Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Food is very necessary constituent for normal growth, maintenance and development of the body and protects from various type of infectious diseases. Nutritious diets are required for complete physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual. Good eating habits learned in childhood affect the life of child for a long time but recently the food habits of children have changed completely. Nowadays Children prefer to have fast foods to healthy foods and they are fond of eating pizza, burger, pasta, maggi, packed foods and all kinds of fast foods which are not good for their health and cause different types of physical and mental health problems. In India the intake of fast food among school going children is increasing day by day that is a matter of concern. One study was conducted in Lucknow (India) showed that 98% children were fond of fast food while only 2% children did not like to consume fast food. Data of the study further revealed that pizza, burger, chowmine, chocolate, ice-cream, pasta and maggi were most frequently consumed fast foods by the children. Several studies indicated that excessive salt, sugar and fat contents are used in the preparation of fast foods and its excess consumption results in various types of serious health problems such as obesity, type-II diabetes, increased cholesterol levels, heart related problems, depression, ADHD, asthma, stroke, cancer, liver disease etc. Children who consume fast food frequently in excessive amount had decrease concentration, attention and memory, which affects their academic achievements, career and future. Thus many studies revealed that frequent intake of fast food has hazardous influence on the physical and mental development of the children. The present review describes the deleterious effect of fast food intake on the health status of the children.