Research Project Final Report Sample

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY
Advanced Educational Program
∞∞∞∞

Research topic:

A research about Customer Behavior of AEP students
intake 59 towards Junk Food
consumption.

Name:

Nguyen T. Phuong Anh
Le Thu Hang
Nguyen Le My Hanh
Nguyen Thanh Tung

Class:

Advanced Accounting 59B

Instructor: Ph. D Pham Thi Thanh Thuy

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Hanoi, 2018
Table of Contents
Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………...4
1.1

Rationale……………………………………………………………………….4

1.2

Purpose…………………………………………………………………………4

1.3

Popularity………………………………………………………………………4

1.4

Research question………………………………………………………………5

1.4a

Research methods………………………………………………………………5

1.5

Literature review……………………………………………………………….5

 Definition of Junk Food………………………………………………………….5
 Definition of Customer Behavior ………………………………...………………6
 Previous research………………………………………………………….….….6
 Major finding abstract……………………………………………………….…...8
 Remainder of the report……………………………………….………………....8
Chapter II: Main Findings…………………………………………………………..….9
2.1
2.2

Customer Behavior …………………………………………………………….9
Health problems…………………………………………………………………22
2.1.1 Interview……………………………………………………………………22
2.2.2 Digestive system……………………………………………………………24
2.2.3 Cardiovascular system……………………………………………………...24
2.2.4 Appearance and metal………………………………………………………25

Chapter III: Conclusion…..............................................................................................25
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3.1 Summary………………………………………………………………………….25
3.2 Limitations………………………………………………………………………..25
3.3 Opportunities for other researchers……………………………………………….25
3.4 Suggestion……………………………………………………….…...…………25
3.4.1 Preparing foodbox………………………………….…………………….26
3.4.2 Inquiring applications……………………………….…………………...26
References………………………………………………………….…………………...27
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….28
A. Questionnaire………………………………………………………………... 28
B. Graph………………………………………………………………………….30

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Chapter I: Introduction
TITLE: An Investigation about Consuming Junk Food in AEP Students intake 59.
1.1. RATIONALE
In the modern time, with the development of food industry, there are tons of

different options for customers to choose from. Food stuffs nowadays has greater taste,
flavor; they get better looks with logos, brand names and they also are more delicious
than the traditional ones. However, food & drink that has been consumed popularly is
normally high in sugar of fat. As a consequence, more and more young people are
having a less healthy eating style and the rate of diabetes is increased significantly. It is
clearly stated that there are a lot of external factors determine the eating behaviors of
teenagers now, especially among AEP student intake 59. Thus, we decide to conduct a
research about Customer Behavior of AEP Students intake 59 in Junk Food consumption
to find out the behavior of them when choosing and eating Junk Food.
1.2. PURPOSE
The overall target of this research has been to increase AEP student’s awareness of
the frequency level of eating Junk Food which causes a lot of health problems. By
attempting to find out the demand & supply factors of AEP students in consuming Junk
Food, our group conducted an Internet survey and interviewed some of AEP second-year
students. This study focuses on AEP student’s behavior when choosing Junk Food in
order to know why they love eating Junk Food and effects of Junk Food on AEP student’s
health. Then, we might give some recommendations and advices to AEP Students to
improve their way of choosing junk food and also to better their eating habits.
1.3. POPULARITY
The area of research is narrowed down within National Economic University,
particularly in Advanced Educational Program. The main object in this research is AEP
Students intake 59 who come from different areas in Vietnam but currently are studying
together in 2nd year in AEP. There were some main reasons for our team to decide this
scope. Initially, this scope observation is more convenient and easier to approach the
participants because both of the researcher and the observed are studying at NEU. Lastly,
the AEP students come from many various areas where have the differences in culture,
custom, etiquette, etc so they may have different eating habit, eating flavor as well as
eating standard and it increases the diversity responses to expand the data collection in
finding Customer Behavior of Junk Food consumption.

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1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS


What is the Customer Behavior of AEP students on consuming Junk Food?
● What are the Effects of Junk Food on human Health?

