JUNK FOOD

noun (Health and Fitness) (Lifestyle and Leisure) Food such as confectionery, potato chips, and 'instant' meals that appeals to popular taste (especially among young people) and provides calories fast, but has little lasting nutritional value. Etymology: Formed by compounding: food that is junk from a nutritional point of view. History and Usage: The term junk food arose in the US in the mid seventies, when it became clear that young people in particular ate a high proportion of instant foods containing much carbohydrate (often in the form of refined sugars), and were not getting the balanced diet needed for proper nutrition. This proved to be true of eating habits in other countries, too; the peak of concern about junk foods occurred in the late seventies and early eighties, before the health-and-fitness revolution of the eighties had started to affect people's diets, but both the phenomenon and the name have survived into the nineties. The term is sometimes used figuratively (compare fast-food). Blyton may be junk food but it's not addictive. The Times 12 Aug. 1982, p. 6 He's a pretty average kid...Likes junk food, noneducational TV, and playing with guns. Perri Klass Other Women's Children (1990), p. 5 With the demise of the traditional school dinner, more and more pupils are turning to junk food at lunch-times and unhealthy snacks at breaks. Health Guardian Nov.-Dec. 1990, p. 13