Exploring the Impact of Processed Foods on Health and the Benefits of Cutting Sugar: A Personal Journey
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Is all food bad ?
Over my lifetime I have been listening too and only recently taking very seriously for myself, food advice given by government and experts alike. Many have put the downers on pretty much everything we eat.
Red meat, salted and cured meat and fatty meat have often been blamed for heart disease and obesity. Fat in all of its general, natural forms such as fatty bacon, cooking fat such as lard and beef dripping have all been pretty much written off as death dealing. Even eggs have been blamed as raising levels of cholesterol that is then blamed on hardened and clogged arteries leading again to heart attacks and other forms of strokes and brain failures. Coffee is often given a bad rep, even tea as it after all has caffeine in it also. Butter is seen as bad, but so called ‘spreads’ are now seen as veritable health foods that have additives to boost vitamins and reduce cholesterol, but they are often made with highly processed vegetable fats.
Little has been said about processed foods although this is now starting to change and most recently here in the UK, the Welsh government is introducing legislation that is intended to restrict the use of so called ‘BOGOF’ ( buy one, get on free ) offers in shops and supermarkets. This is primarily aimed toward foods that are low cost, typically ultra processed and contain high amounts of sugar, salt and fat.
Soft drinks were marketed heavily to me as a child and some I see are still given an apparently healthy status despite their containing fructose ( sugar ) if not processed sugar, rather, they use artificial sweeteners which are only now being analyzed due to suspicions over harm our to health.
It seems routine for us to consume daily crisps and snacks with and between meals many of which are ultra processed not to mention chocolate bars and have all sorts of sandwiches and bread rolls and bread products which are often based on ultra processed foods and ingredients. Even a cup of tea as we brits enjoy is taken with biscuits which are again full of sugar and ultra processed ingredients.
Should we eat the ‘bad things’ such as beef burgers or bacon rolls we eat them with more bread made of ultra processed ingredients and to top it off, we pour table sauce over the food to give it ‘flavour’. Even nuts have become a hazard to our health as they are added to foods to make us eat more of them or peanuts are sold to us in heavily processed forms that do the same.
Dr Unwin who I watch on his youtube videos and read on line says that we can’t have salt when our diet has already high levels of firstly sugar ( resulting in glucose ), and secondly carbohydrates that turn to glucose very quickly in the body. In this scenario yes, according to Dr Unwin and those of the same, growing school of thought, you cannot consume any amount of salt when your body is already inundated with glucose and is on the verge of or already in the state of type 2 diabetes.
Salt however is needed in the body, where as sugar and carbohydrates are not. When enough fatty foods that are natural and not ultra processed are consumed we can be healthy as they already contain all of the things needed for life.
So I have presently come to the conclusion that if I had not consumed over the years as much processed and ultra processed sugar and carbohydrates, my body would today likely be able to tolerate some levels of normal carbohydrates such as bread, rice, potatoes. However too much sugar in one form or another and possibly ultra processed foods that even contain things in them that are not food have wrecked my body.
If you have come to similar conclusions you are not alone but there is hope that if you are able to cut out sugar your body can recover, even if your are over 50 years of age. Some people I believe in their 90s have appreciated benefits from doing the same.
If your able to resolve issues that you may have with fat, if you can consume healthy, natural fat that is available in forms such as dairy, fish, meat and some plant forms your body will turn to using this rather than sugar and carbohydrates and can even go into ‘fat burning’ or ‘ketosis’ where you lose weight without the hunger and cravings that processed carbs give us.
So no, not all food is bad.