As a child, you are often taught by your parents how to develop healthy eating habits. For me, it was the complete opposite. Instead of eating healthy, I found every way possible to eat junk food. Junk food wasn’t just a different kind of food; it was a part of me.

Growing up, I can remember I’ve always loved junk food. I think what I loved the most it was unlike healthy food, it tasted a lot better. I didn’t think of how my unhealthy eating habits would affect me in life.

As far as I can remember, I never made the healthiest food decisions. When I was a little girl, I did not have sophisticated taste buds. Due to that, I never really knew the difference between junk food and healthy food except that junk food only tasted good because it wasn’t bland.

Lunchtime in the cafeteria had no limits on how much junk food I consumed. I remembered my mom packing me a healthy lunch to bring to school, but most times I would either toss the lunch in the trash or give it to another friend. I didn’t really like the types of foods that my mom would give me because I wanted something that was either greasy or fried.

Fast food also played a large role in my childhood. I still remembered the times when my mom and I would go to the McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch and she would get a meal for herself and a Happy Meal for me. She told me that she wanted to spoil me, but the real reason was because she knew that I was a picky eater and would not settle for a healthy meal.

Grocery shopping was not different from eating fast food or processed foods. Every time my mom and I would go grocery shopping, I would often go after processed and ready-made foods because they were easier to deal with and took less time cooking. At one point, I had an addiction to spicy hot dogs because it was one of the few foods that I could tolerate eating.

Looking back at my childhood eating habits versus now, I don’t eat as unhealthy as I used to. I turned my eating habits around by eating more fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. What made me change my unhealthy eating habits was that I didn’t think about how it would affect my health later on. I can say that even though I didn’t exercise healthy eating habits during my childhood, it’s good that I learned before it was too late.

Jane Park can be reached at [email protected]