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We keep hearing advice and encouraged to eat “LESS PROCESSED FOOD”. Ever cogitated on doing so or thought why is it crucial? If yes, well and good. If NO, after reading this piece of information specially designed for you, You will understand whether to avoid or eat Ultra-processed food or simply processed food.
Keeping it very homespun and simple, Ultra-processed food involves edible material and drinks that have gone through a lot of processing by Big food corporations or Transnational corporations before reaching the consumers or customers that purchase it. Ultra-processed food goes through a lot of processes like milling, extrusion, and molding. Also, ultra-processed food contains a lot of ingredients that are highly manipulated to make it taste toothsome and delicious, keeping in mind the taste of consumers of all age groups.
Some common and familiar examples of Ultra-processed food include soft drinks, Chips, ice-cream, packaged soups, added sugar preservatives, sweetened cereals, fries, and several dozens of food items available in the stores. Some people put forwards arguments that mention processed food also contains nutrients, but it is noted that it’s still not nutritious. Below mentioned are some genuine questions and queries that are important to acknowledge before you buy Ultra-processed food items further.
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Is Ultra Processed Food Bad for you?
Understand the importance of this information carefully.
Researchers have gone to a greater extent to study the harmful effects of Ulta processed food. The question arises, is it BAD? the answer would be absolute YES. Processed food is kindred to innumerable health hazards. Research founds that population eating highly processed or ultra-processed food is more likely to be obese, having health pragmatism like heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, strokes or vascular diseases, etc.
Not only obesity and related disorders, research found that people having cravings for ultra-processed food and eating a lot of outside stuff are more probability of acquiring any form of CANCER. Scary, right? For a 5% increase in the uptake of Ultra-processed food, there is an estimated 6% increase in the risk of acquiring cancer. With all these diseases in the body, the study also reveals that a person consuming greater processed food tends to live a shorter span of life. This is due to the addition of chemicals, sweeteners, and added preservatives.
Remember that a diet containing artificial sweeteners and chemicals is always low in fibre and nutrition value.
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What are the effects Of eating Processed Foods?
As explained and informed above, the effects are not scrumptious at all. Conglomerate effects of ultra-processed food are:
- Increased intake of Sodium, fat, and sugar: These processed items are highly unhealthy and cause obesity, blood-sugar predicaments, etc.
- Dearth in nutrition value: Due to extreme processing the food loses its original nutritional value.
- Bubbled with artificial ingredients: Behind a piece of toothsome processed food, there are hundreds of artificial ingredients added, that causes storage of fat.
- Additive in nature: As ultra-processed food contains higher ingredients, these artificial ingredients stimulate “Dopamine” levels making us feel good, ultimately leading to addiction to that food item.
- Increase in the risk of getting CANCER.
The Difference between Processed food and ultra-processed food?
These two terms might buzz familiar into your brain, but they are entirely different when the meaning is concerned.
A portion of processed food is any food item that has undergone a few changes and is still in the category of a moderately healthy diet. Examples of simply processed food will include canning, dried food like canned broth, salted nuts, tofu, smoked meat, etc.
Ultra-processed or highly processed food undergoes many alterations like the addition of artificial sweeteners, chemicals to enhance taste, etc before being released to sold out in the market. Food like chips, soft drinks, beer, burgers, fries, etc falls into the category of ultra-processed food.
What Ultra Processed food is really going to your cells?
Processed food usually increases the ageing of the cell and the cells require a tremendous amount of energy to carry out the digestion process of ultra-processed food. Due to this, the cells have to work more producing larger energy which weakens the cell in an early stage.
Few Healthier Swaps to Ultra Processed Food
There are many alternatives to ultra-processed and junk food that might be a solution for your cravings, here is a list of food that anyone can opt for instead of consuming unhealthy processed food to avoid speeding in the ageing process and various disorders.
- Go for Dark chocolate instead of eating sweetened chocolates that have more calories and additives.
- Consume frozen yoghurt in place of ice creams, it is a great alternative.
- Go for chicken burgers instead of burgers as these are highly proteinaceous.
- Instead of beer or processed soft drinks, consume wine, it relieves stress.
- If you are someone who is addicted to sugar, use brown sugar or jaggery as an alternative.
These were a few alternatives that would prove to be great for your overall health and fitness. Not only you can avoid the risk of getting fatal diseases, but you can also be in fine fettle and gain confidence due to your appearance. A healthy lifestyle is a choice you make by yourself and for your loved ones.
I believe this piece of information is helpful for you and you’ve understood the importance of unprocessed and whole food that is nutritionally wholesome while avoiding Ultra-processed food.
