With any processed food you run the risk of coming across additives, and reading through ingredient labels can be like trying to decode a puzzle.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says processed foods are to blame for the sharp rise in obesity (and chronic disease) seen around the world.

The food industry would love to explain obesity as a problem of personal responsibility, since it takes the onus off them for marketing fast food, soft drinks, and other high-calorie, low-quality products.

However, “When you have calories that are incredibly cheap, in a culture where ‘bigger is better,’ that’s a dangerous combination,” says Walter Willett, M.D., D.P.H., professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In the last 50 years, the extent of processing has increased so much that prepared breakfast cereals, even without added sugar, act exactly like sugar itself.

We are not adapted to handle fast-acting carbohydrates. Glucose is the gold standard of energy metabolism. The brain is exquisitely dependent on having a continuous supply of glucose. Too low a glucose level poses an immediate threat to survival. But, too high a level causes damage to tissues, as with diabetes.

Most processed foods are extremely high in salt, another blow to the heart. One-half cup of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, for instance, has 37 percent of the daily-recommended amount of sodium.

Probably the single fastest way to reduce strokes in this country is to halve the amount of salt that’s added to processed food,” says Tim Lang, professor of food policy at the City University, London.

Over 3,000 chemicals are added to the processed food supply. These compounds do various things to food: add color, stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, add flavor, soften, emulsify and more.

 

This clip shows us a burger and french fries kept in a lunchbox, bought from McDonald`s 4 years ago.

 

 

An interesting clip outlining the differences between Whole food and processed food. We chose not to show part 2, all the facts you need to know are here in part 1.