Know how the junk food is damaging your body by these 5 ways

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Who doesn’t love to eat fried or junk food? Now a day, junk foods hold a greater portion of food market. We spend a lot of food budget to those foods in a month. But, do you know how much damage you are doing to your own body via consumption of those limitless junk foods?

May we admit it or not, a lump sum amount of food budget, we spend at our favourite restaurants to order some junk foods, which are totally unhealthy.

Junk food can slow down your hunger in very short time with a long term negative consequences. This food habit is allowed occasionally which may not harm your body like the way they harm when you consume it regularly.

It can rotten your liver or harm your kidneys and even brain too. Beside this, junk food can destroy your health with varieties of ways including making you obese [1].

In India, an appalling rising of obesity cases, leads to take a step against these junk foods in different states. Not only the adults, but children are also the victim of junk foods.

Due to rapid urbanization, people with sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet, overweight and obesity are increasing a lot between the people of all age groups. In a recent report FSSAI said, “Thus we need to recognise and formulate strategies to reduce the burden of risk factors that fuel the chronic disease epidemic”.

Food with high trans and saturated fats, sugars and salt as well as fried foods are assumed as junk or unhealthy foods which are to be avoided. Consuming a lot of this type food can make you prone to some chronic diseases in adult life [2].

This article brings you the knowledge about how junk food harms you, makes you obese and prone to diseases.

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It destroys your brain as well as nervous system

Not only your favourite lip smacking rolls or pani-puri makes you obese, it also makes your brain’s integral part a little smaller. A little weird, but it is absolutely correct.

A recent study has shown that, the part of your brain, which controls the learning, memory, mentality or mental health, get smaller due to your uncontrollable diet full of unhealthy foods.

The shocking result of this study is applicable to all the age groups including children. Yes, what you eat in a day is very much relevant to affect the hippocampal size and function of your brain.

Another problem you can find if you are addicted to junk food is dementia, via high blood pressure and cholesterol content. This system can interrupt blood supply to your brain.

Along with the disturbances to blood supply, damaging of insulin supply to brain is another harmful effect of those high caloric junk foods. Insulin supply to brain is very important because it regulates the most important chemicals in the brain and maintain a healthy connections between the brain cells.

So, don’t risk your life in future, stay alert from now. Skip those pastries or burgers for the sake of your health.

It affects your liver badly

Additional sugar is present among all the sweetened beverages, soda, salty foods or pizzas. Consuming of lots of these foods can makes you prone to liver diseases.

A study reported that increasing sugars in daily diet leads to increase serum uric acid concentrations, which leads to different liver ailments.

Effects on respiratory and reproductive system

An indirect effect you can find in case of high consumption of junk food. Those high calorie foods can make you obese in no time, and the obesity increases the risk of respiratory problem including asthma or shortness of breath.

A recent study has showed that children, who consume the junk food three times in a week, may face the problem of asthma slowly.

Try to avoid those high caloric foods that can put pressure on your heart and lungs, and you may feel difficulty breathing specially during exercising or walking.

Your reproductive system may also damage due to over eating of junk foods, it can directly or indirectly harms your fertility.

Research showed that various processed food contains phthalates, a chemical that can interrupt the natural hormonal function in your body. So, avoid processed meat or any other processed foods to be safe from the reproductive issues or birth defects. 

Effects on integumentary and skeletal system

Skin is our first line of defence and brings a charm at our personality as well. But if you continuously consume a lot of fast food or junk food then your skin can clearly reflect the bad effect of it through acne, dry and patchiness.

Too much oily as well as high-carb foods leads to breakout of acne on your face. If you take the junk food for three times in a week, then you are more prone to develop eczema, a skin disease that causes skin irritation or itchy skin [3].

Now coming to the skeletal damage part of junk food, you know that your teeth are at risk. Cold drinks or high sugar contained foods can increase acidity in your mouth, due to this process, your tooth enamel breaks down. Because of this, bacteria can grow easily in your teeth and cavities may form.

obese people have a greater risk for falling down and breaking bones, so, specially for them it is very important to exercise and build muscles, and they should maintain a healthy diet to minimize bone loss. 

Effects on your kidneys

Anglia Ruskin University, Britain showed that, if your diet is mostly based on junk or processed food, then you are at a risk of developing diabetes in near future along with permanent damage to your kidneys.

In case of Type 2 diabetes, your body can’t produce enough insulin which results a build up of sugar in the blood. This condition have severe long-term consequences for your kidneys and can lead to diabetic kidney disease. i.e. junk food or high fat diet destroys your kidney just like type 2 diabetes [4]. So, try to avoid the intake of those food as much as possible. 

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Junk food intake calculator

Here you can find 5 types of common junk foods in India. Go through the calculator to calculate your points regarding intake of junk foods and compare whether it is the time to control it or not.

SL. No.	Junk Foods	Intake period	Points
1	Pizza/Burger	Monthly	1
		Weekly	2
		Daily	3
2	Soda/Cold drinks	Monthly	1
		Weekly	2
		Daily	3
3	All fried foods (including Luchi/Puri)	Monthly	1
		Weekly	2
		Daily	3
4	Sweets/ Candy/ Cake/ Pastries	Monthly	1
		Weekly	2
		Daily	3
5	Chowmin/ Momo/ Rolls	Monthly	1
		Weekly	2
		Daily	3

Check your result here.

1-5:  Your intake of junk foods is minimal.  Stick to this habit or try to avoid it too.

6-10: Your intake of junk foods is moderate to high. It’s the proper time to control it, otherwise it will increase in future and you will be in a risk of developing various diseases.

11-15: Your intake of junk foods is high to too much. I think you are obese or tend to be so. Control it immediately, or you will face some serious health issues in near future.

ConScience

This is the prime time to control your hunger for junk foods or processed foods or fast foods. These all are very harmful to your health for many aspects.

These foods not only can make you fat or obese, but also can destroy your appetite for healthy foods time by time. As you move for junk food, a lasting change can occur in your reward based circuit part of brain, and after consumption of some junk food, you crave for it more than before rather than consuming healthy foods.

So, your appetite also gets harmed by this food along with other previously mentioned diseases. So, it is better to leave the craving for your favourite pizzas or ‘Kochuris’, and indulge yourself on some healthy foods from now. Have a happy life.