How doesn't like fast food? Almost everyone of us likes it, maybe because of its flavor, its convenience or just because of the price. But what we don't realize when we're eating this food, is that it's no healthy at all. When we talk about fast food, also known as junk food, we're talking about unhealthy food, food with poor nutritional value. This junk food contains high levels of saturated fat, sugar, or salt and numerous food additives; and at the same time it's really lacking in protein, vitamin and fiber.Due to the capital requirements to start a fast food restaurant are relatively small, individually-owned fast food restaurants have become common throughout the world. Making the fast food industry one of the most franchised industries. Just in the United States, consumers spent about US$142 billion on fast food in 2006. That's a lot of money, and a lot of food!. And that's only for the fried fast food, junk food also includes salted snack foods, candy, gum, most sweet desserts and carbonated beverages. Generally, they offer little in terms of protein, vitamins or minerals and lots of calories from sugar or fat. This snacks and candies has also became a large industry, generating a lot of money every year.
Like I said before, the reason why this kind of food is so popular all over the world is because it is easy to purchase, requires little or no preparation, is convenient to consume and has lots of flavor. But it also has its bad side, the consumption of this kind of food has been associated with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and dental cavities. Recent studies, show us that about 177 million children and teenagers under 18 years old all over the world are overweight or obese.
Therefore, we should have to quit or at least reduce the eating of junk foods and don't let children to get habituated to this type of food. Controlling children from eating junk foods in schools is another step that would be very helpfull. Schools administration along with parents have the responsibility of educate children about junk foods in schools.
