How Processed Foods Can Affect Your Health

If you walk into any grocery or stop at a gas station in Chamblee, GA, you’ll find a plethora of sweet treats, salty snacks, and other types of processed foods. The overconsumption of these treats can wreak havoc on your health and add inches to your middle. All foods are processed. Washing fruit is a form of processing, just as cutting meat is. That’s not a problem. It’s highly processed food containing large amounts of sugar, preservatives, and other toxic ingredients with little or no nutritional value that are harmful.

Frankenstein food may contain additives that make you hungrier.

Everyone has heard of mystery meats as a school lunch or eaten “fruit flavored” goodies containing no actual fruit. These Frankenstein foods are made in a lab and specifically designed to make you crave more. Many contain sugar, which is highly addictive. It’s also bad for your health. It causes blood glucose levels to spike, to which the body responds with equally high insulin levels. That leads to insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, acne, dental carries, and some types of cancer. Sugar triggers the opioid receptors, the same receptors as drugs. Like drugs, the more sugar you ingest, the more you want.

Highly processed foods provide little, if any, nutrition.

One health issue today is the increasing epidemic of obesity. Many obese people also suffer from malnutrition. Both vitamin and mineral deficiency have a link to obesity. One cause of obesity may be associated with specific nutritional deficiencies that help maintain bodily functions. Obesity can occur for many reasons, but one is a poor diet containing primarily highly processed food.

Highly processed food increases inflammation.

Inflammation is necessary to maintain health. Acute inflammation occurs when you get a cut or attacked by bacteria or virus that makes you sick. It helps protect the body and promote healing. Chronic inflammation is different. It is an immune system glitch that continues for a long time and is fighting non-existent pathogens. Instead, it attacks the body. Sugar and highly processed food can cause it. Conditions from chronic inflammation include heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

• When man interferes with natural food, many times with disastrous results. Scientists created hydrogenated oils that are high in lethal trans fats. High fructose corn syrup is another processed food linked to many health issues.
• Highly processed food contains little or no fiber. There are two types of fiber—soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber feeds friendly microbes that aid in many bodily processes, including acting as a second immune system.
• Flour made from highly processed grain contains only the starchy endosperm. The bran that contains fiber and germ that contains nutrients have all been removed. It’s processed further with additives and bleaching.
• Highly processed foods often contain foreign enzymes to extend their shelf life. The use of enzymes has increased over the last 30 years and so have other problems, such as celiac disease, obesity, and ADHD.

For more information, contact us today at Thrive Fitness Atlanta