Children and Junk Food

by. indiaparenting.com

Children find themselves amidst a complex society that is undergoing breathtaking changes. Concepts, relationships, lifestyles are metamorphisised to accommodate the new jet-setting age. Food is no exception. Healthy nutritious foods have been replaced by the new food mantra - JUNK FOOD! Junk food comprises of anything that is quick, tasty, convenient and fashionable. It seems to have engulfed every age; every race and the newest entrants are children. Wafers, colas, pizzas and burgers are suddenly the most important thing. The commonest scenario is a child who returns from school and plonks himself in front of the television, faithfully accompanied by a bowl of wafers and a can of cola. Children suddenly seem to have stepped into a world of fast foods and vending machines, totally unaware of the havoc they are creating for themselves.  

The years between 6-12 are a time of steady growth; good nutrition is a high priority. Children must know that what they eat affects how they grow, feel and behave. Changes in our society have intensified the need for food skills, to the extent that they need to become a part of the child's basic education for good health and survival. The vast majority of working mothers with school age children are laboured with exhausting commutes, upswings in the households, and stress, leading to a situation where parents get to spend limited time with their children. Traditional food skills are not passed on automatically from parent to child. Most people have forgotten that the primary reason for eating is nourishment. In the not so distant past, food was treated with reverence because of its life sustaining quality. Enjoying a meal was sharing experience with the others. Today family dinners are rare. In many ways, our culture is structured to foster poor eating habits. Television commercials and supermarkets are propagating a wide variety of enticing junk foods, attractively packaged and often tagged with a tempting sop. We should be constructing an environment that protects our children. Instead we have a highly seductive environment that undermines eating habits.  

For children who have less vision of the heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure or diabetes that might befall them decades later, the tentacles of a junk food environment are virtually inescapable. Studies reveal that as early as the age of 30, arteries could beginning clogging and lay the groundwork for future heart attacks. What children eat from puberty affects their risks of prostate and breast cancer. Osteoporosis and hypertension are other diseases that appear to have their earliest roots in childhood when lifelong eating habits are being formed. Children are especially vulnerable. Poor diets can slow growth, decay new teeth, promote obesity and sow the seeds of infirmity and debilitating disease that ultimately lead to incurable disease and death or worse make life insufferable.  

Most of the times these junk foods contain colors that are laced with colors, those are often inedible, carcinogenic and harmful to the body. These foods and their colors can affect digestive systems, the effects of it emerging after many years. Studies have found that food coloring can cause hyperactivity and lapses of concentration in children. Children suffering from Learning Disabilities are often advised against eating food with artificial coloring. Chocolates, colas, flavored drinks and snack tit bits are full of artificial coloring.  

Not surprisingly, junk food not only has physiological repercussions, but also psychological ones - far reaching ones that affect the child's intellect and personalities. Coping intelligently with their dietary needs increases their self-esteem, and encourages further discovery. School days are full of educational challenges that require long attention spans and stamina. Poor nutritional habits can undermine these pre-requisites of learning, as well as sap the strength that children need for making friends, interacting with family, participating in sports and games or simply feeling god about themselves.  

Junk foods are often eaten in instead of regular food, an essential Indian diet that consists of wholesome chapatis and vegetables or snacks like upmas and idlis. Not surprisingly eating junk food leads to a sense of starvation both physically and mentally, as the feeling of satiation and contentment that comes after a wholesome meal is absent. There is simply no substitute for the feeling that descends, when you wake up and find that you are ready to take on the world and this primarily stems from GOOD HEALTH! There is no better time than now to build a supportive environment for nurturing our children and endowing them with a legacy of good health.

Article Source:  www.indiaparenting.com/food-and-nutrition/56_1186/children-and-junk-food.html

Is Junk Food Healthy?

by. Punam J R

According to Wikipedia, junk food is a term describing food that is perceived to be unhealthy or having poor nutritional value, according to Food Standards Agency. The term is believed to have been coined by Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in 1972. The term has since become common usage.

