SUMMARY

Puteri Juneita Joharis Life and Times (October 22, 2016) essay, entitled Avoiding
Trigger Foods, relates the authors experience as a caregiver for the Special Children in
Ampang on habit upon consuming trigger foods. Puteri Junieta initially thought she had some
kind of eating disorder or food addiction towards trigger food when in facts she knew very
well, trigger foods were something that she needed to desist. She defined trigger foods from
their common features; very sweet, fatty or salty or all combined. Regarding this, a research
proved that brain releases endorphins or happy hormones when it responds to sugar and fat.
This helps to relieve pain and induce feeling of pressure and euphoria. After some time
sticking to this cycle, eating pattern and choice may diverse and worst become a habit.
Situation that push people to masticate such food are mostly because stress and boredom.
Relating to stress, she mentioned that caregivers had the tendency to reach out for trigger
foods because the foods were easily found at convenient stores. Further in this case, research
shows that consuming trigger foods actually give ephemeral calming effect on the body. A
recent report brought out the news on stress response system positions a role in how people
crave food and store energy. To be short, overconsumption of trigger foods can lead to higher
risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Typically, after taking trigger foods,
hunger satisfied but at the same time it could result to insulin resistance which next contribute
to diabetes. This is due the content of trigger food itself; high in calories, sugars, fats and
whatnot. During the years when her late parents spent days and nights in hospital, her family
routines changed. She took coffee along with chocolate and abandoned exercises. She had
gotten her lessons after her parents dead. Somehow researchers reported that it is okay to
consume trigger food in a considerate amount.
DISCUSSION

Healthy life style is one of the important requirement for people to survive the long
life, but these days people have been adapted to unhealthy food intake such as junk foods or
fast foods which have adverse effects on their health. Those foods are basically trigger food.
Trigger food actually carries the same meaning as junk food or fast food. Different meaning
of trigger food can be delivered according to peoples way of thinking. As for us, we agree on
what Puteri Juneita had mentioned in her article, which is it defines from common features;
very sweet, fatty or salty or all combined. This serves most peoples way to define fast food.
In this section, we are going to discuss further on the definition of trigger food, the
advantages and disadvantages of eating trigger food and the side effects to our bodies. As I
have mentioned before, trigger food can be said as junk food or fast food, which are easy to
make and consume. According to article The Weight Watchers research Department (2012)
said that trigger can be defined as something that sets a motion a course of events while
trigger food is a specific food that can course someone overeating where control is lost. The
most common trigger foods are contain calorie-dense, highly palatable foods that are often
combination of sugar and fat.

