6 ways, processed foods making you unhealthy!
I wish I was in stone ago so I could have got organic food at least. Let’s get back to 2021 and let me park my time machine. Processed foods are transformed from raw state to unnatural state to make it tasteful and easier to store for a longer period. We cannot live without processed food nowadays, but we can minimize it and can make a balance in our life using them. Below are 6 reasons that you must avoid or minimize the use of processed food and can see into the eyes of 114 years old Chinese lady knowing taekwondo.
Decreased vitamins and minerals.
When foods are processed or refined, they lose some of their nutrition. If we take example berry spread, it loses a lot of its vitamin C. So its organic form remains below 50%. Now, someone who takes a lot of processed foods, that person will end up not getting enough vitamins and minerals. So that’s why having a heavily processed diet means you’re not getting the full nutrition. So as a solution, one should go natural ways to get full benefits of the food, taking 100% nutrients.
Where is my fiber
The processing of food removes the fiber from organic food. Taking an example of white bread. So white bread does not have the fiber that the original whole grain wheat possesses. So if someone were to eat a lot of processed foods, they wouldn’t get enough fiber compared to someone who eats more whole foods.
The importance of fiber. Well, it’s important for several different things, mainly for digestive health, for good bowel movements, and just in general having your system run smoothly and having you feel fuller for longer. People who eat more fiber, tend to be a lower weight because they get satisfied with smaller amounts of food. Now, what about foods that have added fiber. Added fiber to a food that doesn’t have much nutrition doesn’t help. Ideally, get your fiber from organic foods. So ways to get fiber from whole foods would be things like legumes, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, etc.
Added Sugar.
The main culprit is artificial and added sugar. So a lot of processed foods have added sugar. It can be in anything like bottle juices, salad dressings, fake honey, ice cream (ok sorry). It can be in cakes and cookies. They will add sugar for many different reasons. Preliminary it’s the taste, sometimes it’s for the texture. We must read the nutrition labels to know the amount of sugar we are going to take. Now when it comes to added sugar, the W.H.O gives us a guideline to take 25 grams of added sugar per day. No more than that. But the average person gets over 100 to 150 grams of added sugar a day. More added sugar leads the human body to diabetes, obesity, and other health problems. The natural resources of required sugar for the human body are fresh fruits, dates, raw honey, whole grain, and other natural sources.
Preservatives:
After sugar, this is 2nd main culprit present in processed foods. Preservatives like stabilizers, longer expiry dates, artificial food colorings, artificial flavors, texturizers, and there are a lot of different additives. A good example would be packed milk with 6 months to the 1-year expiry date. We all know fresh milk is useable only for 1 to 2 days. If I ask to drink that milk after 1 week, would you drink it? The answer is No. Because we know that milk would be contaminated. So packed milk companies add sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, and natamycin, and others. Although they are added in a limited amount, still they are harmful to the human body in long run. The first attack is to slowly destroy the stomach and then it leads to other health problems. So the solution is to take natural milk, juices, and other natural foods to avoid such harmfulness.
Changed Taste:
Most processed food contains an attractive taste, if I line up respectively, it’s sweet, salty, sour, and others. Especially sweet taste attracts customers and that sweet taste only satisfies your taste buds in the mouth but compromises your other parts of the human body. It is ironic but true. So we should always go for natural ways to develop our taste. As for me, I like mangoes and pineapple too much. Who needs processed food!
Refined carbohydrates
What is the issue with refined carbohydrates? Yes, it causes blood sugar spikes. So what makes them, there is a big flow of blood sugar, that makes you hungry again. You’re eating something constantly, still hungry, and never satisfied. Because there is not enough fiber as well. So refined carbohydrates in processed foods raise problems. Examples would be things like cookies, cakes, white bread, etc. So we must go for whole foods when it comes to your carbs. Carbs are not bad but the source should be organic as they are good for our health.
