We often hear that you should reduce the intake of processed foods in your diet. Processing of foods which generally takes place in form of cutting, cooking, fortifying, freezing, milling, canning & dehydration. In this process & depending upon the intensity of processing, foods may lose its nutrient value. However, it does not mean that all processed foods are not healthy.
Minimal/healthy processing
Processing can be as simple as cutting vegetables or cooking it with a bit of olive oil or spices. Processes like pasteurizing or canning keeps the food safe. Other processes such as fortifying will make food more nutrient rich.
What makes processing bad for health
When processes such as stripping is used which involves adding preservatives to increase the shelf life or adding ingredients such as salt, sugar or fats for taste, the food becomes calorie dense. This strips all necessary minerals, vitamins & nutrients from the food & make it an unhealthy proposition. Consumption of such foods on a regular basis & in moderate to high quantity increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure & diabetes. Processed foods can range from minimal processed to highly processed. The more processed the food is , more is content of salt, sugar or fat & higher are the chances that your health will be negatively impacted. Highly processed foods are less satiating. So once you start having diet having large content of highly processed foods, you have more cravings for such foods leading to pilling up of unnecessary bad fat in your body.
Next time you are visiting grocery shop to buy stuff, considering including un-processed/minimal processed foods in your diet.
Minimal processed foods include bagged salad, spinach, legume, milk, eggs, fresh/frozen meat, grains, rolled oats, canned foods without salt/sugar.
Moderately processed foods consist of cheese, canned meat, whole grain products, flavored yogurt.
Highly processed foods include hot dogs, burgers, cakes, cookies, soda, sauces, dressings, candy, sausage, bacon
So you were getting late for an important meeting & decided to grab a burger & a glass of coke for lunch. Did you realise how much quantity of processed food you consumed? Yeah you guessed it right, a glass of coke is equivalent to 39 grams of sugar( almost 9 teaspoon of sugar) & Burger has about 295 calories having 5 ultra processed meals a day increases your chances of heart disease by 62%.
Check out our latest article on processed foods which details about the impact of highly processed foods on your health.
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