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| Address the need to solve the problem. |
By now, we know that processed food elimination is one of the most important preventative health measures and that any healthy diet should avoid it. Healthy food is extremely important for the mental health of students.
If all of this is common knowledge, why is junk food still so prevalent? The reason is that junk food has many advantages that healthy food does not meet in its current form.
Let's look at the ways the junk food benefits students in schools so that we can devise smarter to ways to meet these needs with better food options.
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| What needs does junk food meet? |
Advantages of junk food in schools
- Junk food fills you up quickly
- Junk food is cheap and easy to produce
- There are millions of dollars invested into the marketing of junk food
- Junk food tastes good (addictive substances like sugar, sodium and sweeteners)
- Junk food is tightly ingrained into modern culture
- Junk food is convenient (does not spoil, is not easily damaged, easily carried in bags)
- The packaging is designed to make you crave junk food
1. Junk food fills you up quickly
Time is a precious resource. Students are quickly introduced to a rushed lifestyle as they shuttle from one class to another. They have a limited time to satisfy their hunger during a lunch break before their next class begins.
You could finish an entire burger and fries in the time that it takes to peel an orange. The fact that you need to chew on an apple or carrot for longer than you need to eat a bag of chips is one of the reasons why we don't like eating fruit.
Fruit is mostly made up of water and fiber. This provides fewer calories per bite and causes you to chew more for fewer nutrients. The weight loss and nutritional benefits of healthy food are negated by the fact that you feel fuller for less consumption time with processed, junk food.
The fiber in fruit, ironically, will keep you fuller for longer - It just takes more time to get to that point when you consume it. Chewing food for longer also gives you a sexy jawline.
How to overcome the fact that junk food feels more filling
The easiest way to overcome the time-saving advantage of junk food is to recognize the fact that you will feel less hungry in the hours to come when you eat whole food instead of junk food. Why save a few moments of chew time when you can save an entire hour or two of hunger later down the line?
Another key element is to focus on what you are filling up on. Fill up on the stuff that improves brain function. Don't fill up on the stuff that lowers your energy levels in the long run.
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| Enjoy health. |
2. Junk food is cheap and easy to produce
Processed food is often made from the unwanted by-products of agriculture. Cheap ingredients like sugar and sodium are used to enhance taste. Chemicals can be made on a massive scale to reduce their cost. An enhanced shelf life means that products don't need to be transported, shelved or sold at a certain time.
The cost of delivery is reduced when it can be prioritized over time of delivery. Foods that don't require refrigeration, for example, are cheaper to move from one location to another.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true when it comes to whole, natural foods. Fresh produce incurs loss at every step of the process. A certain portion of fresh produce is lost during the growing phase. More is lost when it is picked and sorted. There are greater losses between transportation and shelving.
This dramatically increases the cost of unprocessed food.
Hormones, antibiotics, fertilizers and pesticides reduce the rate of food loss. This is why organic and free-range food is so much more expensive (even though it can have double the beneficial value).
Processed food also lasts longer after it has been purchased. You can buy a month's supply of instant noodles in bulk. You don't have to worry about the fact that it will spoil. You can't do the same of most fruit and vegetables. You'd have to buy them a week in advance or else they will spoil.
The cost of delivery is reduced when it can be prioritized over time of delivery. Foods that don't require refrigeration, for example, are cheaper to move from one location to another.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true when it comes to whole, natural foods. Fresh produce incurs loss at every step of the process. A certain portion of fresh produce is lost during the growing phase. More is lost when it is picked and sorted. There are greater losses between transportation and shelving.
This dramatically increases the cost of unprocessed food.
Hormones, antibiotics, fertilizers and pesticides reduce the rate of food loss. This is why organic and free-range food is so much more expensive (even though it can have double the beneficial value).
Processed food also lasts longer after it has been purchased. You can buy a month's supply of instant noodles in bulk. You don't have to worry about the fact that it will spoil. You can't do the same of most fruit and vegetables. You'd have to buy them a week in advance or else they will spoil.
How do you overcome the cheap price of processed food?
You can freeze fresh produce to prolong its shelf live. This will enable you to buy healthy food in bulk.
It is also a good idea to buy locally produced food. You get to support local farmers (who probably use fewer chemicals than large companies who produce food to scale). This greatly reduces transportation costs - along with the costs of food loss along every step of the delivery process.
You can also save money by purchasing selected fruit and vegetables within their season.
Another great idea is to look into growing your own food at home. Start with a single herb and take it from there.
These adverts program the viewer (or listener) to view junk food as pleasurable. The products are seen as one of the ways that you can achieve happiness or a sense of rest from your daily grind.
To test the results of extensive product advertising, try to name 5 fast food brands. Now try to name 5 producers of fruit, vegetables or whole meat. The only 'health' products we can name are also processed foods like supplement companies.
A large part of this is the fact that whole food companies do not rely on advertising to sell their products. They rely on price to provide their products to retailers and, therefore, consumers. Since they rely so heavily on price, advertising budgets are greatly limited.
It is hard to differentiate one apple from another through advertising, but is it easy to do so for beverages with different taste profiles.
