Any food item which has little or no nutritional value or products which have nutritional value but have ingredients which are unhealthy when consumed on a regular basis or which are unfit to consume at all is called a junk food.

Generally junk foods are easy to buy and can be prepared with in a short time. Street foods and fast foods also come under the category of junk food. You might wonder how street foods can be classified as a junk food.  It is mainly because street foods are normally cooked under unhealthy conditions. On the other hand fast foods are normally cooked and served with in a short time and such type of foods normally doesn’t have any nutritional value. Moreover junk foods simply build up empty calories in your body which can cause obesity and other health related problems to the eater.

The major conflict in junk foods is that they are mainly made out of healthy ingredients. It is their preparation method that makes the junk food unhealthy to eat. Take the case of pizza; it is stacked with vegetables on the top. So what goes wrong in a pizza? It is the cheese which is used to cook and decorate the pizza makes it unhealthy to eat. In fact pizza is good when consumed in smaller quantities. But here excess amount of cheese is used to prepare the pizza. The other major ingredient of pizza is refined flour which doesn’t have even a little bit of nutritional value.

Let us check out the case of burger, another popular fast food item which most of us like to have when gone for a restaurant. It contains a loaf of meat and vegetables like tomato, cabbage & lettuce packed in between two buns. Again the refined flour which is used to make the bun makes the problem. In addition, butter and mayonnaise which are used to create a three tier for the burger makes it unhealthy. In the case of street foods, the oil used for cooking and the flavor enhancers are the major risk factors besides refined flour.

Occasional eating of junk foods does not going to affect your health. After all no one cannot follow a perfect diet at all times. So it is you who is going to decide which is healthy for you. Over years doctors have been advising that excess sugar or fat may lead to obesity, increase in blood pressure, high cholesterol, and many cardiac related problems.

If you are smart and practical then you need not worry about junk foods. Avoid or lessen the consumption of ingredient which makes the food unhealthy. A pizza or burger as meal does not going to affect you much instead of having as a snack. If you have the habit of exercising regularly, then you need not worry about your diet.