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A Review of the Literature on Factors that Influence Junk food Consumption
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Abstract
In the United States, the rates of overweight are high, and the occurrence of obesity has been
rising in the past few decades. Overconsumption of junk food has been among the
contributing factors that drive the obese or overweight epidemic. This paper presents a
literature review that summarizes the demerits of junk food on people's health, discloses an
average of junk food consumed by ordinary people. From this background, the paper is to
investigate why some individuals opt not to take junk food and the factors why some people
go for junk food, as well as to summarize selected recommendations that can assist in
reducing junk food consumption from previous studies.
Keywords: consumption, junk food, health
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A Review of the Literature on Factors that Influence Junk food Consumption
Introduction
Junk or fast food is associated with pizza, fries, or hamburgers, or any lowly priced
food that is easily prepared as well as quickly served. Many people acknowledge junk food as
fast food or processed food, and this includes sugar, white flour, maple syrup, agave nectar,
honey, and to mention a few (Fuhrman 2018). Junk food has been popularized, since the
1950s, and from then, it has been penetrating the food market at a fast rate. In the United
States (US), junk food restaurants or outlets are characterized by packed drive-through and
crowds of people waiting for orders. Despite most of the clients being aware of the harm
associated with junk food to their health, there are endless streams of customers that order for
junk food.
To investigate what makes customers take junk food despite being aware of its impact
on health, this literature review will avail a short explanation on the harmful effects
associated with junk food, investigate current consumption of junk food, relate the two
conflicting decisions people make when choosing food, and finally propose a practical plan
against overconsumption of junk food. The mentioned objectives will assist in formulating
five questions.
Research Question
Based on the objectives previously mentioned, the following are posed as questions:
1. What are the demerits of junk food on a person's health?
2. What is the common person's average junk food intake?
3. Why do some people choose not to take junk food?
4. Why do some people choose to take junk food?
5. What recommendations can assist in reducing junk food consumption among people?
Hypothesis
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Acknowledgment of the existing phenomena and understanding the motive of why
there is a large group of people who consume junk food can assist in searching for beneficial
solutions.
Literature Review
Demerits of Junk food on People's Health
Junk food is associated with high calories, obesity, low nutritional value, and high
additives. From this association, junk food is harmful to health. To be precise, a report named
"The hidden dangers of fast and processed food" of 2018 by Joel Fuhrman showed how junk
food is harmful to Americans. Fuhrman (2018) indicated that cancer, heart attacks, dementia,
and strokes were associated with lifestyle exposures like junk food. The report indicates that
the health of the US citizens had deteriorated in 50 years, and there was an indicator of over
100 million become overweight in the near feature. Also, processed food and junk food are
projected to kill more citizens prematurely when compared to cigarettes. From the report,
junk food doubles the risk of heart attack and diabetes. Also, it exposes people with other
complications to the risk of renal failure at four times.
Common Person's Average Junk food Consumption
Consumption of junk food is a global phenomenon. Despite this being a problem
among US adolescents and young adults, the problem is common among Saudi Arabia's teens
(Al Faris, 2015). Besides, numerous studies have been done by focusing on the young
population. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) portal 'National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES)' reported that over 36% of the children in the US at junk food every day
between 2015 and 2018. The report went ahead to indicate that 11% of children as well as
adolescents age between 2 and 19 consumed over 45% of their calorie content from junk
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food. According to Fuhrman (2018), a large number of people living in an urban environment
are exposed to junk food, due to easy access to supermarket foods and restaurants.
Why People Do Not Consume Junk Food
Since junk food is characterized by unhealthy outcomes, most of the parents are
working towards reducing this food consumption among their children. Lee and Lee (2018)
conducted a study to find out whether parents had an influence on children's meal choices.
The study avails a significant composition of existing literature that is made up of minimal
investigation into the relationship between a parent's health concepts towards their children's
food consumption. Also, it is considered that this paper utilized several approaches in
collecting data, for instance online and email invitations. The study found out that parents
greatly exposed to health and nutrition needs are most likely to limit their children's junk food
consumption. Additionally, parents who view keenly their children's obesity were likely to
limit their children's junk food consumption. Parents who considered their children to be
predisposed to childhood obesity were likely to limit junk food consumption among their
children.
However, from the study, a sample size of 987 out of 1,980 gave a valid response.
