The Bottom Line: Interesting facts about junk food!
The Full Story:
- Junk food is typically defined as foods with little nutritional value that are high in calories, fat, sugar, salt, or caffeine. Junk food can include breakfast cereals, candies, chips, cookies, French fries, gum, hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, sodas, and most sweet desserts.
- The term “junk food” was initially used in the 1960s but was popularized during the following decade when the song “Junk Food Junkie” reached the top of the charts in 1976.
- In 1979, in what has become known as the “Twinkie Defense,” Daniel White said he killed San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk because he ate too much junk food, such as Twinkies, candy bars, and cupcakes, which caused a chemical imbalance in his brain. He was still convicted anyway and, in 1981, Congress outlawed the “Twinkie Defense.”
- More than $2-billion of candy is sold for Halloween, more than any other holiday.
- Hostess makes 500-million Twinkies a year.
- M&M’s were created by Forrest Mars (the son of the founder of Mars, Inc.) and his business partner, Bruce Murrie (the son of the president of the Hershey company). Because both their last names started with “M,” they called their new candy M&M’s. The original colors were red, yellow, green, orange, brown, and violet.
- The Tootsie Roll is named after its creator Leo Hirshfield’s daughter, Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. It was the first penny candy that was individually wrapped. During WWII, Tootsie Rolls were placed in soldiers’ ration kits because they could survive various weather conditions.
- The most popular cookie in America is the chocolate chip cookie.
- One fast food hamburger contains meat from up to 100 different cows.
- In a 2012 study, 52% of Americans believed doing their taxes was easier than figuring out how to eat healthy.
- At least one in four people eat some type of fast food every day.
- 20% of all American meals are eaten in the car.
- Female cockroaches that ate junk food in a research study became fatter and took longer to reproduce than cockroaches that ate a healthier diet.