These advantages can be classified into few parts. Firstly, the time factor. Trigger food
addiction is so high because of its simplicity. They are easy to prepare and very appetizing.
Trigger food such as potato wafers and chests do not even need heating or cooking. People
prefer to eat them while watching their favourite dramas, they save themselves a lot of
hassles and time when they are in a hurry eating pizzas and burger as they served at their door
step hot and ready to eat. If time constraint is one of the advantages that pushes people to
eating trigger food, great taste is also, to an extent influences them to make a choice for
trigger food. Trigger foods have their taste owning to lavish usage of oils, salts and sugar.
Global broadcaster BBC World and leading market research firm Synovate (2012) conducted
a survey that showed Britons are more addicted to trigger food than any other nations.
Overall the survey showed that across the people have conflicting attitudes and behaviours
about trigger food. Once they caught in trigger food addiction, they find it is hard to think
about the loss of nutrition due to trigger food. Next, the shelf life of trigger food. It is because
trigger food has a long shelf life and may not require refrigeration for most products like
instant noodles and wafer. Lastly, the advantage of trigger food is easy of transportation. The
transportation of trigger food is easy due to its packaging compare to the man-made food.
Ease of transportation and availability increase the popularity of trigger food day by day.
 Here are some trigger food facts that help to understand the harmful effects associated
with them. Some of them are long term while others are short terms effects. Lack of energy
known as short term adverse effect resulting from eating trigger food as trigger food dont
provide essential nutrients like vitamins, protein and fibres even though they can be very
much sufficing, people feel weakened. Next, poor concentration can be classified as
immediate and medium term period effect. When people have a set of sumptuous junk meal
rich in oil they feel drowsy and fail to concentrate. Over sustained periods of trigger food
eating, blood circulation will drop due to fat accumulation, lack of vital oxygen, nutrients and
protein particularly can stale their brain cells temporarily. Furthermore, high cholesterol one
of the part disadvantage where it apart from forming plaques and constricting arteries. It also
affects liver where it is metabolized. High cholesterol due to trigger food and diet strains liver
damaging it finally. This is long term effect. Moreover, trigger food is a major cause of heart
diseases (Myocardial infarction) due to plaque formation in arteries which demands heart to
put in extra effort to pump blood on the downstream while on the upstream there is lack of
returning blood to heart, this causes two damages to heart; heart fatigues due to continuous
extra effort and it suffers in oxygen supply. In fact, trigger food is rich in fat, so accumulation
of fat takes place in bronchioles so oxygen supply tends to reduce in body which can cause
some respiratory disorders. As we know, trigger food has sugar that can make someone
additive as heroin and cocaine. They stimulate the same receptors in the brain that can make
feel good due to increased dopamine level. Trigger food has a lot of hidden sugar and fat to
make someone additive and also enhance the taste. Last but not least, the nutritional value of
trigger food is about one on a scale of one to ten, which is the least. It means, trigger food
contains low nutrition value due to lost in the process of make it. Synthetic vitamins and
minerals are added to compensate it, but they are far much worse compare to natural vitamins
and minerals. Natural phytochemicals are not present in trigger food which soaks up the free
radicals to prevent disease.

Awareness on trigger food facts is lacking dramatically in every corner of society.

Clever trigger food advertising and lure of convenience in addition to taste get people to
trigger food addiction. Trigger food gives more effect on negative impacts to the body. For
example is obesity .The obesity can be defined as an excess body weight and it has two types
of obesity. The first one is diabetes mellitus and the second is diabetes insipidus. Diabetes
mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia, glycosuria and
hyperlipemia. Diabetes mellitus also have two types which are insulin dependent and insulin
independent. While for diabetes insipidus occurs when a person's kidneys pass an abnormally
large volume of urine. A person with diabetes insipidus, the kidneys can pass 3 to 20 quarts of
urine a day. As a result, a person with diabetes insipidus may feel the need to drink large
amounts of liquids. Trigger food also can causes the dental cavities. It is because food that we
eat accumulated on the teeth space and plaque formation occurs which finally make a
corrosive on the teeth. Besides, neurological effect on the brain one of the side effects of
trigger food. It creates a person with drowsiness, laziness and attention deficient hyper
activity as their characteristics. The worst effect by eating junk food; develop cancer to our
body. So, if we continue to eat junk food as a main menu for our diet, it can cause a serious
aftermath on our bodies.

In the nut shell, consumption of the junk food can cause varies health problems. The
habit of consumption of junk food is continuously increasing among youth especially for
children with age between 9 to 12 years old. The main consequence of trigger food is
increasing the obesity in our children which further leads many health complication.
Everyone should think twice before deciding to eat trigger foods. When it comes to eating
food thats made within matter seconds. The food is not properly taken care of, which leads
all the way back to where the food is originally produced. Although it is easy to buy and
cheap, the health risks outweigh the five minutes of satisfaction that junk food brings. What
you eat can affect your hearts health and your chances of developing life-threatening heart
disease (Robin, 2007, pp 100). When you eat all of the fats, sugars, and salts, your heart can
grow weak and it will endanger you. There is no safe risk for your body when it comes to
eating trigger food.
OPINION

