Healthy Eating
Junk Food - Types
Junk food is purchased as ready-to-eat or quick-to-cook, either from 'fast' food vendors or pre-packed in snack size portions.
Burgers, chicken nuggets and chips are usually deep fried in fat. As well as being high in fat due to the cooking method, junk food is usually high in salt and/or sugar to make it tasty. The sugar, salt and fat are all thought to be contributors to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Another favourite type of junk food is crisps and crisp-like items such as hula hoops that are highly processed, come in various (artificial) flavours and are moulded into specific shapes (generally shapes with a lot of surface area).
Fizzy drinks are also included in the junk food category. They contain a lot of sugar and often caffeine. Traditionally, the concern with fizzy drinks has been centred solely on the sugar content. A 12 ounce can of coke contains 10 full teaspoons of sugar. Lately, however, nutritionists are becoming concerned about the acidity caused to the body from the carbon dioxide. It is thought that this could be bad for bone development as calcium is taken from the bones to neutralise the acid balance.
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