Avoid Processed Food For a Healthy Diet
The processing of natural healthy food is one of the biggest mistakes mankind has made when it comes to maintaining health. It has been a classic case of production led marketing: make a product that nobody really needs, then brainwash them into thinking that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread (which was one of the first examples if you are talking about white bread.)
Natural food, untarnished by processing or additives, is what the human body is designed to process itself. In the past century, a proliferation of chemical additives, with little or no government control, have found there way into processed convenience foods. At the same time, the processing itself destroys many, most or all of the natural nutrition in our healthiest foods.
Add all that to the high concentrations of pesticides and herbicides found in mass produced crops, and you have a sad situation: millions of people eating too much food that has had its nutrients stripped, and replaced by a plethora of synthetic chemicals, some of which have cancer causing properties. The resultant malnutrition leaves someone's immune system less able to deal with the onslaught of chemicals. It is no wonder that cancer has increased over recent decades.
Fortunately, in the UK, where I come from, the move towards organic food, improved labeling, and the consumer resistance to other threats, such as genetically modified foods, started 15 to 20 years ago. Americans, it seems, fare less well on that front.
However, there are still vast numbers of people in the UK as well as the US, who succumb to the lazy temptation of eating processed food, which is scarcely in use in trying to maintain a healthy diet.
There is only one sensible response for health conscious consumers. Avoid any sort of processed food as far as possible, and eat organic food if it is available. Check all labeling for additives, and avoid them if you can. Most are unnecessary, and some are even dangerous to your health.
In particular, try not to consume processed foods that contain trans fats. When you look at the ingredients listed on the label of packaged processed food, and if you notice the words “partially hydrogenated oil” or just “hydrogenated oil” or “liquid shortening”, it is best to avoid it. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils contain trans fats, which can be harmful. Trans fats increase the bad cholesterol (LDL) and deplete the body's good cholesterol (HDL) levels. They can also make arteries rigid and clog them, resulting in cardiovascular problems. Trans fats can also cause insulin resistance and contribute to Type 2 diabetes. Trans fats can pose a serious health risk, much more serious than saturated fats found in meat and dairy products.
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If you have been eating junk processed food for a long time, you may find it difficult to switch back to the real thing: tasty fruits, lean meats, fish and vegetables cooked at home. Stick to wholemeal bread and brown rice. Two of the biggest health food disasters of all time are polishing rice white, when there is so much goodness in the husk, and the creation of white bread, for similar reasons. But I assure you, if you can make the change make to wholesome food, it is well worth it, you will feel much healthier, and will gradually appreciate it more and more.