Junk Food is Tempting Us

And it’s harder than you think to look away

Have you ever seen an ad for apples? Photo by Nikolai Chernichenko on Unsplash

I was good. I walked into the pharmacy for a prescription I needed. And I walked past six separate displays of Easter candy, one after another. I love chocolate, but I resolved to walk past it and not buy any. And I didn’t.

The next morning at work, I was not feeling great. One of my coworkers was in a bad mood and let me know it. Eventually, I walked over to the vending machine and bought a candy bar.

What drives our choices to buy junk food? Two culprits are availability and relentless marketing. There were some healthier options in the vending machine, so I couldn’t completely blame it. But I’m sure the Easter candy displays were fresh in my mind.

I’ve been striving to be more fit, and a big part of that is proper nutrition. Yet I was never really taught about what to eat in school. Only in a college nutrition class did I learn about carbs, fats, proteins, and vitamins. What about people who never had that education?

And nutrition advice is confusing. Every so often there’s a new headline: Eat eggs. Don’t eat eggs, they’ll kill you. Kale is a superfood. Eh, kale is just okay.

People say, “Well, just have self control.” But it’s not that simple. I don’t always make the healthiest choices, but when my…