Junk food is a term used for any food item that is perceived to be unhealthy or to have poor nutritional value. For example, it includes hamburgers, pizzas, candy, sodas and all those food products known for being loved particularly by teens. In fact, if you read the list of ingredients of a food item, and you find sugar, salt or fat as a principal ingredient, you can consider this food item as a junk food product. Its nutritional value is typically very high in lowvalue calories (same energy content of any other calorie but lacks accompanying micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals,...). Some scientists have shown that we could even consider junk food as a real drug : an addiction. Indeed tests were conducted upon rats : a rat that used to eat healthy food (diet without sugar), gets more anxious and shows all the symptoms of an addiction to a drug if we add sugar to its meals. So, why is junk food so popular among teenagers, when we know of the unhealthy ingredients that are present in junk food products ? Junk food remains popular because it is relatively cheap to manufacture, easy to purchase and convenient to consume. Many junk foods are convenient in that they have very long shelf lives and often dont require any kind of refrigeration. But the main reason why teens love eating junk food is the high amount of flavor they find in it, because of its typically high fat, sodium, or sugar content. But that is also the reason why this type of food has so many negative effects on health.
Effect of Junk food:
Junk Food Affects Your Energy Levels Junk food doesn't contain the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy. As a result, you may feel chronically fatigued and lack the energy you need to complete daily tasks. The high levels of sugar in junk food puts your metabolism under stress; when you eat refined sugar, your pancreas secretes high amounts of insulin to prevent a dangerous