Yet again, another fast-food chain is opening. This time in my neighborhood and I am truly disturbed.
You see, in the space of just 10 kilometers, there are now four of their branches open to the public. Let me repeat that: in only 10 km, there are four branches luring people to eat different kinds of junk food.
Why the concern, you ask? Isn’t this just business as usual? I urge you to look deeper at the consequences of widespread access to junk food.
If you care about the lives of those around you, your family, your children, you need to start asking tough questions, pay attention to what is happening in our communities, and notice who is being and will be most affected.
We are in the midst of a global epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are devastating families and communities worldwide. This crisis is driven by big food corporations profiting from our nutrition ignorance as we consume their toxic products.
Undoubtedly, we Africans can take comfort in knowing that at least our fast food is still made from real ingredients. But how long before those foods are quietly altered with processed, more addictive components, similar to the packaged junk foods we already create and import, further worsening our health and the already rampant diseases we face?
Thankfully, some people still grow their own food, eating cleaner and leading healthier lives, but realistically, how long will this continue before convenience and cultivated laziness start to dominate daily life? Too many of us already survive daily on cereal for breakfast; what will happen when the same convenience-driven approach extends to lunch and dinner?
Should we continue allowing corporate influence to gradually take over our diets, our health, and ultimately our lives?
We need to act now.
Content
- The Junk Food Industry: A brief History
- The Taste of Disease-Consequences of Junk Food
- The Bigger Societal Problem
- Fast Food Slow Death
- Stand for Africa
The Junk food Industry: A Brief History
To truly understand the effects of junk food, it helps to begin with a quick glimpse into how the fast-food industry emerged and how it has impacted us today.
In the 1990s, business giants like RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris shifted from the tobacco industry to food. Yes, tobacco, an entirely different yet equally profitable (and unhealthy) industry they had already mastered. But, instead of leaving behind the exploitative methods that made them billions, they carried them over.
The same addiction science once used to hook smokers was now applied to food, and even worse, the same profit-making schemes that ignored health concerns gave rise to today’s cheaply made ultra-processed products.
Not only were they creating ways to make food more addictive, but because they needed to produce it as inexpensively as possible, they aggressively lobbied to shape policy and nutrition science itself in order to make their methods seem acceptable, normal, and even claim to be ‘healthy’ despite the obvious. By influencing the FDA, USDA, and prestigious institutions like Harvard, they promoted a food pyramid that minimized the dangers of sugar, going as far as to promote a false daily requirement for it, while painting natural fats as the enemy.
Since then, the consequences have been devastating.
Strain on Our Health
Today, about 70% of children’s diets in America consist of ultra-processed foods, engineered to be addictive but built from ingredients our bodies were never meant to handle:
- Added sugars – With zero nutrients, they spike blood sugar, and fuel chronic illnesses
- Refined grains – Stripped of fiber and nutrients that cause blood sugar crashes, and lack lasting satiety.
- Seed oils- Once byproducts of petroleum (yes, you read that correctly), highly processed and fuel inflammation linked to disease.
Together, these unnatural ingredients form the backbone of modern junk food.
They hijack our biology by tricking hunger signals, dulling satiety, and keeping us eating long past fullness. High-fructose corn syrup, for example, doesn’t just sweeten, it drives relentless cravings, ensuring overconsumption.
This toxic combination has reshaped modern diets, driving widespread nutrient deficiencies and escalating chronic health issues.
And now, this same blueprint has been extended to African countries, fueling today’s fast-food trends that are becoming harder and harder to escape.
That is why awareness and prevention are not optional; they are urgent.
Without awareness, our communities risk being locked into the same cycle of addiction, poor health, and preventable disease.
The Taste of Disease-Consequences of Junk Food
Often, people overlook the true impact of junk food, assuming the main problem is weight gain. If someone isn’t visibly overweight, it is easy to believe they have no hidden health issues.
The reality is far more serious
Think of it this way. We eat to get the nutrients our bodies need to nourish us, support growth, and maintain a long life. Junk food, high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and additives, fails to provide these life-sustaining nutrients setting the stage for long-term health problems.
Consistently consuming these non-nutritious foods doesn’t just cause weight gain; it dramatically increases the risk of chronic diseases.
Chronic diseases are long-lasting health conditions that typically persist for a year or more. They often require ongoing medical care and can limit daily activities. Unlike acute illnesses, which appear suddenly and may resolve quickly (like a cold or broken bone), chronic diseases develop slowly and can last a lifetime.
Over time, chronic diseases stress and damage organs, disrupt metabolism (the process by which the body converts food into energy), and cause inflammation that harms tissues throughout the body.
The most well-known examples include diabetes and heart disease, but the risks go even further: high blood pressure, strokes, fatty liver disease, infertility and even certain cancers, all linked to diets high in ultra-processed foods.
Fueling the Body’s Decline
These foods directly contribute to chronic disease by disrupting the body’s natural systems of digestion, metabolism, hormone regulation, and immune function.
Excess sugar spikes insulin, eventually leading to insulin resistance, the root of diabetes. Refined grains and seed oils trigger chronic inflammation, a hidden driver behind heart attacks, strokes, and other long-term health issues. Moreover, because these foods hijack satiety signals, people consume more than their bodies actually need, compounding the risk of disease.
