junk food

noun

1. food, as potato chips or candy, that is high in calories but of little nutritional value.
2. anything that is attractive and diverting but of negligible substance:

   the junk food offered by daytime television.

junk food

noun

1. food that is low in nutritional value, often highly processed or ready-prepared, and eaten instead of or in addition to well-balanced meals

Other Words From

• junk-food adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of junk food¹

An Americanism dating back to 1970–75

Idioms and Phrases

Prepackaged snack food that is high in calories but low in nutritional value; also, anything attractive but negligible in value. For example, Nell loves potato chips and other junk food , or When I'm sick in bed I often resort to TV soap operas and similar junk food . [c. 1970]

Example Sentences

If you want to be in the best shape of your life, you probably won’t be free to eat a lot of junk food.

From Outside Online

He started swapping in celery and apples for junk food, salads slathered in ranch for lunch, flavored water for soda.

From ProPublica

In a cartoonish family drama about a dog suiting up and helping protagonist Josh Framm’s junior high school football team turn its program around, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Fanelli’s only flaw appears to be an unhealthy love of junk food.

From FiveThirtyEight

In fact, if you’re between the ages of 10 and 19, eating too much junk food can harm your body and your brain.

From Science News For Students

Together, these all can combine to make junk food both hard to resist and extra bad for teen health.

From Science News For Students

I am just so convinced that junk food and high sugar food are undermining the health of people…It caused a lot of strain.

From The Daily Beast

After a day-long drive with three young children, we emerged from our minivan cramped, cranky, and dusty with junk food.

From The Daily Beast

It looks like a stereotypical convenience store, shelves crowded with garishly packaged junk food.

From The Daily Beast

Imagine a junk-food stand run by a bunch of foodies from Portland, Oregon.

From The Daily Beast

I want to see a farm bill that subsidizes healthy food and not just junk food.

From The Daily Beast