Food is fuel for your body. Trigger food isnt necessarily bad, but in many cased
its highly processed and contains large amounts of carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy
fats, and salt (sodium). Nowadays, many people do not eat at their home instead most of them
are eating at fast-food restaurant. This is due to they are lacking of awareness on the calories
they took. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, most people underestimate the
number of calories they ate in a fast-food restaurant. A 2013 study published in JAMA
Pediatrics showed that children and adolescents took in more calories in fast food and other
restaurants than at home. Eating at a restaurant added between 160 and 310 calories a day. It
has a direct impact on how you feel as well as on your overall health. It influences our health
and bodies; lead to obesity, harmful our digestive and respiratory systems and last but not
least can cause food addiction.

Firstly, trigger food influences our health and body. This is due to the ingredients
of trigger food which contains excess sodium, high amounts of carbs and sugar. For
examples, when you consume foods high in carbs and sugar, bacteria residing in your mouth
produce acids. These acids can destroy tooth enamel, a contributing factor in dental cavities.
When the enamel of your tooth is lost, it cant be replaced. Poor oral health has also been
linked to other health problems. In contrast, the Mayo Clinic, as well as a report from ABC
News, highlight some major areas of concern which are dementia and respiratory infections.
The bacteria from gingivitis may enter the brain through either nerve channels in the head or
the bloodstream, that might even lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease or dementia
while for respiratory infections, the Journal of Periodontology warns that gum disease could
cause you to get infections in your lungs, including pneumonia. While the connection might
not be completely obvious at first, think of what might happen from breathing in bacteria
from infected teeth and gums over a long period of time. From the evidence above, trigger
foods can affect our health and body.

Secondly, according to the obesity statistics from Malaysia National Health and
Morbidity Survey in 2006 showed that 43% of Malaysia adults were obese or overweight at
that time. This is caused by consuming food that has higher amounts of calories. Trigger food
is categorized as food that is unhealthy and has higher amounts of calories; trigger food is
also the main cause that lead to obesity. For examples, if a person consumes too many trigger
food, it could lead to excess calories intake and increases the risk of obesity because food
usually contain high in calories, sugar, fat and etc. We can know that someone has obese
through mathematical calculation that involved the height and weights which is call Body
Mass Index (BMI); the recent WHO results of 2010 showed that 60% of Malaysians aged 18
and up, had a BMI over 25. A BMI of more than 25 means the person is overweight.
Furthermore, we must control our consumption of trigger food especially the parents. They
need to control their children upon eating too many trigger food. That is the reason why the
trigger food can lead to obesity.

Thirdly, trigger food can harm our digestive and respiratory systems. Digestive and
respiratory systems are related to each other. The well-known digestive system has a basic but
important function. First, food goes down to the throat, and leads to the digestive system.
What makes this path is the epiglottis, which opens when air comes through, and closes when
food comes down. The digestive system breaks down food into simpler substances that the
body can use including proteins. This helps the respiratory system because the lungs need
nutrients. The respiratory system helps the digestive system by giving oxygen to the digestive
system. For an instance, when we eat excess amount of trigger food which is unhealthy for
digestive system as they slowdown the digestion process making the stomach bloated and
affect the respiratory system. In order to digest food, stomach needs enzymes and fast food
does not have them. When food is absorbed by the intestine it requires fibres and water to
excrete but they don't have such nutrients which promote to poor digestion and irritable
bowels. According to Dr S K Thakur who is a Consultant for Gastroenterology (2008) said
that there are ways to keep healthy digestion and also the respiratory system by exercise
regularly, eat slowly and allow yourself to focus on the task of eating, letting the body
concentrate on the job of digestion and also it is advisable to sleep for at least seven to eight
hours a day as an exhausted body contributes to poor health. Based on the evidence above,
trigger food can be harmful to the digestive and respiratory systems.