This indicates that the research should have adopted effective methods in conducting a survey
to cover the large sample size.
Why People Consume Junk food
Several studies have been conducted to find out the reasons why people take junk
food. For instance, Fuhrman (2018) reported that some people eat junk food they do not
understand the in-depth truth of the harm associated with junk food. On the other hand, some
individuals hold a view that family influences obesity development. This implies that parents
or guardians have an influence on children's eating behaviors. For example, a study identified
as "Parental child feeding practices and their relationship with children's dietary intake and
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weight status in Nepal" was conducted by Pandey et al. (2019) to analyze home food
availability and Body mass index (BMI) among the children and their parents. The research
showed that regular junk food purchases for households were linked to the availability of less
nutritious food at home.
"Trends of junk food consumption among adolescent and young adult Saudi girls
living in Riyadh" is a research that tries to find out the reasons why young people choose
junk food restaurants, and the benchmarks used when choosing places to eat, and why they
contented with these products. Therefore, the cross-sectional survey was done with the help
of a questionnaire. The reason why young people choose junk food restaurants to include the
taste of the food products, the physical environment, the freshness of the products,
consistency of the outlets, and the conduct of employees. The study indicates that junk food
restaurants are successful in adapting the needs of young people, as well as meeting their
expectations (Al Faris et al., 2015). Since junk food joints avail affordable food products,
convenient locations, ambient atmosphere, young people enjoy their time through socializing,
and home deliveries. Besides, young people have limited time for dining at home, thus opting
for these joints.
Reducing Junk food Consumption
As a result of the factors that lead to junk food consumption, different proposals have
been recommended. First is concerning health awareness, which is regarded to avail of a
protective outcome against regular fast consumption. Since several schools in the US have
on-campus junk food restaurants, cafes, or stores, on suggestion is for administrators to
encourage menu labeling for all eating points, to enhance awareness of caloric quantities.
Additionally, student health and wellness staffs are required to device educational initiatives
that promote health awareness by concentrating on the importance of eating caloric-
appropriate and nutritious food by utilizing the nutrition labels (Breck et al., 2017).
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Another recommendation is to develop an improved local food setting to reduce the
local presence of unhealthy food. Besides, programs that assist customers in identifying
strategies required while choosing healthy meals at restaurants should be increased (Breck et
al., 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, this literature review is relevant by incorporating previous study
accomplishments in junk food. From the material collected, this paper shows the current
individual's junk food consumption, ascertains the motives which control people to go for
junk food, and examines people's motivations regarding their consumption characteristics,
and proposes particular recommendations for people against the overconsumption of junk
food. Though many studies on people's junk food consumption have carried and are based on
various standpoints, the existing research has decimally availed a comprehensive analysis on
the junk food phenomenon. Therefore, this paper avails a brief review of an individual's
junk food consumption, hence avails an opportunity for future research. Besides, discovering
an individual's motive behind the consumption of junk food would assist in efficient and
practical solutions for improving the living quality.
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Reference
Al Faris, N. A., Al-Tamimi, J. Z., Al-Jobair, M. O., & Al-Shwaiyat, N. M. (2015). Trends of
fast food consumption among adolescent and young adult Saudi girls living in
Riyadh. Food & Nutrition Research, 59, 26488. https://doi.org/10.3402/fnr.v59.26488
Breck, A., Mijanovich, T., Weitzman, B. C., & Elbel, B. (2017). The Current Limits of
Calorie Labeling and the Potential for Population Health Impact. Journal of Public
Policy & Marketing, 36(2), 227–235. https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.16.005
Fuhrman J. (2018). The Hidden Dangers of Fast and Processed Food. American Journal of
Lifestyle Medicine, 12(5), 375–381. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827618766483
Lee, K., & Lee, Y. (2018). Parents' meal choices for their children at fast food and family
restaurants with different menu labeling presentations. Nutrition Research and
Practice, 12(3), 243–250. https://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2018.12.3.243
CDC. (2019). National Center for Health Statistics.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm
Pandey, S., Rai, S., Paudel, N., Shrestha, A., & Gautam, S. (2019). Parental child feeding
practices and their relationship with children’s dietary intake and weight status in
Nepal. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 12(1), 325–333. 30.
doi:10.2147/JMDH.S195106
