Food Preservatives Can Be Harmful

Foods today have not undergone the natural food chain anymore, since people have changed them to produce more than less, to meet the demand of cheaper and more food. For instance, cows no longer eat green grass, their main and natural source of food. Instead, they eat corn, while the fishes eat poultry and chickens eat fish. When it comes to plants, fresh vegetables and fruits are usually exported while local markets also sell goods coming from other countries.

Food prices are rising, but in reality, people spend less on modern food than in ancient times, courtesy to the contemporary practice of food production. However, the price is perhaps greater than what is expected. This write up is not aimed to scare people and eradicate some modern foods which are mostly fast processed, from everyday diet, but to give knowledge of the ingredients people may not be aware of, and in a way, are depriving themselves of the fundamentals of nutrition.

Food processing and preservation

Food shelves today are mostly filled with fake foods, junk foods and processed foods, which are actually real food that undergo devitalizing chemical processing and are infused with preservatives. Canned foods, hot dogs, low-fat yogurt with artificial sweeteners are examples of these processed foods. Intake of these foods costs the body more to digest and eliminate, than offering nutrition. That is a poor return of investment while the body is left depleted and sluggish.

Ancient people used salt, sun drying and fermentation to naturally preserve foods. From this simple food preservation evolved more complicated methods, and today, food companies use thousands of chemicals and additives to process food, many of which can be devastating to the health. Many preservatives used today carry toxic chemicals that are more problematic to the health of humans, than the decay they aim to stop.

Furthermore, the good intentions of food processing during the early days have de-evolved to find ways of cheaper food processing to produce more and increase profits, while the health of the consumers is jeopardized.

Preservatives

Preservatives are additives that prevent the food from spoiling. Some examples are nitrates, nitrites, benzoic acid and sulfites like sulfur dioxide and metabisulfites.

Nitrites and nitrates are found to cause nausea, headaches and asthma in some people. These preservatives are found in meats like bacon and ham. Sodium nitrite in some foods is converted to nitrous acid when humans ingest it. Despite showing increased cancer rates in animal testing, it is still in use.

Margarines, carbonated beverages and fruit juices usually have benzoic acid or sodium benzoate, which can cause allergic reactions, and even death in some people.

Sulfites are used to stop fungal spoilage and browning of peeled vegetables and fruits, like apples, potatoes and dried fruits, to prevent brown spots. It is also applied to molasses. Along with the toxins it contains, it bleaches rotten foods and conceals inferior vegetables and fruits. They have similar effects as nitrites and nitrates, plus allergic reactions. Sulfites destroy vitamin B1, thus, it is not allowed to be used in foods with such vitamin. People who are sulfite-sensitive, respond to the foods containing them with adverse reactions. It is found to worsen asthma in humans and about 5 to 10 percent of chronic asthmatics are thought to result from sulfite sensitivity.

There is also the controversial butylated hydroxytoluene, one of the most common preservatives, which is permitted at a low level in foods. With butylated hydroxyanisole, it is investigated further for its ability to harm genetics. Research showed these compounds BHT and BHA can damage red blood cells and trigger chemical sensitivity.

 

While foods with preservatives cannot all be harmful, the addition of milk and vitamins to them, help cover up the adverse effects they can cause. If most people understand the consequences of preservatives, or how the food they eat is processed, they will be able to make wiser choices on how many of these foods they are willing to eat. 

Image courtesy of Luis Tamayo - Flickr

Diabetes Diet: Have These Three Foods in Your Diabetic Diet Plan

Diabetes diet is composed of healthy foods that even non-diabetics can take. The diabetic diet plan is a guide so the patient with diabetes will never go astray of the choosing the foods to take.

For the sake of health, diabetics should learn to live with diabetes diet and strictly follow their diabetic diet plan. There are foods that are body-friendly so that you can have them daily without fear of adverse effects on your body as these foods can help put the blood sugar levels to safe range.

Starches

Take starches as they are the source of energy. The body converts starch to sugar which will fuel the cells for energy. Starches provide carbohydrates, minerals, fiber and vitamins to the body. Go for whole grains as its fiber content can slow down digestion and helps in the control of blood sugar. Whole grains are brown rice, whole-wheat bread, air-popped popcorn, whole-wheat pasta, millet, barley, whole-grain cereal and oatmeal. Diabetes diet may also have whole grain crackers, graham crackers and rice cakes as well as putting these in the diabetic diet plan.

Fruits

Fruits are where the fiber, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates are. The carbohydrates in fruits greatly affect blood sugar. People with diabetes can eat fresh fruit everyday, and not fruit juice as the latter can spike blood glucose levels. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders advised diabetics to eat the fruit rather than drink the juice.

Vegetables and Fats

Vegetables and fats are essential for the body’s health. Diabetics should eat vegetables everyday as part of their diabetic diet plan. Go more for orange and green colored veggies as part of diabetes diet or diabetic diet plan. They are most loaded with beneficial vitamins and must be taken most often. These include kale, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini.

Good fats sources are salmon, olive oil, almonds, peanuts, walnuts and vegetable oils.

To give you further and sure assistance, please consult your doctor, dietitian or any health professional for the best-tailored diabetic diet plan.

Coping Up: Live with Diabetes Normally

Having diagnosed of diabetes, it is a must that the patient will be coping up and live with diabetes normally. It is important to have presence of mind, positive attitude and sense of responsibility so diabetes is easier to live with.

Coping up with diabetes is extremely important in order to manage and control the disease well enough. Live with diabetes normally with presence of mind, positive attitude and sense of responsibility. Diabetes may not be cured but it can definitely be controlled; and it should be controlled whether you like it or not so that it will not bring further damage to the body and will not lead to other diseases nor complications.

When you are diagnosed with diabetes, and will start to live with it, you may think that your life is spinning around meals schedule and monitoring of the illness. These can appear extremely stressful most especially for parents caring for diabetic kids or teens.

Diabetes does not end our world. Coping up can be simple. Learn to live diabetes normally by treating it like an additional responsibility. It is similar to having an additional child or an additional car that you need to take responsibility for; and the rewards? Health and a more fulfilling life.

The things that are required to a diabetic patient to do, are actually the things that should be done by everyone to live a healthy life.

For patients with diabetes, it is of topmost importance that they monitor their glucose levels, watch over the food they eat, perform exercise regularly, keep cholesterol and hypertension levels in control and try to avoid stress.

It is also important for diabetics to take extra care of their skin, eyes, feet, teeth and gums. Even without the need of coping up with diabetes, or for those who do not need to live with diabetes normally, these are still needed to be taken cared of.

The skin, feet, eyes, teeth and gums are body parts that are most susceptible to be damaged by diabetes. Practicing proper hygiene is important to the skin and the feet. These should always be cleaned by washing and keeping dry to avoid sores.

There really are a lot of ways to manage and control diabetes. Living with diabetes is practically simple if you are an innate optimist. Just treat it like a companion that you are responsible of taking care of.