Junk Food includes those food items that do not add any value to a person’s diet. Here, value denotes essential nutrients, vitamins & minerals. Street food and fast food are also taken in the same context as junk. 

When we speak of street food, the fact that it’s cooked in unhealthy conditions makes it more unhealthy than the same food made at home. Coming to the latter, fast food is the kind of food item which can be made & served quickly. According to Wikipedia, any meal with relatively low preparation time can be considered fast food. So, what exactly is junk food? Irrespective of where junk food is made, it is on the basis of how much value it contains in terms of nutrients that we get to decide what junk food is. More over, junk food, apart from adding up empty calories, also causes harm to the eater. 

The biggest irony regarding junk food is the fact that it’s mostly prepared out of healthy food. In many items coming within the periphery of the term, vegetables are used as the main ingredients. Consider a pizza loaded with a thick vegetable topping. Who would refute the nutrients provided by the thick veggie topping? Now, the junk factor of pizza comes from the cheese sprinkled over the vegetables. Even though cheese is good for health, an excess of it is not recommended. And of course, the pizza base, made out of refined flour, does contain empty calories. Now, the burger, which is a favourite of a majority of junkies, contains a loaf of meat & vegetables like lettuce, cabbage & tomato, sandwiched between two buns. Although meat is known to be rich in protein, what makes the burger junk is the refined flour that’s used to make the buns, and the oodles of mayonnaise & butter added to the filling so that the 3 layers stick to one another, even while eating. 

Coming to Indian junk food, locally called ‘chaat’, these mostly include the very famous samosas, kachoris, panipuris/golgappas and patties. These are fried items with various fillings within an outer layer made of refined flour. In India, even Chinese food sold in road-side stalls is junk food because they contain high amount of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), which is a flavour enhancer. MSG is recognized as a health hazard if taken in larger quantities.

There is one section of the society which actually challenges the definition of junk food. If a person’s body is deficient in fats or carbohydrates, then this supposed junk food would actually nourish his body. Of course, there’s no doubt the food items that are high in fat, sugar or salt are unhealthy. But again, what applies to one individual may not apply to another. And people need to apply some common sense and decide for themselves what is right for them and what’s not. It has been proven that high fat/sugar foods do lead to obesity, increase in cholesterol, high blood pressure & eventually, cardiac problems such as angina. 

All said and done, the individual has to decide what he wants to consume - junk food without the junk or pure health food. My take on this issue would be to use a bit of practical thinking, and cook food labeled as junk, without the junk items like excess cheese, salt or MSG. Also, everybody must keep certain amount of awareness about food nutrition so that healthy choices can be made. If one orders a pizza without the extra cheese topping, it may as well be called ‘healthy’. If a burger is consumed as a meal, it doesn’t cause much harm, as compared to being consumed as a snack. 

Then again, indulging in junk food once in a while is perfectly alright. The only thing required here is to be smart and practical, while deciding how often to binge on a favourite snack. Since fruits are healthy, one cannot just eat only fruits and eliminate everything else from his daily diet!! That would again leave him severely malnutritioned. Moreover, if one exercises regularly, then it doesn’t matter what one is eating as part of one’s diet. 

Finally, I feel the need to mention that many children in some parts of the world are dying of starvation everyday, and they don’t have this great choice to make. Any food, whether junk or otherwise, would be life for them. This debate would actually make them scoff at us!!

—About our writer: 

Punam says, "I am an idealist. Most of the time, I like doing things to perfection. I became interested in English as a language ever since I entered my 4th standard. I believe that writing not only spreads knowledge, but also doubles the knowledge of the writer. With every sentence penned down, there is a contentment factor attached that only a writer can comprehend. Though I have doodled with poetry, I feel poetry puts a strange confinement on a writer's abilities."

Article Source:  www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/Junk-Food.asp