Are you still eating processed food?
We can’t blame you. Processed food is usually cheap, accessible, and delicious. But the truth is, you’re eating your way to poor health. These food products are nothing but bad news behind the colorful packaging and enticing flavors.
Dangerous processed foods are laden with refined grains, sugar, salt, saturated fat, and artificial preservatives. All of which contribute to chronic illnesses that can lead you to an early grave. In this article, I’ve rounded up the worst of them all. Get ready to find out the five most dangerous processed food you should avoid!
Processed Meat
If your primary source of protein is meat, make sure it’s lean, fresh, and unprocessed. Otherwise, you’ll be consuming high levels of harmful chemicals present in processed meat. Steer clear of any meat that has gone through canning, drying, salting, smoking, or curing. These include the following:
- Corned Beef
- Ham
- Lunchmeats
- Bacon
- Sausages
- Jerky
- Hot Dogs
- Salami
- Smoked Meat
A high intake of processed meat is linked to a myriad of health complications. These foods could increase your risk of developing cancer, heart disease, or lung disease. (1, 2, 3)
Sugary Beverages
One of the worst ingredients you can consume is added sugar. And the most harmful source of added sugar comes in the form of sweetened drinks. These are soft drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, energy drinks, and the like. The high sugar content in these beverages promotes insulin resistance. (4) As a result, these make you prone to developing fatty-liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. (5, 6, 7)
Cakes, Pastries, & Cookies
What would dessert be without a helping of cakes, pastries, or cookies? A much healthier one. It’s hard to resist sweet baked treats but, you’re better off without them in the long run. These are full of sugar, gluten, added fats and loaded with calories. Packaged versions are particularly unhealthy and contain a ton of preservatives.
Breakfast Cereals
Refined sugar and refined grains have no place in a healthy diet. The former is damaging to our health, and the latter has very little nutritional value. These two combined can be found in most breakfast cereals. Unfortunately, we’ve become accustomed to eating these every morning. So try not to reach for a box of cereal the next time you go grocery shopping.
Crisps and Chips
While potatoes are a good source of nutrients, the same isn’t true for chips and crisps. Processed potato snacks are usually high in salt and calories. Especially they’re fried in a lot of oil. Studies even suggest that regularly eating potato crisps and chips leads to weight gain. (8) As a result, this increases your likelihood of being obese. (9)
The Takeaway
Avoid processed food if you want to maintain your health. The contents of these food products are low in nutrition and damaging to your body. Go for fresh fruit, berries, fish, vegetables, and other nutrient-dense foods instead.
Make significant lifestyle changes to attain optimum health and immunity!
Removing processed foods from your diet is incredibly beneficial to your wellbeing. Inform yourself of other lifestyle changes to consider for better health! Please check out BoostYourImmuneSystem.org.
