Junky Food

I don't understand why there is junk food in the world and why it is loved so much. For as far back as I can remember, junk food has been a part of my life since it started to gain ground in America in the late 60's - early 70's. I remember watching television with my sister and seeing junky cereal commercials with cartoon characters. All of it looked so fun that we wanted to try them. Our parents allowed for us to try what we wanted. Fortunately, they were stern and allowed only so much in the house. The notion was short lived because neither my sister or myself enjoyed the greasy feeling left on the roof of the mouth or the sweet milk left in the bowl once done. Like our parents, we grew to love granola and other healthy cereals along with fruit and tea.
We had our share of the McDonalds Happy Meals (pre toy) with puzzles on the boxes and Pup'n' Taco bits washed down by a Slushee. My parents never made this food part of our daily diets because it wasn't good for our growing bodies and not as cheap as cooking healthy meals at home.  As more and more junk foods were being created,  found other things to nibble on. I discovered a love for candy. When a teenager, I developed a strong sweet tooth that I still have. It is awful and needs to be pulled but since I like to have all of my teeth, it remains.
As I age, I have more and more of a dislike for junky foods and have a hard time being around the smell of fried foods. In fact, most food, especially fried chicken and potatoes, make me want to vomit. I do not allow for it in my house anymore.
 With the illness and obese rates increasing, I continue see even more junky foods on the shelves and on billboards. I would like to know how people still think this food is okay to eat and give to children regularly. Do people not care for themselves or their offspring anymore? I know that people are stressing out over nearly everything from being jobless, nearly homeless, low on funds and all of the rest but junk food only adds to the problem. I wonder how difficult it really is to pick up an apple or carrot to eat rather than a half gallon of ice cream? No one ever died of a heart attack from eating fruits and vegetables. Since present day food is much worse than when I was a child over thirty years ago so I can't imagine feeding children things I would not feed myself. When I see preteens triple the size of myself walking down the street, the first thing I wonder about are the parents. Do the parents not see that they are killing their children? Do they not realize their children, at such a rate will not live to be as old as their grandparents? I do not understand the madness. Parents need to be parents and take responsibility for their parental wrongdoings and work with their children rather than pacify them with bad things in life.
I remember many of the times when my parents were physically active with my sister and I and how much we were encouraged to stay out of the house and play rather than drool over food. I am very thankful my parents limited my junk food intake because other than candy, I don't care to be around it.