1.4a. RESEARCH METHODS
In order to collect diversified data, we conducted an interview of some students in
Advanced Accounting 59B Class from Advanced Educational Program and created a
survey on the internet based on our questionnaires. Its material information includes:
●

●

The number of interviewees is 12 students. However, we only choose 3-5
appropriate respondents, which has fully answered the questionnaire with no
confusing answer.
The number of participants in our survey is 52. Each survey lasts in 1-2 minutes.
All of analysis data collected.

After collecting the data, we write a research report combining our understanding. In
addition, we also find information on the Internet, for example:
as well as a lot of various factual information
from AEP friends and analyze social network resources too, as
or Therefore, we have the quite
rich data collection to give the detailed result as most accurately as possible.
1.5. LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Junk Food
While searching Junk Food on google, a lot of definitions are given. For example,
according to Dr. Sunali Sharma, Dietician & Nutritionist, from Amandeep Hospital,
‘Commercial products including but not limited to salted snack foods, gum, candy,
sugary desserts, fried fast food, and sweetened carbonated beverages that have little or no
nutritional value but are high in calories, salt, and fats may be considered junk foods’.
Another Junk Food definition is from Wikipedia ‘Junk Food is a pejorative term for food
containing a large number of calories from sugar or fat with little dietary fiber, protein,
vitamins or minerals. The term can also refer to high protein food like meat prepared with
saturated fat’. As a result, after considering a lot of definitions from different resources, it
can simply define that Junk Food that is food has low nutritional value but high fat, sugar
or salt, typically produced in the form of fast food or packaged snacks needing little or no
preparation.

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Definition of Customer Behavior
The term ‘Customer Behavior’ is considered by website:
‘Customer Behavior refers to any action that a customer takes related to your company,
but as marketers, we are particularly interested in actions that we can track and learn from
to build relationships’. To clearly understand this definition, imagine that before
purchasing a product, people will consider about price, quality, packaging, or purpose
using that product, so all of that is what the firms want to know about their customers,
consumers to develop their products and carry out advertisements. Customer Behavior
can be understood that is the thoughts and the feelings of consumers in buying and
consuming process including all of user actions: purchasing, using and product handling.
Previous research
Before this investigation is carried out, many authors studied about various subject of
Junk Food with different opinions. However, most of them focused on the effects of Junk

Food on human’s health, the same thing of those authors is their main point in health,
while a few other authors studied about consumer attitudes or consumer behavior.
For instance, Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia (2012), Junk Food in Schools and
Childhood Obesity. Their research estimates the effects of junk food availability on BMI,
obesity, and related outcomes among a sample of fifth-graders and instrumental variables
regressions that leverage variation in the school’s grade span. It found that the expansion
of BMI and obesity does not significantly depend on the increase junk food purchases.
Main purpose of this study is finding how junk food impacts on BMI and obesity among
a fifth-grade cohort and do not mention anything related to consumer attitude or behavior.
Through calculation, statistics and analysis, Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia proved
the effects of junk food on children’s health is real and quite serious because the eating
junk food is increasing tremendously, but it does not mean the increase of eating junk
food is the reason making BMI index and obesity in the fifth-grade raise.
On the one hand, Icek Ajzen (2015), Consumer attitudes and behavior: the theory of
planned behavior applied to food consumption decisions. His study was conducted to
explain how the theory of planned behavior approach to food consumption decisions. He
compared the difference as well as the similarity between two methods: the multiattribute and subjective expected utility (SEU) models. These methods are used to predict
intentions and behavior purchase or use of a single brand or product and as well as in
relation to choose among different brands or products of consumer based on the planned
behavior theory. The main finding of this research is to confirm the correctness of this
theory: “The consumer behavior is a function of intention to perform the behavior in
question; the intention is based on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral
control with respect to the behavior; and these factors are determined, respectively, by
behavioral, normative, and control beliefs”.
It can see that the two examples above and our research are different in both main finding
and purpose. Instead of focusing on only the bad effects of Junk Food on AEP student’s
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Health or the Customer Behavior of AEP students on consuming Junk Food, our

