Processed Foods: They’re Everywhere, So Are They What’s Making Us Fat?

Processing food is what we do every time we set foot in the kitchen. Cooking, baking, fermenting, salting, pickling, and preserving, for example, are all ways in which we process food; It’s something we’ve been doing for as long as we’ve existed. How else would humanity have survived all those hard times? It’s only during the modern era, that creation of processed foods has shifted from the home and local community, and into the hands of mass-manufacturers. This has directly impacted the quality of our nutrition and health.

Just pick up a box of your favorite frozen dinner or breakfast cereal, and read the ingredients. You’ll find that manufacturers not only attempt to create palatable meals, but also ones that would last long enough to help us survive the next ice age. They also make every attempt to be cost-effective, and not in terms of consumers’ health, but more in terms of their bottom line. We end up with products whose ingredients are difficult to pronounce and baffling as to what they really are.

Industrial-scale processing relies heavily on ingredients, additives, and mechanisms that not only lessen the nutritional value of foods, but can actually create products detrimental to your health. As for ingredients and additives, the main culprits are partially hydrogenated oils, monosodium glutamate/MSG (under the guises: “hydrolyzed protein”, “spices,” “natural flavors”), high fructose corn syrup, white flour, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives, among others. The mechanisms are the extrusion process of grains, super heating of foods, bleaching, pressurizing, the use of solvents, the addition of emulsifiers, and the use of pesticides. The worst problem with all of these is that not enough research has been done regarding their safety (studies by the manufacturer to acquire FDA approval do not count…), and what little independent research has been done is not easily accessible and very scant.

But the evidence is mounting. For example, a study from Pennsylvania State University found that dieters who opted for whole grains lost more abdominal fat and lowered their blood levels of C-reactive protein (aka: CRP, a marker of chronic, low-level inflammation of blood vessels) than dieters who stuck with more processed grain sources, such as white bread. While both groups lowered caloric intake and lost weight, the difference in the types of weight lost and the improvement in heart health is startling and strong evidence that over processing grains is unhealthy.

For More Information Click the Following Links:

How Trans Fat is Still Being Included In Processed Foods.

How MSG is related to wieght gain and hidden in processed foods.

Refined Grains Effect on Abdominal Fat.

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