Time to get comfortable. It's National Junk Food Day

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's the day all food lovers have been waiting for: National Junk Food Day. 

The July 21 event is recognized on National Today's calendar, in honor of junk foods popularization in the United States during the 1950s.

By definition, junk food is high in fats, sugars, salt, and calories. But none of those count on the date celebrating your favorite snacks, right?

 Here are some interesting junk food facts in honor of the national day: 

• The first McDonald's, east of the Mississippi River, was opened in 1955. Today, the fast-food giant has more than 36,000 locations.
• More than 10 billion doughnuts are made in the U.S. every year, according to the Smithsonian magazine
• Grocery stores bigger than 2,500 square feet in Berkeley, California are banned from displaying junk food in checkout areas.
• A monkey was put on a strict no-junk-food diet in Bangkok, Thailand after CBS News reports he helped himself to too many sweets left behind by tourists.
• Dum Dums were created by Akron Candy Co. in Bellevue, Ohio, in 1924. According to the company, a sales manager picked the lollipops name because they figured it would be easy for kids to say.
• As odd as it may seem, some breakfast cereals are considered junk food due to the sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and white flour or milled corn used in the product, according to WebMD. 
• A school in Maine has had an ongoing experiment to see how long a Twinkie could survive. It hit 43 years in 2019.

RELATED: 43-year-old Twinkie is still there at Maine high school

RELATED: No energy drinks, soda or candy: Texas proposal would regulate food stamp purchases

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