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The Awareness of Harmful Effects Associated With Junk Foods Consumption Among Adolescent of Bhagalpur |
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| Paper Id :
18891 Submission Date :
2024-02-16 Acceptance Date :
2024-02-24 Publication Date :
2024-02-25
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.13626468 For verification of this paper, please visit on
http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/shinkhlala.php#8
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| Abstract |
By the time our life
style has changed. We also see the shift of in eating behaviour and habits of
the people. They have adopted the tasty foods in place of healthy foods. Junk
food was coined by the Michel Jacobson, Director of the unit of science,
Washington in the year 1972. The healthy nutritional food accepted by the World
Health Organization includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and seeds. People
have preferred junk foods because of the simple procedure to make, taste, and
long shelf life. Junk food items come under two categories: Fast food and snack
food. The contents of junk foods include refined sugar, white flour, trans fat,
polyunsaturated fatty acid, salt, additives like monosodium glutamate and
tartrazine, and so on. Poor nutrition can harm physical and mental development,
weaken the immune system, and make people more vulnerable to a variety of
specific and general diseases. On the other hand junk food consumption has been
raised many times. It has metabolic abnormalities. Availability of junk foods in
school and colleges has contributed obesity and other health issues. Obesity is
prevalent throughout India, affecting all regions. The risk factors associated
with obesity were unhealthy food habits, a sedentary lifestyle, lack of
physical exercise, etc. Objectives:
The present study was done in order to assess the harmful effects associated
with junk food consumption. Regular and frequent consumption of junk food leads
to many health effects due to storage of more fats and sugar in our body.
Assessing the awareness of side effects associated with junk food can help to
improve the health status and alert people about the harmful effects of junk
foods. Methods: A study was conducted in Bhagalpur, Bihar to assess the
knowledge about junk foods and awareness about the junk food. For this 100
samples were chosen from the study area. The adolescent boys and girls were
asked questions. Actually it was a questionnaire based study. Collected data
were analyzed statistically. Results: The result of the present study
showed that among 100 people, 58% opted junk foods for taste as the predominant
factor, 21% said that they eat for the relief from hunger. 31 % adolescents
found as those who eat junk food thrice a day. Out of 100 respondents 43 % are
fully aware of junk’s food nutritional labels, and chemicals present in the
junk food was responded to by 57 %. The awareness of illness due to junk food
consumption was responded to by 79%. Conclusion: The present study showed that most people
were aware of the negative effects of junk food, but half refused to change
their eating habits. Frequent consumption of junk foods causes many health
problems. Further educational programs are required to provide information on
nutrition education and junk food. This will help people to reduce their junk
food intake. |
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| Keywords | Awareness, Harmful Effects, Junk Foods, Consumption, Behaviour, Habits. | ||||||
| Introduction | Every one of us should
have good health and it is necessary for living a healthy life and could only
be maintained by taking healthy diet and following healthy habits throughout
the life. However, the custom of eating junk food is increasing day by day.
Parents are fully responsible for the good or bad eating habits among their
kids. Junk foods are good looking, attractive and normally flavoured with
spices and hence all groups of people find it yummy for them. However, it is very
true that they are so coarse from inside. Junk foods are never considered
healthy for health. Junk foods are unfit to the health and one who practices to
eat junk foods calls so many disorders to his her health. By the time our
life style has changed. We also see the shift of in eating behaviour and habits
of the people. They have adopted the tasty foods in place of healthy foods.
Junk food was coined by the Michel Jacobson, Director of the unit of science,
Washington in the year 1972. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and seeds of
certain plants are considered healthy nutritional food by WHO (World Health
Organization). Normally junk foods are liked by the people due the reasons of
increased self life, ease in preparation and taste. Fast foods and snack are
two major categories of junk foods. Most of the ingredients of junk foods are-
refined sugar, white flour, polyunsaturated fatty acids trans fats and salt.
Food additives make junk foods attractive, colorful. Monosodium glutamate, an
additive, makes junk foods tasty. Many other food additives are also
incorporated in junk foods during processing. Consuming such fast foods provide
poor nutrition to users which may lead to poor physical and mental health and
may also suppress the immune system and make people susceptible of many
specific and general diseases. On the
other hand junk food consumption has been raised many times. It has metabolic
abnormalities. Availability of junk foods in school and colleges has
contributed obesity and other health issues. Obesity is one of the bad impacts
of fast food consumption. Unhealthy food habits, sedentary life and not taking
regular and proper exercises increases the risk factors. The prevalence of
fast-food consumption has been increased and is positively correlated with
metabolic abnormalities. As per the data published by World Health Organization
in 2016, approx 300 million children were found overweight. The numbers of
overweight or obese adults were found more than double to that of children.
Obesity was more common than that of men. Lack of exercise, unhealthy eating
habits and lack of physical activities were found risk factors with obese
persons.