investigation is to find the relationship of Customer Behavior and Health. What Junk
Food Customer Behavior of AEP students is, how their Customer Behavior related to
their Health and how Junk Food affected to human health are all main points. It can be
claimed that customer behavior and health do not affect very directly but they have
interaction, the standard of eating Junk Food behavior impacts on AEP student’s health in
a quite direct way. This study also is to let AEP students understand about their eating
Junk Food behavior of themselves in order to change their eating behavior that is better
for health.
Nevertheless, like other researches, this investigation also has some advantages and
disadvantages that are necessary to mention. There are 3 outstanding advantages: AEP
student ‘s eating behavior evaluation, the increase of awareness and a lot of suggestions,
recommendations, advices. Firstly, this study gives the objective and concrete evaluation
about eating behavior among AEP students because all of data are investigated in
voluntariness, honesty and reality. It can affirm that 52 participants are actual AEP
students because the survey link is secure only in AEP groups, so the statistic is perfectly
realistic in order to confirm the customer behavior of AEP students accurately. Secondly,
with many information of its about health, it can increase the AEP student ‘s awareness in
consuming Junk Food. This study shows the effects of junk food on their health,
especially the effects on appearance, digestion and cardiovascular diseases - the problems
are not easy to see but always are human’s concerns. The last advantage is worth
suggestions, recommendations and advices to AEP students change their eating habit,
behavior and improve their health, get a better body. The suggestions, recommendation
and advices in this research are carefully selected from many health magazines as well as
scientific newspaper and health professors too (www.everydayhealth.com,
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au, www.livestrong.com ) - the reliable resources, so audiences
might believe.
Beside the advantages, the biggest disadvantage is limited scope. Due to short time
period, the survey is just opened in 2 weeks and the number of participants is few. It
means despite objective, the observed is not various so the opinion is not diverse too.
Another limitation is age. Because of carrying out among AEP students who are between

the ages of 18-22, it seems that the opinion about consuming junk food of the older
people will be different. In each different occasion or different condition, situation, there
will have several eating behaviors, so it will give different results of customer behavior
research in the larger scope. Similarly, maybe the older, people tend to choose more
healthy food and be interested in health, not many old people are excited about junk food
like young people. Lastly, the disadvantage of study is about effect of junk food. Because
junk food effects usually need to observe in a long time, the effects mentioned in report
recently is relative. The effects of junk food do not appear immediately after eating, it
often is small signs that cannot see easily. The symptoms caused by diseases about junk
food just become clearly when the disease is more and more serious.
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Major finding abstracts
To collect realistic data, our group conducted a survey on the internet and also
interviewed some AEP students to find out Customer Behavior on consuming Junk Food.
The total number of respondents is 52, including 71.2% females’ participation and the
other is males. It can find the majority of survey participants on the internet is female, so
it normally evaluates that women tend to prefer to consume junk food and are more
interested in food than men. Looking at the statistic, 100% AEP student’s intake 59 is still
eating junk food every day. Unfortunately, although they eat huge amount of junk food,
they do not have a clear idea of certain standards of eating Junk Food, for example: the
level of cleanness or the different variety of junk food, etc. In 52 responses, 75%
respondents love eating Junk Food due to the taste of its. It indicates that they tend to
simply enjoy the original taste of each junk food meals. However, they seem to pay less
attention to the quality of junk food or the risk its may cause on health. Another
noteworthy point, a lot of reasons given when AEP students intake 59 eating junk food is
its convenience, but in fact shown in survey, 25% for 13 respondents spending 30-45
minutes in a Junk Food meal and some even spend >45 minutes. The figures also show
that many Junk Food consumers do not actually know what junk food is, even though

