According to World Health Organization (WHO), effective population-based childhood obesity prevention strategies include restrictions on marketing of unhealthy food (biscuits and potato chips, for instance) and non-alcoholic beverages (soft/carbonated drinks) to children. Living a healthy life is easier said than done, especially when it comes to food. Sooner or later, we all have to pay for the kind of food we eat. Obesity among children due to rampant consumption of junk food has reached epidemic proportions. While underweight continues to be a crucial problem in terms of burden of disease in developing countries, obesity is fast catching up and can hardly be ignored. Today, more than 95% of all chronic diseases are caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise. Junk food is manufactured, advertised, and marketed on a large scale. Today Junk food’s accessibility, cost and taste has made it more popular. But the people particularly youngsters are now aware that the hazards of junk food is very high and they just get addicted to these food. One of the reasons for the addiction of Junk food is due to busy schedule of parents.
We all know junk food is bad, yet we still eat it. But, do we know how bad it is? Do we ever check what we are eating, and whether the information printed on packet of chips or noodles is true?
The mention of ready-to-eat foods, it is feared, leaves the door open for food industries to step up their attempts to capture the large potential market of the public food schemes. Nowadays, when we think of food, items like pizza, burger, chips and wafers come to our mind. Nowadays, children love food items like pizzas, burgers, chips etc.; they force their parents to purchase these items. Junk food contains host of chemicals that are injurious to health as our body finds it difficult to digest them. Eating these items has been treated as a sign of elite living. Our body does not get any nourishment on eating either fast-food or junk-food. Many doctors have concluded after a lot of research that since these foods are hard to digest, their consumption causes illnesses.
There is an increase in the blood cholesterol level because of the consumption of food having excessive fat. Excess fat and salt can cause an increase in blood pressure. The problem of junk and processed, packaged food in India is reaching dramatic proportions with every tiny village shop laden with packets of potato chips, namkeen and carbonated drinks. Eating junk food like burger, wafers, salad full of preservatives leads to poor concentration. Children consuming junk food often lack concentration. So right from the childhood children must be encouraged to eat healthy food rather than junk food. Fast food does not contain vital nutrients required for good health and is made up of fried and preserved food which does not remain natural. Eating these foods may be a good way to save time, but too often they are high in fat, sugar and calories. Eat healthy, stay away from junk food, do exercise and stay fit should be the mantra of life.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
