Junk Food Problems

In recent years, health organizations have been heavily campaigning for healthy eating. One of their biggest campaigns is to encourage healthy eating among children, in light of the increasing number of children diagnosed with obesity and diabetes. Despite the support of media groups, schools, and government, however, most health organizations find that though they have increased awareness, they haven't been able to make an impact on the situation. The junk food problems many children have are a leading cause of the lacking results.

Junk food problems are something many children and adults have. The inability to resist these types of foods or the preference for these types of foods is a direct contributor to the obesity problem and unhealthy eating habits many children have. Research has shown that when foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt are available and are convenient to eat, both children and adults will prefer to eat them. The more they're eaten and are incorporated into the daily diet, the worse the problem becomes.

The availability and convenience of these foods is perhaps the main part of the problem. Even if schools and parents educate their children on how to eat healthy and even if schools serve only healthy lunches in their cafeterias, simply having “junk food competition” can be detrimental to living a healthy lifestyle. Chips, candy, cookies, and cakes are often still sold in schools, with suburban schools having the highest number of vending machines and the most variety of unhealthy foods. For as long as kids can buy junk food in schools, the problem will never really go away.

As a parent, one way you can address junk food problems is to prevent your child from having the ability to buy these foods in school. If the school has a lunch program, sending them to school with a snack should assure you that your child has something to eat throughout the day. If the school doesn't serve free lunch, then sending your child to school with both a packed snack and lunch is ideal. You can do this all throughout the elementary grades. Naturally, children will complain if they still have packed lunches after a certain age. By this time, however, your child should be used to healthy eating and should be used to making healthy choices. That means that they are less likely to choose junk foods.

Junk food problems are a long way off from being solved. With food companies making sure they stay in the market, it is doubtful that there will ever be a school or public place free of junk food. However, by increasing awareness and through some parenting techniques, both the junk food and the problems they bring can be avoided.