they eat it regularly. The results of survey and interview seems to affirm AEP student’s
intake 59 do not really understand the exact definition of junk food as well as its bad
effects on both their appearance and health.
Remainder of the report
The study has two major findings: customer behavior of AEP student’s intake 59 on
consuming junk food and the effects of junk food on their body – appearance and health.
From this two main points, the body of the research is divided into 6 sections to clearly
clarify. Firstly, section 1 will discuss about the junk food customer behavior of AEP
student’s intake 59 by analyzing information and statistics in the survey. Secondly, in
section 2, from the existing, the finding will be explained and demonstrated. Thirdly, in
section 3 our group will use relevant data and analysis from section 2 and also some
outside references. Next, in section 4, our group will display some of the instrumental
variables estimation and also draw the conclusion of our research. The information in
section 5 will be given from the previous interview, focusing on the health information,
indicate the reason why students love eating junk food and why do they still continue
eating junk food after getting health problems (digestive system, cardiovascular system).
Lastly, after showing the effects of junk food, the advices and recommendations in
section 6 are given in order to help AEP student to change the eating habit and to have a
healthier lifestyle.

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Chapter II: Main Findings
In this section, the most important findings will be presented and will be organized
around the research question. In total, males account for 28.8% and females account for
71,2% of the total number of respondents. This result shows us that females tend to
consume Junk Food more than males, they love Junk Food and care about it much more
than male students. This because Junk Food has been a favorite thing for women in a
long time.

2.1.   Survey   on   Customer   Behavior   of   AEP   Students   intake   59   in   Junk   Food
Consumption.
2.1.1.

What is Junk Food?

Figure 1. What is Junk Food?
According to the charts above, 65.4% of AEP Students intake 59 think Junk Food is fast
foods like hamburger, pizza… In the second place, 61.5% of them think that Junk Food is
sweet stuffs such as snack, candy, cake… There are 11.5% believe Junk Food belongs to
food that has low calories which include salad or fruit. Additionally, another number
about 9.6% answer they don’t know what Junk Food is. Moreover, a small number think
that Junk Food is not one of the answers above. This is a very good sign because almost
every student know what Junk Food is. It helps them to know what the components are
inside their food, how much calories or fat that food consists of, is it healthy or not, what
to eat and not to eat at a specific meal in a day.

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2.1.1.

Have you ever eaten Junk Food?

Figure 2. Have you ever eaten Junk Food?
In this chart, it can easily see that all the students who took the survey have eaten Junk
Food at least once in their life. This means Junk Food is very popular among AEP
Students intake 59.

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2.1.2.

Do you regularly eat Junk Food?

Figure 2. Do you regularly eat Junk Food?
It can see that from the chart that 63.5% students eat Junk Food 2-4 times a week. At a
higher rate, almost a quarter of the answer eat Junk Food from 5 to 6 times per week. It is
very surprising that the number of AEP Students intake 59 who eat Junk Food everyday
accounts for only 3.8%. The amount of answers in which they eat 1 or 2 times a month or
rarely eat Junk is quite low, only at 1.9%. Last of all, only 5.8% said that they never eat
Junk Food.
To sum up, a large number of AEP Students intake 59 eat Junk Food at 2-3 times per
week and a very small proportion of them eat every day. In general, students of intake 59
do not eat much Junk Food in a week.

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2.1.3.

What kinds of Junk Food do you usually eat/buy?

Figure 3. What kinds of Junk Food do you usually eat/buy?
As the graph above shows, a huge number of students (73.1% of them) choose to eat fast
food at some famous brands like KFC, Lotteria, McDonald, etc. This is dangerous
because these kinds of food are normally very high in calories and fat , which are very
harmful to their body and their heart. Coming in the second place, beverages such as
Bubble tea, Soft drink, etc are bought by majority of AEP students whenever they feel to

have a cheat meal. Accounting for half of the answers is packed-version food which
includes chocolate, snacks, candies, etc. The last option is house-made food like cupcake,
cookies, Korean foods with 32.7% students votes, almost half of those who choose fast
food to eat when they think of Junk Food.
To conclude, it seems AEP students are eating too much harmful food like fast food,
beverages due to their convenience, cheap price rather than safe, well-prepared housemade food. This is mainly caused by their lack of time in a day; they have to balance
between school, part-time job, homework and other activities so they do not have time to
prepare a proper meal to eat or bring along.

