“You can’t have a healthy civilization without healthy soil. You can’t have junk food and have healthy people.” – Joel Salatin
We all know that junk food is unhealthy, not just for our kids, but for us as well. The fact that junk food is bad news for our health is, thankfully, common knowledge now. Junk food contains trans fat and other harmful contents that make our bodies unhealthy in millions of tiny ways. Many obesity-related diseases, especially diabetes, have been linked directly with the widespread consumption of junk food all over America.
Junk food consumption is pretty much universally bad for people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and body types. However, it’s important to note that it is especially bad for children; it may leave long-lasting consequences that are so resolute and difficult to remove that they might as well be permanent.
“Every living cell in your body is made from the food you eat. If you consistently eat junk food then you’ll have a junk body.” – Jeanette Jenkins
Junk food has been found to affect the cells in a child’s body in a way that the child’s capacity to metabolize is effectively destroyed for good. Eating too much junk food before the age of five can actually make your child’s body prone to obesity for the rest of their life.
The point of this article, however, is not to cause alarm. I want to make sure that all our readers are well informed of the worst of the lot and can take measures to keep these particularly horrible junk food items away from their children for as long as they can.
- Packaged potato chips.
- Flavoured/chocolate cereals.
- Carbonated beverages or soda.
- Fried chicken.
- Nachos.
- Chicken nuggets.
- Store-bought/Pre-packaged pizza.
These are some of the top favorite food items for kids. Even we encourage them to eat most of these. They are fine once in a blue moon, but the children getting used to these items as meals will imbalance their diet proportionately.
Final Thoughts
“A society that thinks the choice between ways of living is just a choice between equally eligible ‘lifestyles’ turns universities into academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind.” – George Will
Children are very susceptible to picking up habits. If we put them into the habit of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, then they will start following. Let them have it as a weekend treat or something, rather than completely shutting it down.
The reason some parents opt-out for letting their kids have junk food is the amount of effort it takes to prepare the food. If both the parents are working, then healthy meals become even more sporadic.
If you are going to be busy in the week, then you can start making a weekly meal plan. This will help you plan and prep in advance so that you can have healthy meals ready for you. List out the meals and what you want, then plan the ingredients, and get all the grocery shopping done to meal prep.
There are lots of healthy recipes for kids that you can make without much preparation. Be sure to make the most of your time so that you can work around your busy schedules and not skip paying attention to your’s and your children’s health.