Worse, the consequences go beyond physical decline.
Over time, people may experience lower energy, brain fog, and poor mental health, leaving them feeling tired and unmotivated. This often encourages idleness and dependence on the very foods that started the cycle in the first place.
As you can see, this epidemic is far more serious than most people realize. There risks of heart attacks, insulin resistance, and lifelong disease are very real. Yet, these foods are marketed aggressively, particularly to children, setting them up for a lifetime of poor health long before they even have a choice.
The Bigger Societal Problem
Think beyond junk food effects on individual health and consider the broader societal impact.
As we have seen, poor nutrition drives chronic disease. It affects not only the body but also mental health, clouding cognitive performance, reducing energy, focus, and motivation, and creating ripple effects on how people think, behave, and participate in society. Here’s how:
- Low energy and productivity
Diets high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and additives leave people physically drained. Chronic diseases worsen fatigue, making it harder to stay active, productive, and engaged, limiting personal growth and the ability to contribute meaningfully at school, work, or in community. - Altered brain chemistry and mental health
Junk food triggers the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and reinforcing cravings for instant gratification. Combined with nutrient-poor diets, this contributes to mood swings, anxiety, poor concentration, and reduced patience and discipline. - Erosion of civic engagement
Junk food companies promote convenience, speed, and instant personal gratification, fostering dependence on corporations for basic nutrition. Over time, this complacency discourages people from questioning unhealthy systems, advocating for change, or engaging in civic life, leaving communities that are less informed, less empowered, and more vulnerable to harmful policies and products.
Dietary Choice to Societal Issue
What starts as a personal dietary choice, that is, what we eat and how we nourish our bodies, becomes a societal issue, shaping the next generation’s ability to thrive.
Poor nutrition and dependence on ultra-processed foods not only drain energy and focus, but also reduce engagement in learning, work, and community life.
This creates a cycle that affects our children, leaving them lazier, more anxious, depressed, reserved, and more prone to severe and rare illness.
If we do not model care for ourselves through the foods we choose and produce and remain passive, ignoring this harmful, profit-driven system instead of seeking knowledge and demanding change, how can we expect the next generation to be healthy, compassionate and actively involved in the community?
Do we really want our children growing up in a culture dominated by idleness, instant gratification, and self-centeredness?
More importantly, are we as Africans willing to accept our children developing diseases like fatty liver disease once only seen in late-stage alcoholics?
I hope your answer is an emphatic no.
Fast Food, Slow Death
The reality is that poor nutrition and dependence on ultra-processed foods do more than mentally and physically weaken us, and the companies behind these industries are fully aware of it.
Regardless, it is not entirely fair to say these industries are deliberately trying to kill us; after all, what would they do without their target market? Their goal is to make food cheap, addictive, and profitable.
And profitable indeed they are.
The truth is that this profit extends far beyond the food industry itself. It is part of a larger system closely linked with the healthcare industry, the largest and fastest-growing industry in the world. From a global economic standpoint, the system benefits when people get sick.
When someone develops a chronic disease, they often need lifelong medication. For example, a person with type 2 diabetes may start on metformin(common diabetes medication) and, over time, develop an average of four additional health conditions.
Each new condition means more drugs, more treatments, and more profit, locking people into a cycle of illness that serves the system.
You don’t die, you suffer: emotionally, physically and most importantly, financially.
Mental and physical health complications become part of life, creating a need for continuous, lifelong treatment provided by and paid to healthcare facilities, which translates into lifetime income for the healthcare industry.
Do you see the gravity now?
Where Does This Leave the Average African?
These hidden forces slowly damage health, starting even before birth. They keep people dependent on medications and treatments for life, effectively creating lifelong customers.
We are already seeing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in small children, rising rates of cancer, depression, infertility in men and women, autoimmune disorders, autism, and widespread metabolic dysfunction, largely from a preventable issue: excessive junk food.
Now imagine this lifestyle in the context of African countries, where even basic medicines like paracetamol are scarce in public hospitals.
The consequences are staggering.
The grip of junk food and the health crisis it will inevitably bring leaves us with three options:
Are we to wait for Big Pharma to expand further into our countries, deepening dependence and creating even greater health and financial burdens, knowing that the average African cannot afford lifelong medication?
Or, because medication is already scarce, are we to stand by as our fellow citizens suffer from lack of access to basic treatment?
Or are we to take action now to prevent these problems before they take root?
The choice is ours.
Stand for Africa
Africa’s hospitals are already battling HIV, TB, flu, malaria, and complications from childbirth. Let’s prevent adding millions of diet-related patients to the mix.
Pay attention to your country’s food laws and demand better! Take action by directing your concerns to city managers, MCAs, MPs, governors, and directors.
Convince others to eat less from processed food outlets and prioritize naturally grown, nutritious foods. Teach people that eating junk food and blindly adopting Western habits does not improve their social or health status; rather, the traditional food systems we relied on for generations worked and kept us strong and healthy for a reason.
Most importantly, let’s love our land and the natural resources it provides.