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2.1.4.

When do you usually eat Junk Food?

Figure 4. When do you usually eat Junk Food?
The graph shows that AEP students’ intake 59 eat Junk Food the most at brunch (63.5%),
which is usually late morning to early afternoon. One of the reasons is the schedule,
classes start quite early in the morning and in the afternoon, therefore they cannot have
their breakfast on time. About 20% lower votes is the choice for having Junk Food at
lunch (42.3%), this mostly because the break time between classes in the morning and the
afternoon is too short then Junk Food is their best option in order to not be late for the
following classes. Eating Junk Food at dinner has 25% vote, more than at breakfast at
13.5% vote. The smallest percentage of votes (7.7%) is having Junk Food at other time of
the day.
In conclusion, AEP student’s intake 59 eat Junk Food mostly at brunch and lunch. This is
due to their amount of break-time at school. Choosing Junk Food to be a quick and
convenience solution as a meal, so that they can attend other classes on time. The votes
for eating at dinner drop massively because of their fear of getting overweight. The

number of students eats Junk Food at breakfast is even smaller because they have already
known Junk Food do not contain enough nutrients and energy for a whole new day.

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2.1.5.

In which occasion do you usually eat/buy Junk Food?

Figure 5. In which occasion do you usually eat/buy Junk Food?
From the graph above, almost 60% of students answer the survey that they eat/buy Junk
Food when spending a whole day at school, this is reasonable from the figure 5 due to
tight schedule and small amount of break-time. Less than 10% is happened when they
have to stay at home alone (51.9%). They eat Junk Food while studying or in their leisure
time. Hence, the number of clients buying Junk Food when they have discount codes for
their favorite dishes is at 42.3%, this means students are very economical in using their
money. Almost 40% students eat/buy Junk Food when the schedule is dense with the
same reason why students stay all day at school. In the fourth place is at some special
events (30.8%) for example: birthday parties, gatherings etc. In addition, there are 5.8%
students eat/buy Junk Food at other occasions.
To summarize, AEP student’s intake 59 usually eat or buy Junk Food while having a tight
schedule, spending all day at school and having leisure time at home. The number
slightly drops in discount codes because almost every kinds of Junk Food is quite cheap
so that students can buy with hardly any difficulties, this also means they are very
economical in controlling their spending in food. Moreover, Junk Food is liked by most
of the students, so it is a must-have thing in any parties or special occasions.
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2.1.6.

How long does your Junk Food meal last?

Figure 6. How long does your Junk Food meal last?
The graph shows that almost 40% of the respondents spend between 15 to 30 minutes on
eating their Junk Food meal. This is understandable since they usually have meals during
their school day. Whilst, the students who eat their meal from 30 to 45 minutes is almost
the same percentage number as those who spend less than 15 minutes on a Junk Food
meal. The smallest percentage is counted for the number of students who spend more
than 45 minutes. In conclusion, AEP student’s intake 59 mostly eat their Junk Food meal
in 15-30 minutes so they can rest and continue studying, hence Junk Food is a kind of
food which easy to prepare and to consume so it does not take a long time to eat.
However, eating Junk Food may cause consumers some serious digest problems since it
is similar to consuming fast food.

2.1.7.

Where do you usually buy Junk Food?
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Figure 7. Where do you usually buy Junk Food?
Look at the graph it can easily see that students usually buy Junk Food at convenience
stores or the nearest stores to their places (59.6%). The second place is at fast food chains
with 57.7%, followed up with the percentage of buying online at 40.4%. Less than 10% is
the answer of buying at vender stores and only 19.2% of the students buy at expensive
restaurants.
In summary, AEP students intake 59 buy Junk Food at convenience store and nearest
store like Circle K, Vinmart or any store nearby because Junk Food is sold in those store

the most. Next is fast food chains with many options for them to choose from. In
addition, ordering food online is very common nowadays due to the popular of delivering
apps on smartphone and Internet. Students also buy Junk Food at vender stores in the
street on their way home. Last but not least is buying Junk Food at restaurants, buy these
kinds of food took time to prepared and a huge amount of money. Hence, AEP students
tended to look for other stores provided food with a reasonable price.

