Junk Food – Popular Food Type for People

In most countries in this world, junk food is a popular food type for people (Bhaskar et al.

67). Junk food perhaps becomes a buddy that accompany people when working, watching, or just spending a spare time. The factor that could be the reason why junk food becomes people’s choice is it only needs a short time to make it, and it is also cheaper than the common food. Junk food also called as high sugar, salt, or fat food that can be abbreviated as HSSF (Bhaskar et al. 67).

The common junk foods that available in restaurant are burger, french Fries, cold-drink, pizza, sandwich, etc. The number of junk food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s also increase alarmingly because many people like to eat junk food (Heshmat. 3). This increasing rate of junk food consumption also creates a negative effect for society. The most serious thing that caused by junk food is obesity. The relationship between obesity and junk food also supported by research conduct by Almuhanna et al.

Almuhanna et al stated that 72.5% overweight or obese student who being observed said that they consumed junk food at least four times per week and 15.9% obese students said that they consumed junk food for one until three times per week. There is a relation between junk food and obesity that most people do not realize, and this relation caused by the calories contained in junk food and also the chemical additives contained in junk food.

The calories contained in junk food could be one of the reasons that obesity is directly related to junk food. According to Sapkota and Neupane, most of the adolescents prefer to eat junk food in the lunchtime and they get addicted to it. It results in an obese adolescent because junk food is low nutrition and high-level calories food. Based on MedicineNet, a calorie is a unit of energy that often used than the precise term “kilocalories” (par.1). The researchers have found that junk food has a larger amount of calorie and fat than the common food.

Paravattil stated that the calories contained in a whole of California Kitchen Original BBQ Pizza is 1136 calories and it has 19-gram fats (par. 5), and it can be compared with the egg fried rice in the same portion that has 270 calories and 10.2-gram fats. By comparing the amount of calories and fats, it can be concluded that junk food has a higher calorie and higher fat than the healthy food that can cause an obesity. Obesity could be defined as the excess of the body fat.

There is no such specific method that can measure body fat, but BMI has been used recently to measure body fat. BMI is defined as the body mass index that measured by the formula which is mass divided by square height. People can be called as overweight if they have a BMI greater than 25, and they can be called as an obese if their BMI is more than 30 (Heshmat. 12). There is a relation between junk food consumption and people’s BMI. Based on Heshmat, people in Chicago who are close to junk food outlet have a higher BMI than people who are far from the junk food outlet (p. 91). The chemical additives found in junk food also become one of the reasons why junk food related to obesity.

There are a lot of chemical additives that contained in junk food. One of the chemical additives that exist in almost all of the junk food is Monosodium Glutamate or also called as MSG. Kazmi et al found that MSG consumption is directly related to the increases of BMI or body mass index that also has a relation with obesity (p. 12). The other chemical additives are tartrazine, artificial color, artificial sweeteners, and also preservatives that can increase the obesity potential (Bhaskar et al. 69). From all of the research and study, it can be concluded that the chemical additives contained in junk food directly affect the people’s obesity possibility.

Junk food consumption affects the obesity potential because of the calorie and fat exist in it. The other reason is the chemical additives that added to junk food. Most people might think that junk food is attractive and delicious, but they lack of knowing that junk food is harmful and impactful for their health. Junk food is not suitable to replace the usual dietary habit and it should be consumed sparingly alongside with the healthy food. Therefore, people should avoid eating junk food as much as they want because it will increase their obesity risk.

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