Junk food is a slang word for foods with limited nutritional value. The term 'junk food' usually refers to foods like pop, candy, potato chips and fastfoods like burgers and fries. Characteristically, junk food is high in salt, sugar, fat and/or calories and has a low nutrient content. It is also notorious for having numerous food additives which are chemicals used to enhance flavor, adjust texture, alter color, and prevent spoilage.

When junk foods regularly replace other types of foods in the daily diet, obesity, malnutrition (eg. vitamin and mineral deficiencies), and other health problems like heart disease and osteoporosis can occur.

Most junk food brands (Kraft, McDonalds, Hostess, etc.) are owned by large multinational companies. In addition to spending huge amounts of money on advertising to convince consumers to buy their products, many of these companies are frequently involved in less than desirable corporate behaviour.

Take Coca-Cola for example. The United Steelworkers union and the International Labor Rights Fund have filed suit against Coca-Cola, alleging that the company and some of its bottlers use right-wing paramilitary groups to intimidate and assassinate labor organizers in Columbia. In the last seven years, the number of union workers at Coca-Cola plants in Columbia has dropped from 1,300 to 450.

Coca Cola has also previously been under fire for race distrimination in the US, maltreatment of workers in Guatemala, and environmental/community degradation in India. Currently, the University of Michigan has placed Coca-Cola on probation for its crimes in India and Colombia.

Please take part in the international boycott of Coca Cola products.

For more info, check out: http://www.killercoke.org/protest.htm and
http://www.indiaresource.org/