If the same level of marketing for junk food was used for healthy food, our internal perspective about healthy food would be a lot different. We would consume more healthy food automatically because we'd be programmed to do so.
The rise of online health communities has changed the way that people perceive a healthy lifestyle. This may give rise to extremism (taking a certain health principle too far or promoting a health benefit that does not exist), but health sources that point to reputable studies can usually be trusted.
People who expose themselves to these health sources on a regular basis are more likely to choose healthier alternatives.
Junk food, on the other hand, is specifically designed to taste as good as possible. Researchers take advantage of our natural inclination towards certain flavors and use them to sell more products. They are designed to be addictive.
Sugar is rare in nature. Our brains release dopamine when we eat it to ensure that we can remember where to find that source of food when food is scarce. Sugar has the role of telling us what is edible and what is not.
Processed food takes advantage of our natural inclination towards sugar. Food with more sugar than its alternative will have greater sales. Companies now add as much sugar as possible to processed food to help it outsell its competitors.
The maximum amount of sugar that a food can take before its taste is negatively affected is called the bliss point. This is also done in foods we don't even think about - like bread, pasta, ketchup and peanut butter.
Sugar is not the only addictive substance that makes food taste better than it should. Manufacturers use salt, MSG, fat and oil for the same reason.
Anecdotal evidence has linked MSG to a variety of health complications, but companies still use the chemical because it gives them an edge over the products that don't.
Artificial sweeteners are proven to be more addictive than cocaine. This is another ingredient that improves the taste and desirability of junk food over natural food.
We have learned to associate hot dogs or potato chips with sporting events, alcohol with social occasions and beer with manliness (although beer increases estrogen, reduces testosterone and gives you man boobs).
It is culturally acceptable to flood little children with sugar and artificial flavors before they can make up their own minds about whether they want to live a healthy lifestyle or not. This pre-disposes them to cancer, diabetes, obesity and sugar addiction.
One of the biggest disadvantages of a healthy lifestyle is that you will look weird as soon as you make healthy life choices that don't follow the social norm.
An unhealthy diet causes one in every five deaths, globally.
It doesn't damage as fast as healthy food, either. You have to be careful not to bruise an apple or bend a banana.
This adds to the inconvenience of healthy food and makes us opt for unhealthy food instead.
Another advantage about the convenience of junk food is the fact that it is available almost everywhere. The nearest store will almost always have a large selection of junk food. Healthy foods are limited to supermarkets, wholefood stores and specialty outlets.
You don't have a large selection of healthy food at smaller convenience stores. There aren't many people selling fresh fruit and vegetables at sports games.
Almost everybody works close to a food stand that provides junk food without healthy alternatives.
Meal prep is a great way to turn healthy food into the most convenient option out there. You only need to cook a meal once, freeze it, and warm it up in the same way that you would with junk food.
This doesn't necessarily diminish your options throughout the week, either. You can prep a week's supply of chicken breasts (which are very healthy) and mix it up by eating it with different toppings on different days. Who feels like a delicious Chicken avocado salad?
If companies collectively spend billions of dollars on marketing, you can bet that they've optimized their packaging to be as enticing as possible. Warmer colors are used to induce a sense of hunger and craving.It is also a good idea to buy locally produced food. You get to support local farmers (who probably use fewer chemicals than large companies who produce food to scale). This greatly reduces transportation costs - along with the costs of food loss along every step of the delivery process.
You can also save money by purchasing selected fruit and vegetables within their season.
Another great idea is to look into growing your own food at home. Start with a single herb and take it from there.
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| Smart health can save you money. |
3. Billions Of dollars are poured into the marketing of junk food
Junk food is extremely desirable. A large part of its desirability is owed to the extensive marketing campaigns that junk food companies promote. McDonald's, for example, spent over 470 million dollars on advertising in 2018. Coca-Cola spent around 5.8 billion dollars on advertising in the same year.These adverts program the viewer (or listener) to view junk food as pleasurable. The products are seen as one of the ways that you can achieve happiness or a sense of rest from your daily grind.
To test the results of extensive product advertising, try to name 5 fast food brands. Now try to name 5 producers of fruit, vegetables or whole meat. The only 'health' products we can name are also processed foods like supplement companies.
A large part of this is the fact that whole food companies do not rely on advertising to sell their products. They rely on price to provide their products to retailers and, therefore, consumers. Since they rely so heavily on price, advertising budgets are greatly limited.
It is hard to differentiate one apple from another through advertising, but is it easy to do so for beverages with different taste profiles.
If the same level of marketing for junk food was used for healthy food, our internal perspective about healthy food would be a lot different. We would consume more healthy food automatically because we'd be programmed to do so.
How to overcome the mass marketing of junk food
Health bloggers, YouTube influences and other online personalities have changed health culture in the past few years. We used to get our health advice from our doctors once a year - if they made any health recommendations at all.The rise of online health communities has changed the way that people perceive a healthy lifestyle. This may give rise to extremism (taking a certain health principle too far or promoting a health benefit that does not exist), but health sources that point to reputable studies can usually be trusted.
People who expose themselves to these health sources on a regular basis are more likely to choose healthier alternatives.
