Semana 05: Is Fast Food Always Junk Food? - Curso Grátis de Inglês

Is fast food always junk food?

You’ve done your homework, you feel hungry, and you’ve got just half an hour before you go out to meet your friends. There’s no time to cook a meal; what you need is some fast food.

Most people think that fast food is junk food. What is junk food? Food that contains too much of the wrong things and too little of the right ones. So there is too much sugar, salt and fat in it. Typical junk foods are: hamburgers, fried chicken, chips, cakes, sweets, ice creams, biscuits and crisps.

But fast food can also be healthy. What about a banana? An apple? A pear? A piece of cheese? Some yoghurt? A glass of milk?

You can kill your hunger with a bag of chips, but it’s much healthier to have some fruit or a glass of milk. And these things won’t make you fat.

So why do so many young people choose junk food? One reason is that they see many advertisements for junk foods on television. Research shows that the more TV children watch, the more they ask for the advertised junk foods. As a result, they eat far too much sugar and fat and not enough fruit and vegetables. Another reason is that they do not know what they are putting into their bodies, and what it is doing to them. If they did, they would not eat so much junk food. Don’t forget that you are what you eat!