are:

Convenience:
In general, nowadays we live a very fast life; you have no time to cook healthy food
so you choose the easier way which is the junk food even if it was lower in its
nutritional value.

Advertisements:

Marketers of the junk food use every possible way to advertise, they use TV, Radio,
and internet. Television is known to have a very powerful effect on people. Most of
the advertisements aim for the children, and it was reported food ads that appear
during children's T.V. programs are 25%, in India they are approximately 50% while
in Pakistan they are 75%.

Effects of Junk food on health:

Junk food has many bad effects on health, they include:

Effects on blood pressure:

Fast food contains high amounts of Na++ (Sodium) that lead to high blood pressure,
it was stated that the adult's body require only 1200-1500 milligram of sodium
every day, fast foods has about 2400 milligram of sodium, and that high amounts of
sodium leads certainly to high blood pressure.

Cholesterol:
Junk food that contains meat contains bad cholesterol that has dangerous effects on
the human body and general health, 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, and if the artery affected was one of those that
carry blood to the heart, it will may lead to a heart attack, and in complicated cases
it may cause heart failure.

Trans Fats:
Trans fats are considered to be the worst type of fats,and present in Junk food with
high amounts, trans fat is very harmful because it reduces the levels of good
cholesterol in addition to increasing the levels of bad cholesterol. It was reported
that fast food contains 45 per cent of trans fats more than normal and well prepared
food.

Effects on the cardiovascular system and vascular function:

Fast food consumption was proved to have bad effects on the CVS (Cardio Vascular
System) in general because fast food lead to gaining weight and insulin resistance,
and this may end in cardiovascular failure and death.

Obesity:
Children obesity has become epidemic in many countries, there are more than
17,000,000 children that are 5 years old suffer from obesity all around the world.
Intake of fastfood leads to obesity.

Other complications:
Effects on energy:

Fast food doesn't contain any or very low nutritional components, on the contrary, it
is composed of harmful fats, cholesterol, and carbohydrates, therefore it doesn't
provide your body with any energy, and body weakness.

Low concentration:

Fast food contains high levels of fat and oil that are difficult to be digested, so the
body spends more amounts of enzymes and blood. That means that when you eat a
lot of junk food, blood goes mainly you the intestine, therefore you may feel drowsy
and lose concentration.

Liver failure:

Liver may get damaged due to the high amounts of salt, cholesterol, and fat that
are present in most of the junk food.

Diabetes Mellitus:

Fast food may cause damage to pancreas and that may lead to insulin dependent
diabetes mellitus.
There are some healthy
Healthy Junk Foods
Although most foods that fall under the category of junk foods are unhealthy,
however, there are quite a few that are considered amazingly healthy.

Popcorn
Contrary to popular belief popcorn, a whole grain snack, with low calorie and high
fibre make an excellent and healthy snack option; provided they are without the
accompaniment of oils and salt. Read the benefits of corn in detail

Frozen Yoghurts
Frozen yoghurts, offering innumerable health benefits, make excellent substitutes
for ice creams. Available in a wide variety of flavours, unlike ice creams, they do
not come laden with huge quantities of sugar and fat. However, these are not as
healthy as fruits and vegetables which make great alternatives for junk food.

Dark Chocolate
Despite loads of fat and sugar, dark chocolate, similar to green tea and red wine is a
rich source of flavonoids. This substance, with its antioxidant properties, is
particularly heart friendly, as they enable proper blood flow; improving circulatory
health and help stabilise blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the body.

Conclusion
Junk food consumption has increased nowadays; both developing and developed
countries suffer from this problem.

The main reason for the increased consumption of fast food especially among our
kids is the advertisements; however, we bear high responsibility also, because we

let them eat what they want to eat with no restrictions even if it was harmful for
their health and bodies.

Fast food has many horrible effects on the human body such as weakness, loss of
energy, loss of concentration, obesity, cardiovascular disorders, osteoporosis,
diabetes mellitus, apnea, liver diseases, and high blood pressure