Health risks junk food

The American Epidemic and the Health Risks of Junk Food

Obesity is an American epidemic, and it is directly related to the SAD, or Standard American Diet.  Our diets are loaded with junk food.  Couple that with the fact that we don’t exercise as much as we should, and you have the American obesity epidemic.

We’re going to say, for this article, that “junk food” is food that is 1) highly processed, 2) high in fat, 3) high in sugar and 4) low in fiber.  Junk food is terrible for you.  There are significant health risks junk food causes.

Highly Processed

One of the health risks junk food causes involves highly processed foods. Highly processed food has lost much of its nutritional value.  Each processing step removes more nutrition from the final product.  Take, for instance, cheese puffs.  The puff itself is probably made of very highly refined wheat flour, and the cheese coating has been dried and powdered.  There isn’t much nutrition left, but it still retains all the calories.  So all you’re getting is calories.  Because it is nutritionally empty, your body will continue to want to eat, and you’ll continue to consume calories you don’t need until you get something that actually provides some nutrition.

High in Fat

Another one of the health risks junk food causes deals with high fat. High fat diets contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke…the list goes on and on.  Fat is fat, and too much of it is not good for you, but some fats are better than others.  Small amounts of the right fats are good for you, but junk food doesn’t have the right fats.  Junk food is usually high in hydrogenated oils and may contain trans-fatty acids, both of which raise cholesterol and triglycerides.

High in Sugar

High sugar diets lead to type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.  They are implicated in metabolic syndrome, which is a factor in heart disease.  When you ingest large amounts of refined sugar, your body releases insulin in order to metabolize it.  It overproduces the insulin, and you will often get a hypoglycemic episode, or “sugar low.” 30-60 minutes afterward.  As this continues to happen, your body becomes desensitized to the insulin, or insulin resistant.  That makes it harder to lose weight, and the sugar you take in is more easily converted to fat.

Low in Fiber

Fiber is necessary for intestinal health, and chronic fiber deficiency causes your colon to become flaccid and lazy, and decreases its ability to absorb nutrients.  Diets low in fiber contribute to constipation and other bowel problems.

The health risks of junk food are simply too high to ignore.  It is one thing to have a piece of birthday cake once in a while, but we Americans often eat more junk food than anything else.  The effects are obvious in the epidemic of obesity we are now experiencing.