WHAT IS JUNK FOOD?

Any food that has poor nutritional value is considered unhealthy and may be called a junk food. A food that is high in fat, sodium, and/or sugar is known as a junk food. Junk food is easy to carry, purchase and consume. Generally, a junk food is given a very attractive appearance by adding food additives and colors to enhance flavor, texture, appearance, and increasing long self life.

A junk food has little enzyme producing vitamins & minerals and contains high level of calories. When we eat these empty calorie foods, the body is required to produce its own enzymes to convert these empty calories into usable energy. This is not desired as these enzyme producing functions in our body should be reserved for the performance of vital metabolic reactions.

Remember, junk foods are empty calories. An empty calorie lacks in micro-nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, or amino acids, and fiber but has high energy (calories).

Since junk food is high in fats and sugars, it is responsible for obesity, dental cavities, Type 2 diabetes and heart diseases.
Junk Food & Cholesterol

Fried and processed food, particularly fast food, contains high amounts of oxycholesterol, Reports Scientists from China in the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in August 2009. Oxycholesterol is a little-known type of cholesterol which may prove to be the lethal to heart health.

A healthy diet rich in antioxidants can counter these effects.

Some junk food pictures of beef burger, french fries, coco cola, and potato chips and cinema popcorns are given below.

Junk Food Beef burger, French fries, Cola, Chips, Popcorn

Cinema popcorn: Popcorns are healthy but the one sold in cinemas are nutritional horror. The Center for Science in the Public Interest compared in Nov 2009 some popcorn and drinks combos sold at key movie theater chains in USA and found the following:

A medium popcorn and soda combo at Regal, the United States' biggest movie theater chain, contains 1610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat.

At AMC theaters, a large popcorn contains 1030 calories and 57 grams of saturated fat.

The high calorie counts could be due to the fact that corn was popped in coconut oil. Popcorn cooked in canola oil showed lower levels of saturated fats but similar levels of calories and sodium.
List of Junk Foods

Given below is a list of junk food (empty calorie) items that you should avoid. It is now up to you how you can keep your four trillion cells happy.

* Sugars, Refined foods, like sugar and plain flour (maida) based items like white bread and most packaged goods, like Twinkies and sugar donuts, etc. (Sugar Substitutes)Our body eventually turns sugars into fat. If you consume just 3 tsp of sugar daily, imagine how much sugar you would have consumed by the time you are 50 years of age; it will be about 275 kg !, about 5 time your weight !!

* Fats & Hydrogenated oils They are found in cookies, chips, candy bars, fried foods, muffins, bologna, etc. etc. Many snacks, such as potato chips, cheeseburgers and fries, have high levels of fat, sugar or salt-ingredients that are usually best limited to a small portion of your diet. The saturated fat mainly comes from animal products. Remember there is nothing that is useful for our body in foods with hydrogenated or trans fat.
The excessive fats stick to our arteries and cause the blockages leading to heart disease and strokes. They can also aid to cancer, arthritis, PMS and sexual dysfunction.
Some fats like Omega-3 fatty acids are good for our bodies.

* Salt: Excessive salt is not good for our body (Daily Salt Recommendation). However, sodium in moderate amount, along with potassium, maintains the water balance in our body. But too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. Pretzels, chips and many canned food items contain excessive salt. (a href="/nutrition/high-sodium.html">High sodium food list)

i took the reference from : http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/junkfoods/junkfoods1.html