Health Update: Ultra-processed Foods and Death
Hello friends:
In case you are tempted to put some drive-through into yourself, or other ultra-processed foods, please stop and consider the long-term consequences. These foods may taste pretty good, but they do not contribute to your health…instead they can destroy it, one bite at a time. Please read what the authors had to say about these ‘treats’:
“Ultra-processed foods include items such as instant noodles, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, ready-to-eat meals, sugary cereal, packaged baked goods, snacks, and soft drinks. These foods often undergo numerous industrial processes and may be made up of chemically modified substances that are extracted from foods. Additives may be used to enhance the appearance, texture, taste, or durability of the food, along with added colors, flavors, and emulsifiers. Often, ultra-processed foods are high in salt, sugar, and fat, low in vitamins and fiber, and have minimal or no whole foods.”
“An ultra-processed food is a food that resembles nothing of its component parts/ingredients. An ultra-processed food has been stripped of its nutritional value (essentially). It also has many ingredients, including food additives (i.e. hydrogenated fats, modified starches) that are not used in home cooking. These foods are mainly of industrial origin and can be stored for long periods of time,” Dana Hunnes, PhD, a senior clinical dietician at the UCLA Medical Center who was not involved in the research, told Medical News Today.
“Unfortunately, ultra-processed foods are inexpensive to purchase [but] expensive in terms of health,” she added. “Individuals need to look at what they can afford in their diet and make incremental changes. Our brains become addicted to these hyperpalatable flavors and ingredients, and like a drug, we need to wean off these ultra-processed foods and exchange them for healthier, whole-food items.”
About 73% of the food supply in the United States is made up of ultra-processed foods. Experts note that ultra-processed foods are a common part of the diet in the United States with many people unaware of the health dangers associated with them.”
https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310
Bottom Line:
Friends do not let friends eat these ‘food like objects’ so please just remove them from your diet. Start with removing added sugars for the next 3 to 4 weeks, then move on to removing processed grains for the next month, then consider only consuming healthy snacks, then removed fried things…by now, you know what to remove next, so keep going. Take a deep breath…and begin! A healthier you is on the way with a better protected future.
