The term "fast food" has long been familiar and used to. Less recognizable by people is junk food, although it arose at the same time as the first concept. However, many people use products that are doctors in this category, without even knowing about it. An interesting paradox: people frightened by nutritionists begin to carefully bypass the McDonald's party, not thinking about the fact that they periodically harm themselves almost more than the dishes offered in it.
Origin of the term
"Junk food" in English translates as "weedy food", "food from the garbage." Initially, it was not intended to give such a characteristic to the quality of food. This meant garbage, which remained in large numbers around the food outlets where it was sold. All junk food was packed in disposable tableware, bags and glasses so that you could eat it on the go. The people did not take the packaging far and threw it right next to the place of purchase (or use, if purchased was intended for eating in a movie theater or in a stadium). Over time, the meaning invested in the term has transformed. Now the term refers to precisely “garbage” food that clogs the body and does not bring any benefit to it.
Differences between junk and fast
“Fast food” is, rather, not a set of any specific products, but a way to use it. It may include a full-fledged complex dinner, only it should be quickly prepared (therefore it is usually made from semi-finished products) and eaten just as quickly, in about ten minutes. The most famous fast food is hamburgers, french fries and sandwiches, but it may include Chinese noodles. In any case, fast food is prepared, even if only warmed up, in the microwave. For all the harm he does to the eater, fast food often tries to disguise itself as the right food: all sorts of tomato circles and lettuce leaves hint that vitamins are still present in the hamburger.
Another thing is junk food. Its main feature is the lack of need for any culinary processing. Opened the bag - and eat. Its second sign is a harmful and unbalanced composition. That is, the mass of salt (or sugar, depending on the variety), fats and a variety of chemical additives.
However, from the point of view of nutritionists and gastroenterologists, everything that is harmful from food is “weedy” food. Fast food is simply a variation of it.
What is related to junk food
Almost the entire range of our stalls can be included in the list. First of all, these are:
- all sweet carbonated drinks (they are also included in the list of fast food);
- chips;
- crackers;
- nuts. With them, by the way, is another story. All nuts themselves are a valuable nutritious product. Spoil their processing and storage. All additives, flavors, stabilizers and other additives actually negate the beneficial properties of nuts. And storing in bags quite quickly leads to the moldiness of both peanuts and pistachios. The taste of mold gets clogged with artificial additives, and as a result, “junk” food poisons the body with carcinogens;
- all chocolate bars. If you want sweets, it’s better to buy a natural chocolate bar;
- corn sticks and cereal;
- “Coffee” drinks (3 in 1, etc.);
- kids favorite popcorn;
- snacks, salted crackers, dried fish “for beer”, squid rings in bags;
- bouillon cubes and instant soups (also from the fast food category).
In a word, this includes everything that you can chew on the go, which is harmful from food and that each of us sometimes, albeit rarely, but buys.
How the body reacts to "weed" food
Doctors warn: first of all, the whole digestive system suffers . In addition to imbalance and excessive fat, all junk food is eaten dry, which irritates the mucous membranes and causes their inflammation. At the same time, the body has to spend more energy on digesting the wrong food, allocating more bile and enzymes. About 70 percent of modern people suffering from stomach ailments earned gastritis, ulcers and pancreatitis at junk food. Even worse, if children eat such food. They often have an acetonemic syndrome, accompanied by vomiting of an unclear etiology, diarrhea and continuous nausea.
The next problem that empty calories bring (another name for “weed” food) is obesity. Moreover, it catches a fan of such products even faster than a fast food fan. What threatens unnecessary, over-limit kilograms, everyone has been aware for a long time: cardiac ischemia, diabetes (most often insulin-dependent), hypertension, atherosclerosis, strokes.
Junk food is very dangerous for developing organisms. The bulk of such products include soy. And these beans contain a huge amount of estrogen of plant origin. As a result, girls have a sharp increase in the risk of breast cancer, and in boys, problems with the prostate gland often begin very early. Moreover, some doctors believe that the absorbed female hormones may well provoke the formation of non-traditional sexual orientation.
Is junk food a drug?
Recent studies by physicians and scientists have yielded completely stunning and frightening results. It turned out that regular consumption of such food causes addiction in the body akin to narcotic. Rats, on which experiments were made, accustomed to eating junk food, refused to eat anything else. They preferred to starve, but wait for the usual food. At the same time, they showed some signs of drug withdrawal: they became restless and more aggressive, rushed to the cells, barely sensed the smell of “weed” food. Moreover, similar studies were carried out in different parts of the world - Australia and the United States - and gave absolutely identical results. Doctors believe that the harm caused by junk food is comparable in intensity to chronic alcoholism and constant smoking combined.
Worse and worse
In addition to the already identified harm, the composition of the products from which food is made “out of the garbage” is worsening every year. If at the beginning of the 21st century the same chips were overwhelmingly prepared from natural potatoes, now manufacturers are saving on vegetables. Common practice is to use potato flour in them. And this is at best: on many packages the content of potatoes is indicated, and often it is less than half. So every year junk food is farther from natural food and more dangerous for the health of people who use it.