2.1.8.

Where do you usually eat Junk Food?
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Figure 8. Where do you usually eat Junk Food?
From the chart, it can be observed that eating Junk Food at home and on campus area
like library, classroom takes over 62.5% of all choices. However, the number of students
who eat Junk Food at working places and public places such as park, bus stop, parking…
in only at about 25%.
To sum up, there is a significant number of students eat Junk Food at home and on
campus because they can eat it in their leisure time and break time between classes or
even during their classes. The smaller number eating at public places because of the
hygiene quality in those places is not guaranteed. In working places, eating food during
work is forbidden so students avoid eating in those scenarios.

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2.1.9.

Who are you usually eating Junk Food with?

Figure 9. Who are you usually eating Junk Food with?
From figure 9, it is easy to see that Junk Food is shared most among friends. The option
for eating with best friend accounts for 59.6% and eating with classmate/roommate takes
even more votes at 63.5%. On the other hand, the number of students who enjoy their
Junk Food alone is 44.2%. In addition, students also eat Junk Food with siblings, cousins
or their girlfriend, boyfriend for nearly 30%. It is not surprising that only 9.6% of the
students eating Junk Food with their parents.
To sum up, Junk Food is mostly eaten with friends because students tend to eat more
while chatting with each other about their lives . They also eat Junk Food alone quite a
lot, this can be explained as their dense schedule when they study at home or school. On
the contrary, the percentage number of students who eat Junk Food with their parents is
basically low since middle-aged people obviously do not interested in eating Junk Food.

2.1.10.

How much do you usually spend on a Junk Food meal?
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Figure 10. How much do you usually spend on a Junk Food meal?
It can be found out from the chart that more than a half of the students pay from 100.000
to 150.000 to buy a Junk Food meal (61.5%). At a lower price, 50% of the consumers
have the expenditure less than 50.000 to eat Junk Food in a meal. on the other hand, it is
not surprising that there are only 17.3% of the AEP student intake 59 who spend more
than 100.000 on buying Junk Food per meal.
In conclusion, students do not spend too much money on Junk Food, because price of
Junk Food is relatively cheap compared to other kinds of food. Therefore, they can easily
buy a large amount of food with just a few thousands of Viet Nam Dong. In addition,
since Junk Food does not play a big role in their diet and t is just the option in a busy day

with no time for preparing a proper meal, it is not purchased much by students.

2.1.11.

What is your standard of buying Junk Food?
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Figure 11. What is your standard of buying Junk Food?
According to the chart above, more than two third of the students choose to buy Junk
Food mainly due to its original taste(75%). Students also choose convenience factor for
about 42% in total of the answers. In addition, cheap price and some other factors are
about a fifth of the votes.
The main reason why AEP students choose to eat a specific food is because they just
simply like the way it tastes. Another considerable factor is the convenience, one of the
best features of Junk Food. Nowadays, the thing that students need the most is time;
therefore, they require their meal to be fast, simple, easy to eat and Junk Food is the best
solution since it does not take much time to prepare and can fit perfectly in their tight
schedule.

2.1.12.

Do you like Junk Food?
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Figure 12. Do you like Junk Food?
On the scale from 1 to 5, there are a half of the answers rate 4 on how they like Junk
Food, 17.3% people rate 5, 21.2% people rate 3 and a small number of students vote 1
and 2. This means most of AEP students intake 59 really like Junk Food. However, there