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| Choose your influence. |
4. Junk food tastes good
Plants and animals weren't designed to taste good. They were designed with to survive and flourish as much as possible.Junk food, on the other hand, is specifically designed to taste as good as possible. Researchers take advantage of our natural inclination towards certain flavors and use them to sell more products. They are designed to be addictive.
Sugar is rare in nature. Our brains release dopamine when we eat it to ensure that we can remember where to find that source of food when food is scarce. Sugar has the role of telling us what is edible and what is not.
Processed food takes advantage of our natural inclination towards sugar. Food with more sugar than its alternative will have greater sales. Companies now add as much sugar as possible to processed food to help it outsell its competitors.
The maximum amount of sugar that a food can take before its taste is negatively affected is called the bliss point. This is also done in foods we don't even think about - like bread, pasta, ketchup and peanut butter.
Sugar is not the only addictive substance that makes food taste better than it should. Manufacturers use salt, MSG, fat and oil for the same reason.
Anecdotal evidence has linked MSG to a variety of health complications, but companies still use the chemical because it gives them an edge over the products that don't.
Artificial sweeteners are proven to be more addictive than cocaine. This is another ingredient that improves the taste and desirability of junk food over natural food.
How do we overcome the good tasting effects of junk food?
It takes 10-14 days to renew your taste buds. You don't need to wait too long to change your flavor profile.
The power of association can also trump the addictive qualities of junk food. It is good to associate junk food with bad things like health complications and associate healthy food with good things like an improved appearance, better energy or enhanced concentration.
There more you know about something, the more likely you are to make the smarter choice. Knowledge is power.
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| Know more. Be better. |
5. Junk food is tightly ingrained into modern culture
This is one of the biggest obstacles to living a healthy lifestyle. Burgers, chocolate brownies and apple pie would be the national food of America. Let's not forget about hot dogs (although processed meat is known to cause cancer and heart disease).We have learned to associate hot dogs or potato chips with sporting events, alcohol with social occasions and beer with manliness (although beer increases estrogen, reduces testosterone and gives you man boobs).
It is culturally acceptable to flood little children with sugar and artificial flavors before they can make up their own minds about whether they want to live a healthy lifestyle or not. This pre-disposes them to cancer, diabetes, obesity and sugar addiction.
One of the biggest disadvantages of a healthy lifestyle is that you will look weird as soon as you make healthy life choices that don't follow the social norm.
An unhealthy diet causes one in every five deaths, globally.
Who is to blame?
Who do we blame for this? It is the large companies that profit from this culture and have poured billions of dollars into shaping the way we see their products? Do we blame medical practitioners for their silence on how our lifestyle is causing disease? Should we blame our parents for the way that they brought us up? Do we blame ourselves for following the crowd?How to overcome the cultural connection to junk food
Health culture has become a popular movement of its own. Vegans aren't weird anymore. Keto is more popular than ever. Here are the most popular diets at the moment. Health culture is redefining what we call normal.
The easiest way to escape the unhealthy trends of the day is to find some good, healthy influences that you respect. Join an online community or follow the healthy habits of your favorite celebrity.
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| Surround yourself with goodness. |
6. Junk food is convenient
Junk food does not spoil. People can grab a bag of chips or a candy bar and keep it in their bags for an extremely long period of time.It doesn't damage as fast as healthy food, either. You have to be careful not to bruise an apple or bend a banana.
This adds to the inconvenience of healthy food and makes us opt for unhealthy food instead.
Another advantage about the convenience of junk food is the fact that it is available almost everywhere. The nearest store will almost always have a large selection of junk food. Healthy foods are limited to supermarkets, wholefood stores and specialty outlets.
You don't have a large selection of healthy food at smaller convenience stores. There aren't many people selling fresh fruit and vegetables at sports games.
Almost everybody works close to a food stand that provides junk food without healthy alternatives.
How to overcome the convenience of junk food
It is important to plan ahead. You won't have to choose junk food when you bring your own lunch. You can place fruit in larger boxes to stop them from bruising.Meal prep is a great way to turn healthy food into the most convenient option out there. You only need to cook a meal once, freeze it, and warm it up in the same way that you would with junk food.
This doesn't necessarily diminish your options throughout the week, either. You can prep a week's supply of chicken breasts (which are very healthy) and mix it up by eating it with different toppings on different days. Who feels like a delicious Chicken avocado salad?
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| No plan, no success |
7. The packaging is designed to make you crave junk food
When you see an empty Coke bottle on the ground, your subconscious mind imagines that somebody else enjoyed it. This could make you want a Coke. It works like a form of subliminal messaging.
Have you ever seen someone eat junk food and wish that you were eating it as well? Every time you buy a food product, you advertise it to the people around you through its packaging.
How to overcome the persuasive packaging of junk food
You can train your brain to want different things. Junk food companies sell a sense of enjoyment or fulfillment. What if you wanted health or long-term success (through mental improvement from good nutrition) more than momentary gain?The pleasure of junk food will be less desirable when you aim for something greater.
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| Your focus determines your direction. |
These are the advantages of junk food and the best ways to overcome them. Did you enjoy this article? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Stay Strong!
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