Here is an article from newspaper The Hindu. Its interesting about some facts of fast food

Courting good food

A nutritious diet makes you smarter, happier and gives you more energy. It sure is "uncool" the way parents and elders keep preventing you from eating your pet junk food — be it instant noodles or burgers — but do you know the reason? Your favourite cheesy takeaway pizza and chilled aerated drink do not provide any nutrition. Instead they make you unhealthy and fat and release harmful substances (known as toxins) into the body. But what is junk food? We commonly use the term to describe pre-packaged snack foods with low nutritional value. That is, food that is high in salt, sugar, fat and calories. Another ingredient popularly used in fast food to make it tasty is monosodium glutamate (MSG) alse o known as Aji-no-moto, which is harmful to the body. Isn't it strange then, to pay to poison your body and get addicted, so that as you get older you are more likely to be prone to illness? Studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe, show that more and more people are beginning to realise the ill effects of junk food. Healthy diet Good nutrition is important especially in the growing years (six-16) when a child's body needs a good diet to become a healthy adult. But unfortunately, this is the age when children are tempted by watching junk food advertisements on TV and insist on snacking on junk food. It is, of course, easy to be attracted to this kind of food. And it is convenient. Most junk foods contain inedible colours, which harm the digestive systems, but the effects show only in later years. Studies have found that food colouring can cause hyperactivity and lapses of concentration. Children with learning problems are often advised against eating food with artificial colouring. Chocolates, aerated and flavoured drinks have artificial colouring. More stamina Learning how to avoid junk food and following a nutritious diet will give you a more active body and more stamina and intelligence to cope with pressure of school and lessons and other activities. You will have a lot more energy for sports and games, which will in turn boost your appetite, and make you feel happier and brighter. You can become a guide to your friends and show them what a difference food habits can make to their lives. Television advertisements that only show families eating tempting-looking pizzas and burgers don't ever tell you the harmful effects they have on your body. They also never tell you that junk food can not replace a wholesome, homemade meal. So, instead of asking for chips and coke, ask for idlis or upma.
* * *What can I do?

• Reduce the number of times you eat unhealthy snacks.
• Opt for smaller servings.
• Tell your friends about the ill effects of junk food.
• Make a pact with them to stay away from junk food.
• Try out some exciting recipes of tasty, nutritious snacks. Ask an adult to help.

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

Plastics: what can be done?

What needs to be done to phase out the evil of plastics?

First, companies that produce plastics and those who use plastics in their packaging or product making should bear the responsibility for it throughout its life cycle. This is called extended producers responsibility (EPR) in which every manufacturer is responsible for the plastics they use. Such a company is responsible for ensuring that the plastic is collected and recycled. This ensures manufacturers are unable to pass on the burden for cleaning it up to others. If we had adequate EPR in India, perhaps we would see fewer plastics!
Second, we need to phase out toxics materials like PVC from the materials cycle entirely. Only by beginning a planned, time-bound phase out can the change be expected to occur.
Third, by encouraging alternatives the burden of plastics can reduce in society. Of course, no single material is an adequate substitute for plastics. Yet, packaging that is cellulose (paper) based will only encourage forestry and green practices, and therefore prove less of a burden on the environment. While alternative materials are one solution to plastics, better design is another.
Fourth , a sensible policy on packaging and waste minimisation is urgently needed. Everyone in India is allowed to produce as much waste as they like. There are neither incentives nor effective rules to reduce the waste generated. In the case of plastics, most of the plastics, i.e., 52 per cent, go into packaging. It is here that rules are required to both reduce the amount of packaging materials per se and the amount of plastics in packaging. Ireland has recently proved to the world that this can be done. A green tax has taken 1 billion plastic bags off the shelves since March 2002 and Irish shoppers have cut down their need for plastic bags overnight by 90 per cent. All this is thanks to small 15 per cent fees levied on each bag. In the first three months since the government introduced the new 15 per cent plastic bag levy consumers used some 277 million fewer bags.

Instead of using a staggering 1.2 billion plastic bags shoppers will walk away from checkouts with just 120 million plastic bags over a 12-month period in a sea change of shopping culture. Moreover, when packaging cannot be recycled it must be particularly disincentivised. Efforts therefore have to remove the misconception that plastics are "cheap and safe" and therefore the industry and consumer need to get subsidies.

Buy Intelligiently

Buying one 1.5 litres bottle requires less energy than buying 3 bottles of o.5 litre and prouces less waste. Also it costs less.
So, only by proper planing your shopping list you can save lot of waste generated
Jaago grahak jaago

Going green: Plastic vs biodegradable items

Many of the items we use in everyday life are harming the planet as they're not biodegradable. Each plastic bag that we have used will survive for a million years and keep releasing harmful gases that cause global warming. But plastic bags aren't the only culprits. Disposable diapers take between 500 and 600 years to degrade as well. A can of our favourite soft drink takes 200 to 500 years. And we cannot even begin to calculate how long a glass bottle or styrofoam glass takes. So do we give up everything then? The answer is 'no'. But perhaps it is better to live by the rule that if we do dump something on the earth, we should at least let it be something that degrades at least in our lifetime. A cotton rag takes 5 months to degrade whereas a banana peel takes about 3-4 weeks. Again, a paper bag takes about 5 months. The best option is to take our own cloth bag. It may take us a minute more, but saves the earth millions of years of hard work.