Why many of us cannot do without junk food

During the evening hours in Wandegeya, three kilometres from the city centre, individuals are dashing to various restaurants to have a bite.

Surprisingly most of them are ordering for junk foods.

Alex Kasiima, a Makerere University student likes to eat ice cream and pizza.

From a far I am interested in knowing the reasons as to why they opt for junk rather than local healthy foods. I walk up to them and their reasons are quite interesting.

“You do not have to go to the kitchen and struggle cooking,” he says.

The waitress also confesses that she usually opts for junk as well arguing that she does not find time to prepare food since she is always busy with work.

Intrigued by the reasons for making junk a priority rather than local foods I pose a question in relation to the health implications that come with continuously eating junk foods. Well they are aware but because of unavoidable circumstances they cannot stop the habit.

We can see that today many restaurants selling fast foods are sprouting up in various areas especially in town.

In today’s busy environment one is required to wake up early in the morning with lots of things to do given the prevailing economic pressures from all corners of the world and the need to meet various demands from the society.

And for some there is need to keep up with a certain status in order to be recognized and respected.

Many have decided to work hard forgetting how important their health is yet without a healthy living; even our goals that we are in pursuit of are likely to be non-existent.

Junk food is usually cheap, processed and pre-packaged making it easily available, healthy foods such as vegetables, Matooke, rice and meat take time and kitchen equipment to cook properly, while fast foods are usually served within minutes of ordering. The convenience becomes a habit and eventually a perceived requirement to keep up with such a fast paced society. Disrupting that routine requires an investment of time and most people prefer to stick with the faster option.

However, Junk food is linked to obesity and chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, but many people still choose junk sources over healthy nutritious whole food which is a threat to one’s health.

“Feeding impacts health fundamentally, if you feed on foods that are not nutritious enough, the effects will come to you in one way or the other, it is public knowledge that we have now more of non-communicable diseases associated to feeding and other causes are diseases associated to feeding and other causes like diabetes, hyper tension, cancer are rampant,” Brenda Nabukenya, a nutritionist says.

Nabukenya adds that poor health impacts one’s output and this is one of the reasons as to why many people are breaking down today.

“If one is employed you have to beat deadlines, you have to work hard and you cannot meet demands or work to the required expectations if your health is poor.” She says.

But since it is hard to do away with junk foods given the nature of today’s society, having a balanced diet will help build one’s cells.

“Actually everyone needs to have a balanced diet, at least let us incorporate junk foods with local foods and you must also take a lot of water to avoid dehydration,” Nabukenya advises.

Studies show that over eating foods high in sugar or fat results in neurochemical changes in the brain similar to those that developed in drug addiction.