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People today are becoming addicted to fast food without realizing the effects. Anywhere you go today, you’ll find McDonald’s fast food near you, which is harming American children more than anything else. A typical child today lives and grows up on fast food just because parents don’t have enough time to cook. Often, the sodium level is grossly excessive. A significant portion of the population is sodium sensitive in that high sodium levels result in high blood pressure. The use of high-fructose corn syrup in numerous products delays the onset of satiety (a feeling of fullness) and encourages people to eat more of the product. Fast food can also become very addicting like a drug where you tend to crave the salt or sweetness of the food. This can lead to eating disorders. Such as overeating. You might also want to mention the carbon-footprint issues of fast-food chains processing their ingredients in a central location and then trucking them to the individual stores. If they were required to buy at least their produce locally (and, one hopes, from organic farms), much less carbon would be spewed into the atmosphere. Also, don't look at eating healthier just as *avoiding* diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Making simple choices such as whole-grain bread instead of the more processed white bread or whole-grain pasta instead of white-flour pasta will have positive effects on the human body by providing more nutrients, micronutrients, and fiber. P.S. After some thought, I realize that probably the most important answers to these questions are these: The people most likely to eat at fast food restaurants are low-income individuals and families with small children and limited time. Children are targeted specifically with advertising. And children should be eating healthful food, not the cheaply produced, additive-chocked, low-cost product currently available from fast-food restaurants, where even the salads are "enhanced" with additives that keep the ingredients "fresh" for extended periods of time. Low-income individuals are often obese specifically because of the low nutritional value of the food they eat, and "fast food" is right there at the head of the list of products of dubious nutritional value. Junk foods are designed to create the desire to eat more of them--loaded with salt, sugar, and other taste-enhancing, freshness-extending chemicals. One of the biggest problems of junk foods is that often, they are packaged and labeled to resemble--and be mistaken for--similar more healthful foods. For example, read the labels in the "juice" aisle at your local supermarket. Many of the labels will contain colorful pictures of fruit while the liquid inside will contain less than 20% juice and a lot of sugar (often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup). Many of the labels that state that the contents are "100% juice" also state in tiny fonts that the primary juices are apple and pear, the *least* nutritious juices, and the other, more nutritious, juices included account for a much smaller proportion. Clearly, the intent is to sell more juice at the highest profit possible, not to provide a nutritious food to our children. 1.1 Introdcution Junk food is an informal term applied to some foods that are perceived to have little or no nutritional value (i.e. containing "empty calories"), or to products with nutritional value but which also have ingredients considered unhealthy when regularly eaten, or to those considered unhealthy to consume at all. The term was coined by Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in 1972. Junk foods are typically ready-to-eat convenience foods containing high levels of saturated fats, salt, or sugar, and little or no fruit, vegetables, or dietary fiber; junk foods thus have little or no health benefits. Common junk foods include salted snack foods (chips, crisps), candy, gum, most sweet desserts, fried fast food and carbonated beverages (sodas) , burgers and pizzas as well as alcoholic beverages. JUNK FOOD Junk food is everywhere and it is being consumed by our youngsters in record quantities. “Junk food” is food which traditionally has no nutritional value. It deprives the body of necessary nutrients and its over consumption over time leads to obesity, medical problems, and behavioral problems. Junk food consumption is associated with various physical ailments including obesity, Type II diabetes, heart attacks, and decreased life expectancy. Because of junk food, “our children’s life expectancy could be lower than our own.” Junk food is also a major cause in the 23 percent of Indian children who are overweight.Fast food and the increasingly available category of junk food is stongly correlated to the “300 percent increase in the rate of children who are either overweight or obese.”