According to Wikipedia, junk food is a term describing food that is perceived to be unhealthy or having poor nutritional value, according to Food Standards Agency. The term is believed to have been coined by Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in 1972. The term has since become common usage.
Junk Food includes those food items that do not add any value to a person’s diet. Here, value denotes essential nutrients, vitamins & minerals. Street food and fast food are also taken in the same context as junk.
When we speak of street food, the fact that it’s cooked in unhealthy conditions makes it more unhealthy than the same food made at home. Coming to the latter, fast food is the kind of food item which can be made & served quickly. According to Wikipedia, any meal with relatively low preparation time can be considered fast food. So, what exactly is junk food? Irrespective of where junk food is made, it is on the basis of how much value it contains in terms of nutrients that we get to decide what junk food is. More over, junk food, apart from adding up empty calories, also causes harm to the eater.
The biggest irony regarding junk food is the fact that it’s mostly prepared out of healthy food. In many items coming within the periphery of the term, vegetables are used as the main ingredients. Consider a pizza loaded with a thick vegetable topping. Who would refute the nutrients provided by the thick veggie topping? Now, the junk factor of pizza comes from the cheese sprinkled over the vegetables. Even though cheese is good for health, an excess of it is not recommended. And of course, the pizza base, made out of refined flour, does contain empty calories. Now, the burger, which is a favourite of a majority of junkies, contains a loaf of meat & vegetables like lettuce, cabbage & tomato, sandwiched between two buns. Although meat is known to be rich in protein, what makes the burger junk is the refined flour that’s used to make the buns, and the oodles of mayonnaise & butter added to the filling so that the 3 layers stick to one another, even while eating.
Coming to Indian junk food, locally called ‘chaat’, these mostly include the very famous samosas, kachoris, panipuris/golgappas and patties. These are fried items with various fillings within an outer layer made of refined flour. In India, even Chinese food sold in road-side stalls is junk food because they contain high amount of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), which is a flavour enhancer. MSG is recognized as a health hazard if taken in larger quantities.
There is one section of the society which actually challenges the definition of junk food. If a person’s body is deficient in fats or carbohydrates, then this supposed junk food would actually nourish his body. Of course, there’s no doubt the food items that are high in fat, sugar or salt are unhealthy. But again, what applies to one individual may not apply to another. And people need to apply some common sense and decide for themselves what is right for them and what’s not. It has been proven that high fat/sugar foods do lead to obesity, increase in cholesterol, high blood pressure & eventually, cardiac problems such as angina.
All said and done, the individual has to decide what he wants to consume - junk food without the junk or pure health food. My take on this issue would be to use a bit of practical thinking, and cook food labeled as junk, without the junk items like excess cheese, salt or MSG. Also, everybody must keep certain amount of awareness about food nutrition so that healthy choices can be made. If one orders a pizza without the extra cheese topping, it may as well be called ‘healthy’. If a burger is consumed as a meal, it doesn’t cause much harm, as compared to being consumed as a snack.
Then again, indulging in junk food once in a while is perfectly alright. The only thing required here is to be smart and practical, while deciding how often to binge on a favourite snack. Since fruits are healthy, one cannot just eat only fruits and eliminate everything else from his daily diet!! That would again leave him severely malnutritioned. Moreover, if one exercises regularly, then it doesn’t matter what one is eating as part of one’s diet.
Finally, I feel the need to mention that many children in some parts of the world are dying of starvation everyday, and they don’t have this great choice to make. Any food, whether junk or otherwise, would be life for them. This debate would actually make them scoff at us!!
