Over the past twenty years, a lot has changed and the foods that we eat are creating a sicker generation of children. As a result, we now have epidemic increases in diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer.
The commercialisation of nutrition has forced food companies to find newer, cheaper mechanisms to increase the shelf life of food, improve colour, taste and perceived nutritional value. The result — a dietary system heavily laced with preservatives, artificial colourings and chemicals.
Processed foods are one of the greatest dangers to one’s overall health as they provide little actual nutritional value. These foods are commonly loaded with unhealthy sugars, salts and fats that create inflammation, spike blood sugar and elevate blood pressure.
Instant noodles topped with MSG
There are many brands of instant noodles but few will win any health food awards. The immediate danger is in the flavour packet that comes with the noodles. This packet often contains monosodium glutamate or MSG and very high amounts of salt.
One of the most common causes of high blood pressure and kidney disease is eating too much salt. One can incorporate instant noodles into a healthy diet by simply leaving out the flavour packet.
Sweet addictions
The vast majority of sweets and candy are high in saturated fat and a large portion of the calories come from sugars. They are also a very poor source of vitamins and minerals. Not only is the sugar bad for one’s teeth, it’s also a leading cause of inflammation and weight gain.
It is appalling to find a small sweet packed with over 234 calories, 25g of sugar and 12g of fat. Sugar is addictive as it manipulates one’s taste buds, metabolism and brain into seeking out more.
Soda affecting heart beats
People often drink soda in place of water. Soda has an alarming amount of sugar, calories and harmful additives that have absolutely no nutritional value. Studies have linked soda to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease.
The caffeine found in soda can cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps and possibly even some forms of cancer.
Soda also contains phosphoric acid that can interfere with the body’s ability to use calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis or softening of the bones and teeth. Phosphoric acid also neutralises the acids in the stomach making it difficult to properly utilise nutrients.
Crisps ousting healthier snacks
An occasional handful of crisps may not cause irreparable damage to someone consuming an otherwise healthy diet but the real dangers arise when one consumes crisps on a regular or daily basis.
Crisps are typically low in vitamins and minerals, and they tend to replace things in the diet that have better nutrient values. They are typically high in fat and energy, which can raise the risk of weight gain and obesity. As an example, one ounce or 15 to 20 crisps of a popular brand contained 10g of fat and 154 calories.
Sugary cereals no better than biscuits
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It provides the energy for the day, nutrients needed to repair bodily tissues and activate one’s metabolism to maintain a healthy weight. Junk food, also known as sugary cereals in the morning can do more harm than good.
According to a recent study, children’s breakfast cereals should be in the chocolate biscuit aisle of supermarkets. One cup of a popular brand of children’s cereal contained more sugar than three cookies.
Researchers looked at 50 cereals overall and 32 were too high in sugar. Even brands advertising themselves as healthy options tipped the scales.
‘Healthy options’ usually indicates the fortification of vitamins or minerals. Fortification is a process of artificially implanting nutrients to improve product sales.
Boxed juices or boxed sugar
Infants less than a year old should not drink any fruit juice, one- to six-year-olds should not exceed six ounces of fruit juice per day and older children ages seven to 18 should not consume more than eight or 12 ounces per day, ideally divided into two servings, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Sensationalist claims on the box make it difficult to figure out if the juice is actually healthy or not. Numerous studies detail the dangers of drinking too many high-energy, high-sugar, low-nutrient beverages. Consumers should be urged to check the food label before purchasing any of their favourite juices.
Processed meats producing cancers
Many processed meats are made with unhealthy nitrates, nitrites, trans fats, saturated fats and large amounts of sodium and sugar. A recent study showed a 67 per cent increase in pancreatic cancer for people consuming moderate amounts of processed meat. The high level transfat and saturated fat content can sabotage one’s heart and waistline as well.
Sodium nitrite can be found in nearly every packaged meat product imaginable. It’s listed on the food label of products such as bacon, breakfast sausages, dried meats, pepperoni, sandwich meats, ham and even the meats found in canned soups.
Sauces and artificial colourings
Processed and unhealthy, just the thought of the powdered imitation sauce alone should make one cringe. These products contain excessive amounts of salts and preservatives to ensure the shelf life of the product. Artificial colourings, stabilisers and emulsifiers are chemicals used to make the food more attractive and palatable.
Imitation powdered sauces often contain chemicals like artificial dye Yellow #5 and #6. Yellow #5 is a water-soluble artificial dye that is also known as Tartrazine. Other foods that contain Tartrazine includes cake, pudding, biscuits, cookies, muffins, breads, pie crusts, frostings, sand so on.
