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Have you ever heard of the notion that if your great grandmother doesn’t recognise something as food, then we should avoid it?
In recent years, our food seems to have gotten more and more processed, which isn’t exactly good for consumer health. Here are a few reasons why we should avoid eating too much processed foods.  What are processed foods?Processed foods are foods that have been altered from their natural state for safety reasons and convenience. Processing methods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration, and pasteurisation. An example of a processed food is pasteurised milk. Pasteurisation kills bacteria, making the milk safer to consume. Unfortunately, there are not so healthy processed foods, which I will be looking at in this article.
High in sodium Sodium (a component of table salt) is a food preservative. It is used to lengthen the shelf life of modern processed foods and help prevent food borne illness. Sodium content can be quite high in some processed foods for example, canned soup, individually wrapped cheese slices, instant noodles, and instant pasta, white bread. Although we need sodium to function correctly, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. Having too much salt in the diet can increase your blood pressure, which puts you at risk of heart disease.
 High in sugarProcessed foods tend to be quite high in sugar too. Sugary foods such as cakes and biscuits, are often high in saturated and trans-fat and they can be quite high in energy too. These factors are linked to weight gain. Sugary foods can be quite low in essential vitamins and minerals. Eating a lot of sugary foods can be unhealthy because you may not get enough nutrients into body. Eating high sugar foods are also bad for your teeth because cavity-causing bacteria thrives on sugar.
High in fat Processed foods can be high in fat. Fat is a necessary component in your diet but too much, especially trans-fat and saturated fat, can be problematic. Fat is higher in energy than other macronutrients (i.e. carbohydrates and proteins), which can be a problem for people who have a sedentary life style and don’t eat sensibly because it can cause weight gain. Saturated fat, commonly found in processed food raises your LDL “bad” cholesterol levels, which puts you at risk of heart disease. Foods to watch out for include packaged snack foods (e.g. chips and cheese snacks), convenience foods (e.g. canned ravioli, pies, and Toppers), frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners. 
High in nitrates/nitrites
Nitrates are used to preserve processed meats. They’re found naturally in vegetables at low levels, which is fine because the benefits of vegetables outweigh the effects of nitrates. However processed meats such bacon, ham, saveloys, luncheon sausage, salami, pizza, corned silverside, and hamburger can be high in nitrates, which can be detrimental to your health. Quite a few studies have linked high nitrate intake with stomach cancer.
May cause reactions in some people
Some processed foods contain preservatives, which as the name suggests, preservatives increase the shelf life of foods. Unfortunately, some people can be quite sensitive to chemicals, both natural and artificial. Certain preservatives can cause reactions like sneezing, skin rashes, itching, difficulty breathing, sneezing and gastrointestinal upsets. If you think you have a preservative sensitivity, visit your doctor and they can help you out. |