Ultra
processed foods and even processed foods with high sodium content, transfats
and over laden sugar are very harmful. Presence of sugar and transfats in
processed foods affects cardiovascular system and digestive system in adverse
manner. Use of excessive sugar causes dental caries and increases the risk of
Type-2 diabetes. Monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer which is used as
food additives to improve taste of junk foods and is very harmful. An earlier study reported that the
administration of MSG at a dose of 0.6 (mg/g of body wt) induced oxidative
stress and toxicity in liver in experimental rats. Keeping this fact in the
mind that junk foods are harmful for the people of all age groups, special
attention is necessary to control the use of such fast foods. |
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| Objective of study | This study was carried
out to assess the awareness of harmful effects associated with junk food
consumption among adolescents. |
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| Review of Literature | For this paper, many books and research papers i.e. ‘Determinants of junk food consumption among adolescents in Pokhara Valley, Nepal’ ,’Fast
foods and their impact on health’, ‘Nutritional challenges and health
consequences of junk foods’, ‘Epidemiology of childhood overweight and obesity
in India: A systematic review’ has been reviewed wihich are discussed throughout
the paper. |
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| Methodology | It is a cross sectional and questionnaire based
study. The questionnaire consists of 10 questions. Questions were related with
awareness of about the harmful effects chemicals and other ingredients of junk
foods, frequency of taking such foods and preference. For the survey 100
samples (adolescent boys and girls) of different age groups were chosen. The
questionnaire was distributed and the objective of the study was explained to
them, then they were provided 15 min to fill out the questionnaire. They were
assured that the confidentiality of their information would be strictly
protected. The completed questionnaire was analyzed and interpreted based on
pie-chart and bar graphs. |
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| Result and Discussion |
In this study 100
adolescents (boys and girls) participated and successfully completed the
questionnaire, so we can say that the percentage of response was 100%. Among
100 participants 76 per cent were male respondents and 24 per cent were female
respondents.
Fig. 1: Gender-wise distribution of
participants Frequency of eating junk food is found to be – 10 % of once, 19% for those who eat junk food twice a day, 31 % found as those who eat junk food thrice a day and 40 % respondents told that they eat junk food any time. That means, they eat junk food whenever they get the chance.
Fig.-2: Frequency of junk food per day On the questions ‘why
you eat junk food?’ Responses comes out are as follows- 58% responded said that
they eat fast food for the reason of taste, 21% said that they eat for the
relief from hunger at about mid day when they are out of home, 14% admitted
that junk foods are easily available and only 7% said that they prefer junk
food to save time. Fig.-3: preference for junk food Factors associated
with junk food consumption were represented in Fig. 4. The main factor influencing
the consumption of junk food is taste. About 58% chose taste, followed by 21%
due to hunger and 14% of respondents chose junk food flavor, and only 7% are
those who said that they are attracted for the reason of colour.
Fig.- 4 Factors associated with junk food
consumption The respondent’s
favorite junk food was mentioned in the following figure. About 63 % of
respondents preferred noodles and fried rice, followed by 21% opting for pizza
and burgers, 13% opting for deep-fried meat and soft drinks, and the remaining
3% opting for chips and biscuits. Fig.- 5: The favorite junk food Awareness of
nutritional labels was depicted in Fig. 6. About 43% of people are fully aware
of junk food’s nutritional label, and the remaining 57% are not aware of the
nutritional label.
Fig.-6 Awareness of nutritional labels on
junk foods Awareness of chemicals
present in junk food was depicted in Fig.7. When people were asked about their
awareness of chemicals present in junk food, 57% said that they were aware of
the chemicals present in junk food; about 32% said that they were not aware of
the chemicals in junk food, while 11 % were those who said that they cannot say
anything about it. Fig.- 7: Chemicals present in the junk foods Fig. 8 represents the
awareness about the harmful effects of junk food. About 79% of people are aware
of the diseases caused by junk food and the remaining 21% are not aware of the
harm caused by junk food.
Fig.-8: Awareness of harmful effects of junk
food? People were asked
about junk food being unhealthy and whether they could avoid it completely Fig.
9 depicted the percentage of responses. About 77% of respondents refuse to
avoid junk food and 23% are willing to avoid junk food altogether.
Fig.-9: Percentage of responses to avoid junk food. The data represents
the outcome of junk food consumption in Fig. 10. The outcome of junk food
consumption was asked, 66% opted for obesity, followed by 19 % who said that
they think that it is responsible for stroke, 9% argued that more time is saved
in fast food consumption, and rest 6%, opted fast foods for quick energy. Fig.
10: The outcomes of junk food consumption |
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| Conclusion |
Junk food is common now a day. Consumption of junk
food is increasing day by day mostly due to its taste, ease in procurement,
availability in ready to eat package, and less time in preparation before
consuming. People have enough knowledge about the ill effects about its
consumption but prefer it. They also know that it contains many harmful
chemicals and many formed during its preparation but a large part of the
population are not ready to keep it away. National and International programmes
on nutrition education are needed to reduce the consumption of junk food. |
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| References |
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