JUNK FOODS A NEW REVOLUTION OR DEGENERATION OF THE SOCIETY? Food is the most important basic necessity for man to survive or to live. A wide variety of food stuffs is available in the market. It is food preference of an individual that what one opts for his eating. Most teenagers or college students are in a habit of eating junk or fast foods. Junk foods are foods containing a lot of fat and sugar and hardly any roughage. Rapidly advancing modern age and irregular working hours of people have encouraged them to consume fast foods. It is also a hallmark of modernity among teenagers to eat such foods.  

The junk foods include the use of refined cereals such as maida which is extremely harmful. Refined cereals lack fiber which becomes a precursor of many diseases in our body. Cold drinks, cakes, pastries, burgers, pizzas, chips, noodles and fried foods combinedly form a category of junk foods. All these products lack vitamins, minerals, fiber, proteins and are highly calorie rich foods. The sedentary life style of about 70 percent Indian population and consumption of such foods is giving rise to many diseases unknowingly. Let us discuss the harmful effects of all junk foods .
Cold drinks: The basic constituents of cold drinks are carbon acids, sugar and preservatives. The carbon acids tend to corrode calcium and phosphorus from bones and are excreted in urine. So it give rise to diseases like osteoporosis. Cold drinks also contain alkaloids such as cocaine, morphine, quinine and caffeine. Percentage may very in different brands .
The presence of cocaine and caffeine in cold drinks are encouraging factors of consuming them.
Bakery products: These include pastries, cakes, chocolates and patties. These food products are highly rich in calories and fat. Refined wheat flour (Maida), Butter, Sugar, and Eggs are basic constituents of cakes and pastries. A small serving of these products result in ingestion of a huge amount of calories. This results in complex problems like obesity in children and teenagers. Obesity is resultant of more calories intake than calories consumed. Excess fat deposit as adipose tissue in the body. The consumption of refined food products results in Juvenile Diabetes, Cardiac failure and many deficiency diseases at an early age .Cocoa is chief constituent of chocolates which is 80 percent fat. Researches have
shown a rise in diseases like Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus and Anemia in developing countries like India. This is due to wrong food habits and sedentary life style . All these food products lack in roughage which should be most important part of our diet .
Other food products: These include Potato-Chips, Noodles Burgers, Pizzas Spaghetti, fried sandwiches etc. All the above food products are basically carbohydrate rich foods (Maida). Spices are among their rich ingredients Spices are aromatic, pungent substances. Condiments and spices irritate the mucous membranes and should be avoided in all the inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. In stomatitis spices produce a sense of intense burning, they should be avoided in excess as their consumption could result in diseases like gastritis, peptic ulcer and diarrhea. Regular consumption of spices in such foods can make an individual prone to urinary tract infections because irritation of intestinal mucous membranes by spices produces hyperaemia and favors absorption of bacteria which then reach the kidneys. Small amounts of spices may be absorbed into blood stream and irritate the urinary tract during excretion.
Junk foods lack a good amount of fiber, vitamins and minerals which are important for proper working of our body.
Deficiencies of various vitamins of B complex, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Proteins have all been shown to interfere with antibody formation, this decreases the immunity level of body and many diseases attack the human body. In children occurrence of infectious diseases affects adversely the growth rate of children. So consumption of junk foods only increases fat store of our body. So for a healthy living balanced diet is necessary and junk foods deteriorates the nutritional level of body and make the body a store house of diseases.