Food that has low-nutritional value, usually produced in the form of packaged snacks needing little or no preparation is considered “junk food”. It is food containing a large number of calories from fat or sugar with little to no fiber, vitamins, protein or minerals. It can also refer to high protein food like meat prepared with saturated fat. Prepared food from many hamburger joints, fried chicken outlets, and pizza places is often considered “junk food”. Here Susan Scutti,CNN.com, reflects on findings of a recent study on nutrition association with the risk of cancer:

“You probably already know that junk food, though delicious, is bad for you. It can have negative health effects such as increasing your risk of heart disease, metabolic disease and even cancer. Now, researchers have used a new nutritional labeling system to tie a diet low in nutritional quality with increased risks of a number of types of cancers.

The Nutri-Score is found on food labels in the UK; other countries are considering it. Researchers found that a lower-nutritional-quality diet was associated with a higher risk of total cancer.

Photo By Jeanne Menjoulet