are still people who do not like Junk Food but they only account for a small percentage,
this can be the male students who participated in the survey, they only eat Junk Food
when they are with friends or when they do not have other possible choice for a meal in
school.
Junk Food is becoming more popular, many students have already considered it as their
favorite meals (mostly female students). This can be explained by three major reasons.
First is its taste, Junk Food has a great taste that can satisfy anyone. However, it may
have this taste due to lavish usage of oils, salts and sugar. This may cause some serious
problems related to health of the consumers. The second reason is time. Junk Food is
easy to be purchased and can be consumed in a short period of time which is a major
factor since students always in rush. Last but not least is the low and attractive price
range to have a Junk Food meal - which makes them became accessible to all students.
2.2. Health problems
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From the survey above, with all that advantages for students, Junk Food still causes many
bad effects to human body like obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and various types of skin
cancers. To fully understand the effects of Junk Food, this study has conducted a few
interviews. Here are a few examples from these interviews:
2.2.1. Interviews
Le Canh Duc
1. Have you ever got any medical problems after eating Junk Food? If yes, what’s that?
•
Yes, stomach problem. After eating snacks, I had to go to the
hospital to have an intravenous drip.
2. Have you ever gained weight because eating too much Junk Food?
•

Yes, of course.

3. Have you ever got into the situation which your clothes are too tight to be wear?
•

Yes, I gained weight in secondary school.

4. Have you ever bumped into acquaintances and got body shaming because of gaining
weight?
•

Yes, relatives call me Duc Beu and I got motivated to lose weight.

5. Have you ever skipped your meals since you’re already ate lots of snacks?
•

Yes. Junk Food makes you full but doesn’t include nutrients.

6. Have you ever got problems with the digest system after eating Junk Food?
-

Yes, I have diarrhea many times.

7. Have you ever noticed the differences in your friends/relative appearances (color of the
skin, acnes, etc) after he/she ate Junk Food? What do you think about it?
•

Yes, they have acne.

8. Have you ever thought of changing Junk Food into a healthier option?
•

Yes, junk food is getting more poisonous. You need to change to
healthier options.

Tran T. Khanh Huyen
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1. Have you ever got any medical problems after eating Junk Food? If yes, what’s that?
•

Yes. I had stomach issue 2 times.

2. Have you ever gained weight because eating too much Junk Food?
•
usual diet.

Yes. I tried to stop eating for a while then later getting back to the

3. Have you ever got into the situation which your clothes are too tight to be wear?
•

My face becomes rounder; all the clothes get tighter.

4. Have you ever bumped into acquaintances and got body shaming because of gaining
weight?
•

Yes. I felt less confident and tried to lose weight.

5. Have you ever skipped your meals since you’re already ate lots of snacks?

•

No. I have never done that.

6. Have you ever got problems with the digest system after eating Junk Food?
•
I used to eat at mid-night and ate food that lack of nutrition, after
that I got stomach disease.
7. Have you ever noticed the differences in your friends/relative appearances (color of the
skin, acnes, etc) after he/she ate Junk Food? What do you think about it?
•

Yes. They have acnes, fatter face.

8. Have you ever thought of changing Junk Food into a healthier option?
•

Yes, I follow useful diet menu on the Internet, eat more vegetable.