In conclusion, trigger food surely give negative impacts to our health which affect
our health and bodies; lead to obesity, harm our digestive and respiratory systems and last but
not least can cause food addiction. We must control our consumption of trigger food whether
it is either healthy or trigger food and have the awareness on the contents and calories of the
food.
RECOMMENDATION

In this section, we are going to discuss the effects of taking trigger food and the ways
to avoid the effects from happening. Based on the article, there are a lot of negative
consequences that will happen to our bodies if we take trigger food in our daily lives as it
contains massive of carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy fat and sodium. One of them is the
trigger food can cause many diseases towards our bodies such as obesity, diabetes, heart
disease and stroke. Stroke occurs when the blood supply to our brain is interrupted by fats or
calories. So, the best way to prevent it is by practising a healthy diet. This is the best
alternative that we need to make it as our habit by following the food pyramid. I was eating
bad stuff. Lots of sugar and carbs, trigger food all the time. It makes you irritated. According
to Lavigne (2014) who is a singer in USA states that the trigger food is a bad stuff. It contains
a lot of sugars and carbohydrates which will make our bodies suffer. To prevent it from
happening, we need to exercise at least 30 minutes per week. By doing exercises, we can
control our calories in the body as it can avoid us from any chronic diseases.

A very common thing that will happen to our body is to become overweight.
Overweight is a horror thing especially to woman. Overweight can happen to someone
because of lack of energy balances. Energy balance is equal to energy IN and OUT. Energy
IN is the calories we get from food and drink. While the energy OUT is the amount of energy
that our bodies used for respiration process. To maintain a healthy weight, our energy IN and
OUT not necessarily have to be balanced. Overweight and obesity are known to increase
blood pressure. High blood pressure is the leading cause of strokes. Excess weight also
increases the chances of developing other problems linked to strokes, including high
cholesterol, high blood sugar, and heart disease. So, the first step that we must do is to stop
eating trigger food which it contains a lot of sugar, trans fat and carbohydrates and start
eating more vegetables and fruits as they contain a lot of vitamins to control our bodies from
being fat or overweight. According to David H. Murdock (2014) states that, By eating many
fruits and vegetables in place of fast food and junk food, people could avoid obesity. So, if
we want to keep slim and healthy, we need to avoid trigger food, eat vegetables and fruits.
Instead, we also need to stop eating before we are full and stop listening to our body as it
wants us to eat more. Actually, stop eating before we are full is the best way to have a fit
body as our stomach can digest the food completely without any indigestion happen. It is
because it follows the amount of food that our body actually need.

Honestly, it is hard to stop eating trigger food towards the one whom very attractive
towards trigger food as they always spend their times to go to any franchises for trigger food
hunting. But, we must practice avoiding all those ads stuffs. There is a way to stop eating
trigger food; replace trigger food with salads or fruits such as dates and raisins as snacks.
Those food are also piquant food to eat. If we cannot stop eating trigger food immediately, we
must take it just in small amount. Rajveer, Monika (2012). Junk Food: Impact On Health.
Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics ; 2012, 2(3): 67-73 states that eliminating the
temptation for trigger food is the one way to avoid it. We need to keep a good food nearby
and having meals right on time. Mostly, these trigger food always attract children to have it to
be eaten. As parents, we must not let our children to get habituated with trigger food. Ask
them to avoid trigger food available in school canteen and tell them regarding the negative
effects of trigger food. Controlling children from eating trigger food in school is another step
that helps in a long term. Schools administrator along with parents have responsibilities to
educate children on trigger foods in schools.

In a conclusion, there are few problems that affect our body if we take trigger food;
risky diseases, overweight etc. There also few solutions to avoid trigger food such as we eat
by following scope of food pyramid. We ought to do a lot of exercises and eat a healthy diet.
A healthy diet is one that is arrived at which the intent of improving or maintaining optimal
health. A healthy diet may vary widely, and is subject to an individuals genetic make-up,
environment, and health.
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