How Processed Foods are Killing You
By Lynn, webmaster of A Natural Food Diet | Natural Food Articles
Processing generally degrades the quality of a food, turning it from real, whole food into a food product and possibly even ruining your good health. Processed foods contain more salt, sugar, and additives than any human body should ingest. By choosing to eat processed foods on a regular basis, you're putting your health—your very life—at risk.
Salt
Even moderately high levels of salt can cause your body to retain water, your blood pressure to go up, and your arteries to shrink. Research even indicates that post-menopausal women who have a diet high in salt lose more bone minerals than other women of the same age. More salt means you need more calcium to keep your bones from getting weak.[1] As you get older, weak bones can lead to dangerous breaks and hospital stays which increase your chances of getting a life-threatening infection.
Salt is in nearly all processed foods, including whole grain breads, breakfast cereals, fast foods, and boxed desserts and dinners. Since processed foods supply 75% of the sodium we eat, avoiding processed foods is the best way to avoid overloading on salt.
Still, these seem like vague possibilities to most people, so think about this. Many synthetic dyes and colors have been banned because of their carcinogenic (cancer causing) properties. Since there are plenty of adequate, natural substitues, there's no reason other than profit and ease of use for companies to continue to put artificial food dyes into food. And since most of these artificial colorings are added to food products aimed at children, there's every reason to avoid those foods like the plague.
Sugar
All the extra sugars in the modern diet and the overly processed, energy-dense but nutrient poor, foods have created a tidal wave of weight problems for many people. Being overweight or obese leads to serious health consequences and is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as heart disease and stroke, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, and some cancers like endometrial, breast, and colon. Also, childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of premature death and disability in adulthood.[2]
Excessive consumption of processed foods with high sugar and yeast contents have been linked to chronic, systemic yeast problems in people. These kinds of yeast overgrowths have been implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, although there's no proof of a direct link yet.
Additives
Take a look at the chemicals often found in foods. Although some are natural compounds, many aren't. For example, synthetic food colorings such as Yellow No. 5. Research indicates that many of these food coloring additives can cause hyperactivity in children, along with compulsive aggressive behaviors and other long-term effects. When I told my husband about these effects, his reaction was to say "but people have been eating these things forever." How scary it was to see just how quickly people accept relatively new additives and assume they've been part of our diets "forever" when that's far from the case at all! In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chart from the Summary of Color Additives for Use in United States in Foods, Drugs, Cosmetics, and Medical Devices shows that FD&C Yellow No. 5 wasn't approved for use until 1969! Many other food colorings were approved even later than that. Forty years is a far cry from forever, and it's likely we're just starting to see the fallout from use because many people who have been exposed for their entire lives are just now entering their late thirties and early forties.
Fake foods
Then, of course, there are the fake foods that are touted to be the best thing for your health since exercise. The problem is, like what happened with butter substitutes and the discovery of trans-fat dangers, many times the fake food turns out to be disasterous for your health.
Some research suggests that more than 30,000 deaths have been related to heart disease that can be blamed on trans-fats in the diet.
Are you willing to risk your future health on what might (or might not) turn out to be a true "healthly food breakthrough?"
Twenty years down the road and you've done all the damage you can possibly do to your health. The companies selling the "breakthrough" product reformulate it, but it's too late for you. I know I'm not willing to be one of the food industry's guinea pigs any longer. They can keep their breakthrough products, and I'll stick with whole, natural, and real foods that have been proven beneficial to humans by thousands of years of use.
Avoid as many processed foods as you can to minimize your risks from what the CDC calls the six groups of food risk: microbiologic, nutritional, natural toxicant, environmental contaminant, pesticide residues, and food additives. Because we are the food consumers, and in the CDC's own words, consumers have to "understand the inevitability of some risks and minimize them."[3]
Do it. Your life could depend on it.
Referenced: [1] WebMD, [2] World Health Organization, [3] CDC, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Another fascinating look at the food industry's effects on our health: Peter Jennings Report [video]
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- Guide to choosing and eating real food
- Natural Food Diet
- Why your diet should contain natural foods
- Processed Food Chemicals
- Guide to the chemicals used in processed foods to preserve, ripen, or improve the taste and texture of food products
