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Junk food concept: seconds out

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, pages 669–671 (2017)Cite this article

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A reduction of ‘junk food’ availability and consumption has been proposed by governments and public health agencies as a promising target to reduce obesity and obesity-related diseases in children and adolescents.1 Therefore, several costly national policies as well as research aimed at the reduction of the consumption of junk food have been carried out over the last decade. Many countries, among them the USA and Australia, have passed laws to ban, or at least to regulate, the advertisements for junk food during TV programs for children and adolescents.1,2 Some others have implemented (for example, Denmark),3 or are about to implement (for example, the United Kingdom)4 tax programs of junk food and sugar-added or artificially sweetened beverages. Recently, the final report of the Commission on ‘Ending Childhood Obesity’ has strongly recommended the development of comprehensive schemes to identify such food and reduce its marketing.5

However, the more the term ‘junk food’ is used, the more confusing its actual meaning becomes. Common definitions of junk food in literature are based on nutrient composition, or both nutrient composition and metabolic effect (Table 1). Occasionally, production and environmental factors are considered part of the definition; alternatively, a raw list of food or junk brands is reported to classify junk foods. Furthermore, the terms ‘junk’ and ‘unhealthy’ food are sometimes interchangeably used.6 Similarly, sugar-added and sweetened beverages that can have a perceived detrimental role in unhealthy dietary habits7 are listed among ‘junk food’ in some cases2 and separately in others.5 Junk food is not yet listed among the MeSH terms on PubMed (last access 1 August 2016).

Table 1 Some definitions of junk food reported in literature
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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Kim Michaelsen, MD, PhD, Copenhagen, and Elena Fattore, PhD, Milan, for the fruitful discussion.

Author contributions

GPM and MS conceptualized the manuscript and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. AP gave significant scientific inputs in their area of expertise. CA supervised the writing of the entire manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. G P Milani and M Silano: These two authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Pediatric Unit, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    G P Milani & C Agostoni

  2. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Unit of Human Nutrition and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    M Silano

  3. Pediatric Unit, Verona University Medical School, Verona, Italy

    A Pietrobelli

  4. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    A Pietrobelli

  5. Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    C Agostoni

Authors
  1. G P Milani
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  2. M Silano
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  3. A Pietrobelli
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  4. C Agostoni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A Pietrobelli.

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Milani, G., Silano, M., Pietrobelli, A. et al. Junk food concept: seconds out. Int J Obes 41, 669–671 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.18

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