Junk food

Everybody love junk food. What is junk food? Junk food has been define as high in calories and low in nutrition. The example of junk food are pizzas, fish and chips, ice-cream etc.


Actually everybody thought junk food is always bad for health,but the nutritions believe that there is no bad food, but just bad diets. They discover some of the junk food may provide valuble nutrients. Lets say, fish and chips. When the fats content of the fish and chips is minimized, the food will provide nutritionally rich meal high in vitamins D ,B12 and also some small minerals.

Milk shake is also consider as a junk food. This is because milk shake usually high in fat, but milk shake also good source of calcium. Low- fat milk is a readily available source of calcium without as much fats or calories like in milk shake. So milk shake known as junk food.

We can recognize junk food by just looking at the food label. The information of the food ingredient such as :

1) more than 35% of calories from fat (except for low-fat milk)
2) more than 10% of calories from saturated fats
3) any trans fat
4) more than 35% of calories from sugar, unless it is made with 100% fruit and no added sugar
5) more than 200 calories per servings for snacks
6) more than 200 mg per serving for sodium (salt) for snacks
7) more than 480 mg per serving for sodium (salt) for entrees

Junk food is not just food, it is produce by the work of science. This involve chemistry. Some ingredient such as citric acid, acetate acid etc. are added to produce junk food. For example, junk food such as potato chips, they do not just contains potatoes right? Just observe the food label. We bought the "Pringles Sour Cream and Onion" for references. The ingredient in a piece of potato chips includes lactic acid, citric acid, dextrose, maltodextrin, calcium lactate, acetic acid and also malic acid.

Lactic acid is also known as 2-hydropropanoic acid(milk acid). It can be found in sour milk products. Lactic acid is a chiral compound and have two optical isomers. The molecular formula of lactic acid is C3H6O3 and have acidity for about pH 3.86.

Another acid that contains chiral compound is malic acid. Malic acid is an organic compound, decarboxylic acid. It is a homochiral and have molecular formula of C4H6O5. Malic acid can be found in most unripe food. It has sour taste.

Citric acid is a weak organic acid. Citric acid is also known as 3-hydroxypentanedionic acid. The molecular formula of citric acid is C6H8O7. Citric acid act as flavouring and preservative in food, and it has sour taste due to the acidity.

Acetic acid is an ethanoic acid, with the molecular formula of C2H4O2. Acetic acid is an organic acid which gives vinegar its sour taste. Acetic is also known as acetyl hydroxide.

Calcium lactate is also known as 2-hydroxypropanoic acid. It appears as white crystaline salt. Calcium lactate is made by the reaction of lactic acid on calcium carbonate. The molecular formula of calcium lactate is C6H10CaO6. Calcium lactate act as baking soda in the food industries.

Dextron is one type of sugar in glucose, also known as corn sugar or grape sugar. Dextrose is just a simple carbohydrate and highly soluble in the presents of water.

Another substance is known as maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that use in the food additive. The molecular formula for maltodextrin is (C6H10O5)n. It can be easily digested and being absorbed rapidly as glucose.

The ingredient that added to the potato chips mostly involving the sour taste. This is because the potato chips we observe is sour taste. Don't think junk food is just an unhealthy food, there are a lot of interesting ingredient being added to the food for different kind of flavour. Read more about the food label to determine the ingredients that contains in a certain type of the junk food.