What's wrong with processed foods?

What's wrong with processed foods

Here is a great explanation I found on line you can find out more at Link: http://greenwithbetsy.com/

Processed foods are foods that have been altered from their natural states in order to extend their shelf life.  Foods that come in a box, can, bag or carton are processed.  They are often poor quality and usually cheap.  About 90% of the money Americans spend on food is used to buy “edible foodlike substances” as Michael Pollen, well-known author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and professor, calls them.

Processed foods have been implicated in most of today’s chronic diseases and health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  What makes processed foods so bad?  Many processed foods contain trans fats (or hydrogenated) a dangerous type of fat, which raises the bad cholesterol and lowers the good.  Most processed foods are extremely high in salt, which is also not good for the heart and addictive.  Have you ever tried to eat just one potato chip?!  Another addictive ingredient you'll find in processed foods is high fructose corn syrup, linked to obesity and diabetes.  Sugar is burned and turned into energy; high fructose corn syrup turns into fat. Potato chips and French fries often contain Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance that forms when foods are heated at high temperatures, such as during baking or frying.

Processed foods also contain a lot of additives. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of over 3,000 chemicals that are added to the processed food supply to add color, stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, etc.  Some of these additives have never been tested for safety and require no government approval.  They belong to the FDA's "Generally Recognized as Safe" list.

So what should we eat?  As with anything moderation is the key, so limit your intake of processed foods and eat whole foods.  As Michael Pollen says, keep it simple - don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.  Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans, not corporations. Always read the label and choose wisely. 

For this weeks blog, I want you to analyze the bright spots in your current eating.  No one said they eat 100% processed foods so you should be able to find some good things.  For this weeks blog, I want you to tell me what you are currently eating that is not processed and how you could increase your consumption of non processed foods.

Blog # 2 All Classes Nutrition

We are going to spend the 4th quarter looking at our nutrition.  Think of your body as a high performance car.  It will perform it's best when given the best fuel.  Nutrition is the fuel that powers your body and I would argue, it is the most important aspect of your training.  At your young age your can get away with eating crap and still make some gains in the weight room, but that does not mean damage is not being done or that you would not be performing better with better nutrition.

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at several aspects of nutrition but for today's post, I want you to think about how many processed foods you eat each day.  Processed foods are foods that have been altered from their natural state.  Sometimes this is done for safety to prevent the food from breaking down too quickly and to preserve nutrients, but it mostly done for convenience as in packaged foods that can sit in a pantry for months on end.  Ultimately, we pay a price for this convenience with poor performance in our training or health problems down the road.

For this weeks post, I want you to think about what you eat on a regular basis and what percentage of your current eating is comprised of processed foods.

Some examples of processed foods are

• Canned foods
• Breads and pastas
• Packaged high-calorie snack foods such as chips and candies
• Frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners
• Packaged cakes and cookies
• Boxed meal mixes
• Sugary breakfast cereals
• Processed meats - deli meats, hot dogs, bacon, etc.
• Nutrition bars and shakes