From the interviews above, it can find that there are 3 main parts of human body
affected the most when AEP students consume a huge amount of Junk Food.
2.2.2. Digestive system:
First part is the digestive system. The human digestive system consists of the
gastrointestinal tract plus the organs of digestion (the tongue, salivary glands, pancreas,
liver, and gallbladder). Digestion involves the breakdown of food into smaller and
smaller components, until they can be absorbed and into the body. As far as we concern,
Junk Food contains high proportion of carbohydrates, refined sugar, salt, fats and low
nutritional value. Therefore, Junk food is unhealthy to the digestive system as they slow
down the digestion process by making the stomach bloated. In order to digest food,
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stomach needs enzymes and fast food does not have them. When food is absorbed by the
intestine it requires fiber and water to excrete but they don't have such nutrients which
leads to a poor digestion and irritable bowels. This is just the first of many dangerous
diseases to come like type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, certain cancers,
stroke, high cholesterol etc.
2.2.3. Cardiovascular system:
Another part that is affected badly due to eating Junk Food is the cardiovascular system.
This is the system that allows blood to circulate from heart to the entire body, brings
nutrients, oxygen, other necessary components to provide nourish. A very popular
example is diabetes, as Junk Food contains high amount of sugar, eating too much may
result in having too much sugar in blood. There are 2 types: type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is
usually caused by consuming Junk Food. This type affects the way the body uses insulin.
While the body still makes insulin, the cells in the body do not respond to it as effectively
as they once did. This is the most common type of diabetes and it has strong links with
obesity. People often get this disease when they become old, but students who consume
too much Junk Food can have this disease in a very young age. Hypertension, also known
as high blood pressure is another dangerous disease caused by consuming Junk Food.
This disease happens a lot because of a high amount of salt present in Junk Food which
can raise blood pressure, so it can cause high blood pressure (hypertension) for years
without any symptoms. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases the risk of serious
health problems, including heart attack and stroke. This type of disease can occur after
people become overweight. Eating fast food can increase the intake of calories, total fat,
cholesterol and sodium, plus sugar from soft drink, eating too much can alter metabolic
factors that increase the risk for heart disease, some bad things may happen like stroke,
diabetes, heart attacks etc.
2.2.4. Appearance and mental:
Last but not least is the effects on appearance. Junk Food consists of a lot of additives
and chemicals which cause skin rashes. Junk Food is also a high carb kind of food, this

leads to blood sugar spikes and sudden jumps occur in blood sugar levels might trigger
acnes. Moreover, eating too much Junk Food leads to bloating and puffiness due to retain
too much water after absorbing sodium from Junk Food. Junk Food contains a lot of fat
and sugar while AEP students still eat it too much but without exercising regularly due to
tight schedule and just sitting all day to study or to work. This slowly builds up fat around
body and specially in the belly, thigh, legs, arms and face, therefore they cannot wear old
clothes because their body has become bigger due to eating too much Junk Food.
Moreover, they also become slower, lazier overtime because of the fat increase, this
happens over and over until they are obese and cannot lose weight. All of these will lead
to body shaming, a practice of criticizing people for being too fat, body shaming can
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come from their friends or even relatives like our interviewee Le Canh Duc. People who
get body shaming will feel sad all the time, it will affect to their daily life, to their time in
school and daily life. Students get body shaming always think about what other people
think about them, they try to change the way they eat, drop out their favorite food and if
those actions do not work out, their mental will be break, this will affect badly to their
mental health, their life and may cause major depressive disorder, lower self-esteem and
may last for a long time.

Chapter III. Conclusion
1.

Summary

This research was investigated about the customer behavior in Junk Food among AEP
student intake 59. To implement this study, our group collected data from diverse sources
of information, we also conducted a survey and interviews on some of AEP intake 59
students . After a long period of time of doing research, our group gain back the data-out

of consuming Junk food of AEP student intake 59. Analyzing figures from the survey, we
reached to the conclusion that Junk Food is quite popular among AEP student intake 59.
There are three main reason for them to choose Junk Food as a meal: time factor, taste
quality and the reasonable cost. On the other hand, by conducting a small interview
between AEP students about their experiences of Junk food on health, our group came to
a conclusion that Junk Food may cause some of health problems like diarrhea,
cardiovascular or appearance changes like gaining weight, having acnes, etc as well as
mental instability for being body shaming.
2. Limitations
Beside the data supplied, there are a lot of blemishes in our investigation. Firstly,
choosing options in survey of almost students is not cover all the matters. Although the
research allows people to think as themselves and answer it privately, the period of time
for doing the survey is quite short, therefore the number of students participated in the
survey is not in its highest peak (only 52 students). Secondly, the research is mainly
interested to female students (71.2%) for their eating habits and it also make the research
less accurate since it is not included of male’s responders. Lastly, the participants save
their time by selection one of the available answers or even tick in randomly. It leads to
the incorrect data of the study.
3. Opportunities for other researchers.
However, the investigation about consuming Junk food of our group was limited by only
the area of AEP student intake 59. A suggested for further researchers will be a broaden
scope by increasing the amount of student or even teenagers in Vietnam. On the other
hand, while this research was examined the factors determined consuming Junk food and
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