A Systematic Review: Negative Impacts of Fast Food on Children

This systematic literature review investigates the negative impacts of fast food consumption on children's health, drawing on various scholarly articles and databases. The report explores the link between junk food and obesity, diabetes, cardiac disorders, and psychological effects. It examines the role of factors such as media influence, marketing strategies, and parental behavior. The review analyzes the nutritional deficiencies of fast food, including high levels of sugar, fat, and sodium, and their detrimental effects on children's overall well-being. The report also highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between maternal behavior and children's eating habits. The review aims to provide recommendations for promoting healthy eating habits and preventing the consumption of junk food, emphasizing the roles of parents and society. The findings emphasize the importance of promoting healthier food choices and addressing the factors that contribute to children's fast-food consumption.

Running head : NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background............................................................................................................................3
Research objectives................................................................................................................3
Data extraction and synthesis.....................................................................................................5
Summery................................................................................................................................7
Causes....................................................................................................................................7
Advantage..............................................................................................................................7
Disadvantage..........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reference....................................................................................................................................7

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
Introduction
People now days prefer ready-made foods for easy availability and tastes. Junk foods
are extremely preferred by the children around the world and this demand has become a
global disaster. Junk foods contains high amount of caffeine, fat, sugar and calories and are
attractive. The tempting appearance of junk foods are another cause of popularity among
children, as they do not find interest in healthy or boiled food. However, inclination towards
junk foods are one of the prime factors for children obesity. There are other negative impacts
of consuming junk foods such as diabetes, cardiac disorders, renal failures and increase blood
pressure for excessive salt in junk foods. WHO recognises obesity as a global epidemic in
1997 as the rate of obesity increased in a rapid manner due to bad habits of food consumption
and physical of the activity. According to a study report in between 2015-16, Australian
population consume 74% of total food production and 42 % among those includes meats and
fast foods (agriculture.gov.au, 2019). Availability of junk foods is one of the greater cause of
excessive consumption and outlets, media and social influence are another major factor of
popularity of those food products among children. According to a study, in 2011from a gross
estimation it was observed that 17.7% of children is overweight and 7.6% is suffering from
acute obesity(Boyland, Kavanagh-Safran, & Halford, 2015). Junk foods add some
micronutrients in our diet such as sugar, excessive amount of fat, carbohydrates, sodium but
these foods are devoid of zinc and other antioxidants. However these foods contain high
amount of cholesterol and produces high energy in the body which actually gives rise to eat
more food. The uncontrollable eating tendency of fast foods is another principal factor of
obesity in children, which makes them satisfy and encourages them to eat more but in long
term fondness towards junk foods is detrimental. The report is to analyse negative impact of
junk food on children obesity and their health.

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
Background
Junk foods are very common and popular term across the world;ice cream, salty
snacks, candies, chocolates, pizzas, doughnuts, tacos, soft drinks, bakery products such as
cakes, pastry are included to the category. These foods are devoid of nutritional values and
contains high amount of unsaturated fats and roughages with uncontrolled sugar and salt level
(Kosheleff et al., 2018). Intensity of obesity can be calculated by BMI (Body Mass Index),
normal body weight maintains when BMI ranges from 18.5 to 25. The BMI is calculated by
the body weight and height and it is age and sex specific. The overweight condition is
considered if the BMI is 85th -95th percentile of the BMI for age (Geserick et al., 2018).
Fast foods and soft drinks are high in demand across the globe especially among
children. There are several factors, which induce the practice of junk food consumption
among children and give rise to undesired health and psychological conditions. This report
will analyse negative impact of junk food consumption and outcomes related to the factor
with the reference of some recommendations or possible preventions to avoid health hazards.
Intake of fast foods or ready-made foods is induced by many factors and this report will
analyse those in the context of child psychology.
Research objectives
Objectives of this report are to analyse the negative impact of junk food on children
health and to address the relations between health and the junk food consumption. The report
also focuses on some recommendation regarding the matter with the reference of scholarly
articles. The objectives are given below:

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
 Negative impact of excessive junk food consumption on children health by analyzing
some health conditions
 Relation between junk food consumption and psychological growth of children with
the reference of effects of media and surroundings on behavioural changes in children
 Recommendations should be considered for children for their healthy lifestyle with
the discussion of the role of parents and society towards preventing the consumption
of junk food.
Method
The paper includes some scholarly articles from educational databases by mentioning
of inclusion and exclusion criteria with appropriate keywords.
Database
There are several databases for collecting the peer-reviewed articles and in this
research Google scholar, Springer, PMC, PubMed.
Keywords
The keywords associated to the research are obesity, children, junk food, fast food,
soft drinks, diabetes, psychological and physiological issues, behavioural changes, media
influence and other related words.
Inclusive criteria
The inclusive criteria for the literature review are :
 Study on impact of fast food on children
 Relation between obesity and junk food
 Physiological and psychological effect of junk food in children

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Impact of excessive intake of junk food on children or can affect .lifestyle on obesity
Inner database searches: 3
Number of articles (n)=40
Number of taken articles (n)=35
Neglect duplicate data
Included article number (n) =30
Number of articles after exclusion n=25
Final main articles for literature review (n) =20
Rejected
articles=5
Rejected
articles=5
Rejected
articles =5
 Peer reviewed articles
 Primary and secondary research
Exclusive criteria
Literature review has some exclusive criteria such as;
 Peer- reviewed literature with foreign language
 Study time more than 5-8 years
 Peer reviewed articles with irrelevant criteria
 Statistically insignificant
The entire data extraction is represented by the following prisma:

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
Data extraction and synthesis
Database Article names Author and year Details
Google scholar Snack food and
beverage
consumption and
young child nutrition
in low‐and middle‐
income countries: A
systematic
review. Maternal &
child nutrition,
Pries, A. M., Filteau, S.,
& Ferguson, E. L.
(2019).
This study focuses on lack of
nutrition in lower middle income
countries such as Africa, middle
Asian countries. Nutrition in
children below 2 years decides
their future health but intake of
low nutritional food is high
among the children.
Complementary diet among
children is also compromised to
some extent by sugar sweetened
beverages and readymade snacks
with high amount of salt or
sodium. Percentage of total
energy intake (TEI) is also
compromised in children and
average TEI of snacks or SSB is
13%-38%. The high amount of

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
total energy intake is one of the
prime factors for replacement of
complementary feedings among
children.
Google scholar Australian children's
perceptions of
discretionary
foods. Appetite
Velardo, S., &
Drummond, M. (2018).
This study investigates tendency
and the conception of
preadolescent children on
discretionary food items by a
qualitative experiment. The
experiment included six focus
groups and 14 interviews among
socially underprivileged
metropolitan areas in Australia.
The 38 children were associated
with the interviews they
expressed their views on the
consumption of fast foods. The
awareness was observed by the
investigators but inclination
towards junk foods also spotted
among children. According to
the study interest for fast food
consumption was significant in
comparison to the national

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
guidelines on food habits.
Google scholar A mixed methods
analysis of maternal
response to
children's
consumption of a
palatable food:
differences by child
weight
status. Pediatric
Obesity,
Pesch, M. H.,
Viechnicki, G. B.,
Appugliese, D. P.,
Kaciroti, N., Rosenblum,
K. L., Miller, A. L., &
Lumeng, J. C. (2019).
Rea1ltionship of mother and
child can be affected by fast
food consumption . 37 mother
anad child pair were taken for
the research. As per the result of
the research mother with obesity
are not willing to take the
responsibility of their child’s
affinity to cupcakes (considered
fast food in the research).
However the children were not
very anxious for their mother but
more interested in eating. Eating
habit can regulate children
behaviour and health but also
the psychology of an individual.
Google scholar Epidemic childhood
obesity: Not yet the
end of the beginning
Ludwig, D. S. (2018). Study of obesity in USA has
been reported that during 1998-
2016 American –African girls
are facing obesity and the
tendency is increasing day by
day. Endocrinal dysfunction,
sleep deprivation, peri natal

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
depression, diabetes type 2 can
be seen in the adolescent people.
According to the author, obesity
has become epidemic in
American societies. Unhealthy
food habits and lack of
realisation are main reason of
obesity although numerous
campaign have been taken
place .
Google scholar Masterson, T.
(2018).
The Impact of Food
Marketing on Brain
Response and Food
Intake in
Children (Doctoral
dissertation,
Pennsylvania State
University)
Food branding is another cause
of consumption of fast food in
children and the research is
focused on the responsive
process of child’s brain to
labelled fast foods. Children are
inclined to the colourful and
vibrant things which is one of
the marketing strategies of junk
food or sugar sweetened product
company. Responsive behaviour
of brain is used by the business
owner and thus children and the
food habits of a child can be

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
compromised.
Google scholar Temple, J. L. (2018). Trends, safety, and
recommendations for
caffeine use in children
and adolescents. Journal
of the American
Academy of Child &
Adolescent Psychiatry.
Fast foods containing caffeine
and popularity of coffee among
the children are remarkable.
Exclusive data collection
method has been opted for the
adolescents. The habit of
caffeine intake can be equally
harmful as fat containing foods.
Smoking, drinking is responsible
for obesity in young people but
preference of caffeine is not
much recognised so sweets and
drinks containing caffeine are
not safe for the health of an
adolescent.
Google scholar Mason, T. B.,
O'Connor, S. G.,
Schembre, S. M.,
Huh, J., Chu, D., &
Dunton, G. F.
(2019)..
Momentary affect, stress
coping, and food intake
in mother–child
dyads. Health
Psychology
Positive and negative effect on
psychological condition of
mother and children can be
regulated by the food habits. The
study shows that excessive
consumption of sweet and
snacks may harm the stress
regulation of mother and child.

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NEGATIVE IMPACT OF FAST FOOD IN CHILDREN
The more fast food intake leads
to more stress and uncontrolled
behaviour of the child.
Google scholar Fulkerson, J. A.
(2018).
Fast food in the diet:
Implications and
solutions for families.
Food habit is the main reason of
obesity in children although
some other hormonal or health
factor can be present. Excessive
fast food and dietary products
consumption are responsible for
avoidance of healthy foods and
lack of cooking knowledge. The
author of the research
highlighted reasons and the
recommendations to the families
with obese children.
PubMed Carnell S., Pryor
K., Mais
LA., Warkentin
S., Benson L., Cheng
R.(2018).
Lunch-time food choices
in preschoolers:
Relationships between
absolute and relative
intakes of
different food categories
, and appetitive
characteristics and
weight.
Appetite of a child can be
fulfilled very easily but total
nutrition with competent
metabolic needs. Child Eating
Behaviour Questionnaires were
asked to satisfy some parameters
regarding food habits with the
references satiety
responsiveness,