Effects and How to Avoid Processed Foods
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Are processed foods the general leading cause of obesity and diabetes? Processed food is any food that’s frozen, canned, dried, or baked. These foods can go through various levels of processing. Primary food processing turns agricultural products, such as raw wheat kernels or livestock, into something that can eventually be eaten. It also includes ingredients that are produced by ancient processes such as butchering animals for meat. By the way, processed food is also a food item that has had a series of mechanical or chemical operations performed on it to change it. Highly processed foods often contain textures, flavor, colorants, preservatives, which all contain chemicals. Keep in mind that processed foods can contain dozens of additional chemicals that aren’t even listed on the label. There are types of processed food such as; cookies, potato chips, milk, and cheese. Not all processed food is bad for your health; there are frozen fruits and vegetables that are healthy and not harmful to your health. On the other side, there is harmful processed food such as; packaged cakes and cookies, processed meats, boxed noodle meals, frozen, deep-fried foods. Processed food is harmful and is the leading cause of obesity and many harmful diseases.
Processed food is harmful and dangerous to one’s health. Processed food contains too much sugar, sodium, and fat. Even though sugar, sodium, and fat taste good, too many of them lead to obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, and an early grave. They usually contain cheap fats and vegetable oils. Vegetable oils are extremely not healthy, and a lot of people are already eating way too much of vegetable oils. Processed food increases cancer risk. A study of five years of over 100,000 people established that every 10 percent increase in consuming processed food leads to a 12 percent higher risk of getting cancer. To avoid it, you’ll have to stop adding salt to the diet, avoid processed meats, start slowly, and to plan. Therefore, from the examples that we provided above, processed food is really bad for one’s health and causes dangerous outcomes.
Processed food is low in nutrients compared to unprocessed food. Due to processed food being low in nutrients, it takes less time and energy to digest. A study showed that women and men burned twice as many calories digesting the unprocessed meal. Also, due to processed food being low in nutrients and more towards sweet and fatty, it is engineering for overconsumption. Processed food has been engineered to be rewarding to the brain, which makes us eat more than what we need. Processed food is deficient in nutrients, which avoids us getting the actual and proper nutrients that we must consume every day.
Some processed food can be harmless to one’s health. Not all processed foods are harmful to one’s health since there is some processed food that is healthy and contains nutrients. Some processed foods like peanut butter, blueberry jam, frozen fruits and vegetables, apple juice, and grape juice are healthy choices that are also nutritional. Even though these processed foods are nutritious, some of the nutrients, vitamins, and fiber present in them are removed through the process of food processing. Also, these processed foods are obtained from laboratories and not nature. Therefore, even though some of the processed food is healthy, some of the nutrients are removed through the process of food processing, which is not a good thing; even food labeled organic can also be processed.
Fast food manufacturing companies try to make their food products appear healthy by adding other ingredients that were better off eating the regular version. For instance, yogurt companies label their yogurt products as fat-free, which they are but substitutes of fats for sugars to make it taste sweeter, this, as a result, leads to weight gain. Milk is an example of processed food, which makes it safer for human consumption. Milk goes through stages such as homogenization and pasteurization when it is being processed. The latter process kills bacteria in the milk, and the former prevents the separation of fats. So, in order to avoid consuming processed yogurt that may end up harming our bodies, we should instead go for other substitutes such as processed milk, which is healthy.
When buying processed foods, we should be very keen when looking at the labels. Sodium is the main ingredient in most processed foods. It enhances the sugar flavor in these foods, prevents the bacterial formation, and increases the shelf life of these foods; this makes it very essential in food processing companies. An average person consumes about fifty percent more sodium than what is recommended daily. Research indicates that about seventy percent of sodium in our diet comes from fast foods. Most of us tend to think that because it has several nutrients, then it is good for our health when actually it is not. These companies add all sorts of other ingredients that end up interfering with the nutritional value of the food. We should, therefore, try to consume these foods in their natural way.
Processed foods are mainly created for convenience, and most of these foods contain ingredients that may not be safe or healthy for human consumption. For instance, when we consume sugars, our bodies are not sure whether to process it or not, and this can cause health effects such as over-consumption and metabolic confusion. Research carried out by Rich at the University of Virginia revealed that artificial sweeteners are most consumed by those who are in diets and diabetics because it helps their bodies have control over the foods they consume. Therefore, it is advisable that those who are not suffering from these conditions to avoid consuming them.
In summation, processed foods bear more problems than good that they bring to our bodies. Most people are not aware of the health problems that are proponed because of these foods. Since governments are not taking any actions to make people aware, we should, therefore, be more aware of what we are eating and how much we are consuming.
References
Dunn, K. I., Mohr, P., Wilson, C. J., & Wittert, G. A. (2011). Determinants of fast-food consumption. An application of the theory of planned behavior. Appetite, 57(2), 349-357.
Ares, G., Vidal, L., Allegue, G., Giménez, A., Bandeira, E., Moratorio, X., … & Curutchet, M. R. (2016). Consumers’ conceptualization of ultra-processed foods. Appetite, 105, 611-617.
Baker, P., & Friel, S. (2014). Processed foods and the nutrition transition: evidence from A sia. Obesity Reviews, 15(7), 564-577.
Weaver, C. M., Dwyer, J., Fulgoni III, V. L., King, J. C., Leveille, G. A., MacDonald, R. S., … & Schnakenberg, D. (2014). Processed foods: contributions to nutrition. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 99(6), 1525-1542.