Why do we love Junk Food

Why do we Love it so much!

We all love a bit of cake but why ever wondered why? Junk foods are foods that are high in fat and sugar providing no real nutritional value. They just fill the stomach and stop hunger temporarily. The term junk food usually brings into mind a picture of American snacks, but Indian cuisine has a whole variety of junk food than we acknowledge! You will end up easily getting exhausted by being a junk food fanatic because it doesn’t balance the appropriate levels of energy you ought to have, not just that, you will also have tendencies of craving for more food when you eat junk.

Junk foods increase the risks of Breast and Prostate cancer.

Do you know we have little insects living on our faces?

Another problem with junk foods is that they’re low in satiation value — that is, people don’t tend to feel as full when they eat them — which can lead to overeating. Another problem is that junk food tends to replace other, more nutritious foods. When people drink lots of soda, for example, they are usually not getting plenty of low-fat dairy or other healthful beverages like green tea or orange juice. When they’re snacking on crisps and cookies, they’re usually not loading up on fruits and vegetables.

‘It’s crucial to remember that a food craving is not simply hunger’

Hunger is the body’s way of making sure it is provided with energy, in the form of nutrients from food. When the stomach is empty, it releases the hormone ghrelin, which communicates with the brain’s command centre, the hypothalamus. This creates the feeling of hunger and is how we know when to eat. Satiation is signalled by the release of the hormones leptin by fat cells, and insulin by the pancreas, in response to increased blood sugar. Cravings, however, are much more complex. ‘Those who are starving will eat literally anything  –  even foods they do not enjoy  –  to stay alive.’ ‘Cravings, on the other hand, are an overwhelming sensation of desire for a certain food. There are a number of chemicals in the brain that are associated with this.

Firstly, there is dopamine, a brain chemical that is involved in learning and concentration. When we see or experience something new, dopamine is released in the brain. This works in tandem with other brain chemicals called opioids, which give us feelings of enjoyment and pleasure. The combination of these two factors mean that the brain associates certain activities with pleasure, and it teaches us to do them again and again.

We are programmed to enjoy eating fatty and sugary substances, and our brains tell us to seek them out.

We crave reward foods. The pattern for this is partially set in childhood when parents give us sweet food to show love or reward. Cravings are a psychological need for high-fat and high-sugar foods which taste pleasant – but which should, of course, form only a small part of our daily intake. Chocolate melts at body temperature which gives a pleasant sensation, and fat and sugar further increase the sensory appeal. However as much as you enjoy it, the more of a negative it is having on your body.

The Ill effects of Junk Food

Lack of energy: Junk foods do not contain any nutrients that are beneficial to the human body. In most cases, these foods are filled with harmful carbohydrates, fats and cholesterol that do not provide much useful energy, You will experience lack of oxygen (difficult to tell) which will eventually result in poor brain functioning.

Salt – Sodium is an essential constituent of salt and hence, consuming too much of it can contribute to high blood pressure, water retention and obesity. Lowering salt intake to recommended levels could reduce the incidence of strokes by almost thirty percent.

Calories – Calories measure the amount of energy that we derive from food. The calories consumed in a fast food meal can be disastrous for our health. It is not uncommon for a single fast food meal to have the equivalent of an entire or even two days’ worth of calories. Kids need two thousand calories per day, while adults require even less. Unless your energy output is more than your intake, you are bound to increase your body weight, that’s why many people decide to count their calories and even take supplements to drop burn the fat.

Sexual Dysfunction – What we eat affects our physical, mental, and sexual health. Fatty acids found in fast foods are a major contributor to sexual dysfunction, it can trigger biochemical changes which effect libido, sperm count and female ovulation.

Trans fat that can cause heart disease, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), liver cancer, stomach cancer, colon-rectal cancer (large intestine cancer), and diabetes.

Saturated Fats And Trans Fats – These fats typically take a solid form at room temperature so in the long run will affect your body. The processed food used in the fast food industry is loaded with trans-fats, which not only increases the ‘bad cholesterol’ (Low Density Lipoprotein) levels but also reduces the ‘good cholesterol’ (High Density Lipoprotein) levels and then stored under your skin thus making you look really saggy and chubby.