The problems do not stop there. Packaged sauces also contain a fattening secret known as partially hydrogenated oils. The entire process of partially hydrogenating an oil will produce unhealthy trans fats. Trans fatty acids are toxic to our systems, produce inflammation and allow diseases to develop.
Dr Cory Couillard is an international healthcare speaker and columnist for numerous newspapers, magazines, websites and publications throughout the world. He works in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s goals of disease prevention and global healthcare education. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement.
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Twitter: DrCoryCouillard
When I grew up in Dominica, we ate healthy locally sourced food (hard food), fresh fish and we lived on the fruits, Sour sop, pawpaw, guava, ango etc etc. Fat children were almost unheard of and there were not all these diseases.
People died mostly of old age, people were athletic and attractive. I return on holiday and all I can see are replicas of those fat Americans, dressed inappropriately with fat hanging out every where.
I realise this is a different world from the one that I knew.
The mentality that if it is from abroad, it must be better than that grown in Dominica, is still around.
If only Dominicans realised how lucky they are to live in an island so blessed with so many fruits and vegetables.
May be the Government should introduce some sort of public health campaing telling them that pizza and kentucky fried chicken is junk food rather than sustenance food.
When I was last in Dominica, the complaint I and some other visitors had was the lack of vegetables in the market to buy and the quality of the food in Dominica (absolutely tasteless).
What happened to a people who lived for fresh food and walking, swimming? What’s happen?
We are called the nature island for a reason.
there was a time, in the 70’s to be more precise,when rasta used to eat itals, people would laugh at them; today the truth is being heard from the housetops,even though there are some who got caught up in this fast nutrition thing nowadays.
Well if we look at America today, the government is trying to see if they would cover the number of people who have no health care and it is causing quite a stir. The rich do not want to pay for the poor. We have a similar system like the US but we do not have the technology that they have.
More of our people are uninsured than insured so where will people get money to afford doctors? of course we do the checkups and so forth but what if we are faced wih a major problem?
This article is well place and I hope that many read and take heed. Take care of your health today for a healthy tomorrow.
It is amazing that with this continued education -now from another doctor – about what is bad for our bodies, people continue to consume the wrong foods. What will it take to get their attention?
boy let me go and live in the bush eh
This is one of very few informative and useful pieces of information that I have seen published on this site. My bet is that very few people will comment on it, also, I will most probably get more ‘dislikes’ than ‘likes’. However, that is unimportant. What I want to comment on is the fact that a large percentage of people are consuming ALL of those ‘foods’ (word ‘food’ is used very lightly), and the most tragic thing is that they are feeding their toddlers and children with these poisons without a second thought to the damage it’s doing to them. People tell me that healthy foods are expensive. Those same people I have seen with their bags and boxes of KFC and the likes, sometimes more than once or twice a week! That money can buy fresh fruit and vegetables to feed them and their family. Please note, our bodies do not need ‘food’, it needs nourishment. Lets wake up, nourish our bodies and brains, get fit and healthy and stop giving our well-earned money to the multi-billion dollar Pharmaceutical Industry (then complaining that we’ve never got money). If you need help to kick start your healthy journey, then get help!! The choice is yours, Pay Now or Pay Later – and it’s a lot more painful, expensive and inconvenient in our later life when we should be enjoying the fruits of our labour. It’s at this time in most people’s life when they spend those days with trips to the doctors and hospitals, instead of doing cruising and hiking and having energy to do those things they didn’t have the time or finances to do when they were younger. Please take heed.
I do the shopping for my home and I find eating healthy is actually cheaper than buying preprocessed food. I spend most of the time in the vegetable and fruit section. When I look at my groceries on the conveyor belt, most of what I see is green (vegetables), and it does not have to cost a fortune.
Once again i must applaud the good doctor for bringing these to the fore front.Such important information.Iwonder how many of us will even bother to read through this article.After all our people are so busy living like they’re Americans and forgetting there roots,its not funny.
What??? You are what u eat? SO some of us is ..$$. then? So nah?
Great information. I am always advocating to my friends and family members to look out for products that contain Mono Sodium Glutamate(MSG). I researched on it and what I read made me think more on what we are digesting and not aware of it.
Soon we won’t be able to eat a damn thing.
so doc.if i eat pig am a pig ?
…lol thats something else. thanks for the info..
if you eat too much pig, that makes you a pig.