5 reasons why you should avoid processed foods

In my practice I mainly use foods to treat diseases. However, it is also the food, which very often cause the sickness (among other factors).

Drugs and pills then usually just suppress the symptoms but they don’t treat the cause. Disease can afterwards repeat or more serious problems can arise after some time.

However, besides removing the cause, one of the basic points should be the prevention of diseases. This brings me to the topic of this article. The quality of the food should be a priority for us if we want to protect ourselves from diseases. You often read or hear that we should eat foods which come from good quality sources.

But why is the income of low quality foods so bad and why should we avoid them?

Does quality even matter?

Shortly – yes it does. I hear this question a lot. Afterwards I often hear and also see people live according to one of the following ways:

• Yolo! I live only once and I want to enjoy my life!
• Having extra few kilos is not that bad.

Supermarkets are full of foods, which confirm this. However, majority of people are using this just as an excuse for their inactivity. It is easier to continue following the established way of life rather than to try to change it, albeit to make it better.

Nevertheless this is mainly about the quality of life that you live.

Do you suffer from continuous health problems, have cold hands and feet, not being able to sleep properly during the night, fatigue throughout the day, or lack of energy? Or do you wake up and jump out of bed, you’re active throughout the day, having a lot of energy and a desire to do something?

An integral part of the right choice of foods is also its quality then. Both together has a big effect on whether you will mostly be surviving in your body or the opposite – being healthy.

Why is the quality of what we eat so important – the outcome is dependent on the income

In order to understand why quality is so important we have to realize one thing.

Everything around us, everything we eat and even we ourselves are created from a large number of elements and compounds (e.g. magnesium, calcium, proteins, vitamins, enzymes, hormones…), which react to each other all the time.

There are hundreds of different kinds of chemical changes occurring in our body every day. A few examples are:

• We gain energy and absorb nutrients from food during digestion
• We regenerate during sleep
• Immunity protects us from harmful microorganisms

We are not able to consciously perceive most of these chemical changes.

Balance – golden mean

However, in order for these changes to occur properly and for us to stay healthy, balance must exist in our body. This balance can be achieved only if all the elements are present in specific amounts.

If there are certain elements which are present in higher amounts or if there is a shortage of some elements, then the processes are disrupted. That is manifested by various health problems and illnesses depending on which elements our body is missing.

On the other hand, if we eat the right foods and reestablish this physical balance the illness subsides. This is because our body is naturally equipped with all the necessary instruments (elements) to be able to deal with illness.

How are processed foods harmful to us?

It is probable, that if you look on a food label of some processed food you won’t even know what some of the compounds are and what their purpose is.

1. Additives are added into foods for many different reasons – they prolong shelf life, increase volume, improve texture etc. You can find a list with brief description of all of them here.

Artificial additives contained in processed foods harm our body and damage it in the long term, regardless of what is being said about their safety.

2. Several additives, which you commonly find in processed foods are added as flavor enhancers (glutamate, MSG, added sugar etc.). These substances activate the same areas in the brain like drugs. As a result you become addicted to sugar and other junk foods throughout the time.

3. Processed foods often contain big amounts of added sugar. We all know, that consuming large quantities of sugar is bad for us – it’s connected with obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other problems.

However, we still consume too much of it from processed foods and we often don’t even know about it.

4. Processed foods also frequently contain trans fats or refined vegetable oils. These are connected with higher risk of heart disease and other problems.

On top of that, according to EU regulation it’s forbidden to state whether the food contains trans fats or not.

5. Most processed foods in comparison with whole foods are very poor on minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients. Besides fat and high amount of added sugar you don’t get any added value.

When you put all this together you get products which are cheap to make, last long, look good and fill your stomach as a result. But what is the effect on your health?

“Foods” created like this can hardly have any positive effects on your health.

Your health is reflecting your life style

Our body is dependent on receiving energy and nutrients needed for its function from the digestive system.

For example our immunity’s function to protect us is based on properly functioning digestive system. Do you have problems with digestion? Then you also have problems with your immunity. The digestive system is then of course dependent on what we eat, in what amounts and the quality of the food we eat.

However, the problem is that our body absorbs these chemicals and they start to disturb and suppress the functioning of different organs after a while.

The suppressed organism eventually sends diverse signals saying – something is wrong. At the beginning, it can be simple symptoms like e.g. acne, headaches, digestion problems, increased tiredness, insomnia etc.

The disrupted balance in your body of course also influences your mood, how you feel and how you react towards your surroundings. If you are in a bad mood, feeling agitated, nervous or so… It is possible that one of the causes is your diet.

However, the artificial chemicals continually accumulate and further strain the functioning of the body.

As the saying goes – the dose makes the poison, so even if the amount of these harmful chemicals that we take in are small, they can add up throughout time and cause problems.

Whether you suffer from some illness or just simply want to avoid it and you don’t know where to begin, start with cutting off low quality (processed) foods from your food list.

Be uncompromising…

…and don’t compromise your health. You always have the option to make conscious choices and with the help of foods you can cure your body. However, you can also easily damage it, if you provide our body with the wrong fuel.

The first step to health is to buy whole foods and process them at home. If you buy processed food, then buy only those which are processed only to a minimum extent.

And what is your opinion?