As evidence mounts linking over-consumption of these products to major health consequences, highly processed foods are becoming a concerning trend. Processed food could be affecting your health.
As evidence mounts linking over-consumption of these products to major health consequences, highly processed foods are becoming a concerning trend. Processed food could be affecting your health.
Some basic food processing is necessary to ensure the safety of perishable items, such as fresh meat or dairy, the concern lies with products considered to be highly processed. These are the convenience foods that dominate the center aisles of your typical grocery store and include: ready-made meals, canned goods, cookies, chips, sodas, candy, sweets and other packaged items.
Avoiding processed foods altogether may be impossible, but understanding why consuming too many may be detrimental is an important first step to improving your health. Here are four ways overconsumption of processed food could be affecting your health.
Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
It is well known that sugar contributes to obesity, which can then lead to a host of other chronic diseases. Highly processed foods are often loaded with extra sugar, but don’t be fooled if the word “sugar” doesn’t actually appear on the label. So, how much sugar consumption is too much? It’s recommended added sugars should be limited to no more than 10 percent of daily calories. This equals about 12 teaspoons of sugar per day, which sounds pretty generous until you put into perspective that the average can of soft drink contains about 10 teaspoons alone.
As if obesity were not bad enough, processed food consumption is also linked to metabolic syndrome, which is defined as a group of risk factors that can lead to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The abundance of sugars found in highly processed foods is the main culprit of metabolic syndrome. Sugars are a form of carbohydrates, which the body needs for energy. However, when these types of carbohydrates are consumed in excess quantities, the sugars must be stored in the body—typically as fat—and may lead to several metabolic consequences.
Autoimmune Diseases
Autoimmune diseases are triggered when the body’s immune system goes haywire and attacks its own cells. Research has shown that seven common additives abundantly found in processed foods can damage the tight junctions, making them weaker and increasing intestinal permeability. This, in turn, opens up the door for toxins to harm the body, which can raise the likelihood of developing anautoimmune disease.
Colorectal Cancer
Processed foods can also increase the risk of developing colon cancer. This time, the culprit is processed meats, which include lunch meat, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and beef jerky or any other meat product that has been chemically treated in order to stay preserved. The risk also includes consumption of red meat such as beef or pork.
Eating as few as 50 grams of processed or red meat daily, which is roughly the equivalent of a small hot dogor two slices of bacon, has been found to raise the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. It is believed that the risk comes from either the chemicals used to preserve these meats or the cooking process by which they are preserved, both of which are associated with exposure to carninogenic compounds.
Anxiety and Depression
Diets high in processed foods are also linked to increased rates of anxiety and depression. One theory is that exposure to those added sugars can wreak havoc in your gut, where the majority of serotonin production occurs. Serotonin is an important mood stabilizer, and when dietary habits include the chemical additives common in processed foods, it can adversely affect your body’sability to maintain healthy levels.
In addition, remember that all those added sugars cause a spike in blood glucose and increased insulin production, which sets in a motion a roller coaster metabolic process that can result in hyperactivity followed by lethargy. Also, since those added sugars can become highly addictive, your body continually craves more, repeating this process over and over.
Overall, diets high in processed foods usually mean the less real food is consumed, which results in the body becoming deficient in other vitamins and minerals that are needed to support your mood and emotional health. Although it is virtually impossible to completely eliminate processed food from our daily diets, it is good to be mindful of just how much you are eating. This awareness can help to create a healthier lifestyle and help with many medical ailments.
Source:WellandFit
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