With all the overdose of fats, oils and calories, the liver gets burdened as it has to incessantly work overtime to break them down therefore leaving you with a weaker liver for when you are old. If there’s too much plaque in the arteries, the heart has to assert more effort in pumping blood which may cause you to be in fatigue and cause strokes. The excess amount of cholesterol in your body can destroy the liver as well.

Depression – Fast foods do not contain antioxidants, foliate and omega -3s which is necessary for good mental health. Fast foods contain preservatives, emulsifiers, thickeners, stabilizers and flavor enhancers which can affect the mental well being of the person.

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One theory is that if we don’t digest or absorb foods properly, we desire them more as the body isn’t getting what it needs from the food.

List of junk foods

Fried food, chips – Many foods include artificial flavour, artificial colouring, emulsifier, stabilizer, and chemicals to prevent going the food rancid. Any one of these are bad enough to begin with and it goes without saying that eating all of these at once is extremely bad for health. These foods throw body off balance and lead to addiction and overeating. Fried foods and other foods cooked with high heat are not as good as food that has been steamed or boiled because it makes carbohydrate molecule smaller and brittle which cause shock in the digestive and hormonal system at least to some degree, which is also one of the major cause of diabetes.

Fast food, Factory manufactured Cheese, Butter, Ham, Sausage in artificial or natural sausage casing. – There are two major problems with fast food, such as hamburgers, chicken, fries etc. They contain too much fat. So much that it contains as much as 82% of fat in a serving when compared to a recommended serving. The frying batters contain artificial coloring which can be extremely harmful to mental and physical health. There is more then what is in the battering mix because conventional meat and chicken already contains artificial colouring in order to make their flesh look more appealing. So even if you buy chicken or meat at supermarket and make your own batter and fry in no trans-fat oil, you still get food additives.

Candy, Chocolate, Gum, Ice Cream – The basis of candy is refined white sugar and maltose. Soft candy has emulsifier and fully hydrogenated oil. When this basic process is finished, acidulant, artificial flavour enhancer, synthetic perfume, artificial colouring, and others are added. Most of these food additives and artificial food coloring cause problem with biological functions, neuro-transmission functions, and brain functions causing attention deficit and behavioral problems.

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Gum and ice cream is made out of 70% refined sugar. Rest 30% is made out of additives.

Milk, soft drink, and other types of drink – If you choose plain soda over a coke, because you heard that coke is bad, that’s like going into a wolves’ den in order to avoid a tiger. Most soda has caffeine and it is addictive. Drinks like red bull has 15 Times of caffeine than coffee but it also has sodium benzoate acid. Sodium benzoate acid, when experimented with dogs, injected 1gm per 1kg body per day lead inability in motors, gave seizures, and lead to death in 250 days. Also average soda has at least 3 tables spoons of refined sugar in each cans.

Chocolate in Cookies and Chocolate Bars – There is very little real chocolate in chocolate bars and chocolate cookies. The little chocolate in it is mixed with partially hydrogenated byproduct. Due to hydrogenation process of chocolate, mixed with other oils, there will be large amount of trans fat in chocolate bar and chips. Some of these cookies have soft centers but do not spoil in room temperature for weeks and months because more then 90% of it is made out of refined sugar so that micro organisms cannot grow on them.

Personal advice:

✔ Eat Wholemeal bread or toasted bread.

✔ Chew your food – chew about 20 times at the minimum. You’ll fill up better and feel energized because food is far easier to digest. Traditionally people had an hour slot for dinner. Nowadays we spend 15 minutes.

✔ Generally when you burp, take a hint that your stomach is full. So take it easy.

✔ Drink water before having your main meal. The 8-glasses campaign is just a commercial thing but a few glasses throughout the day is always best.

✔ Eat sitting down. Theres many medical benefits.

✔ Nuts contain a lot of zinc, you’re better off with that than the sugars in junk.

✔ Junk food is actually a good instant energy booster so have a chocolate bar 20 minutes before an exam and you’ll think your socks off easily!

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Habituating children to healthy foods without introducing junk foods from a young age is the most reliable and effective way to keep the kids off junk food. Studies have suggested that even heavy consumption of junk food by a pregnant woman can result in the child being predisposed to favour the taste.

So there you have it, either live a healthy life or die at an unprecedented age with strokes, heart attacks and possibly cancer on the way.

*Ever wondered why you look so different in pictures than you do in the mirror? Guess what you’re actually a whole lot different to people who see you. Find out more here: What you really look like