Processed Foods and America Today
“In the United States chronic illnesses and health problems either
wholly or partially attributable to diet represent by far the most
serious threat to public health”.
-The American Journal for Clinical Nutrition
Why Processed Foods are a Health Risk to Our Children and What We Can Do About It
Processed foods have been sneaking their ways into our diets for years, and the results are anything but good. Increases in American adults and children suffering from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, digestive problems and other aliments associated with these health disorders have been on the raise for the last few decades. With advances in medicine and science one may ask the question of why?
Studies performed at Harvard School of Medicine and Public Health as well as those published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, have discovered that the culprit is none other then the processed foods which have become such a part of our diet and lifestyle over the last few decades.
Pick up a bottle of salad dressing, ketchup, soda, a microwaveable dinner, cereal box, go-gurt, or even that loaf of Wonder bread and you can probably guess why this is so. Most likely you will see high fructose corn syrup, sodium, food colorings and a list of unpronounceable, unrecognizable additives. Probably somewhere on the box is advertised one of many health claims such as “High in Fiber” or “Low-Fat” but does that really mean that the rest of the ingredients are healthy?
Food Companies have learned that putting health claims on boxes, entices us to think that foods, ladened with high fructose corn syrup, food colorings, and a long list of unhealthy additives, are actually good for us; while our children are drawn in by the colorful boxes, wrappers and cartoon character and most of all by the all of the added sugar.
So what has happened to our food habits and practices?
We the consumer have been trying to do the right thing all along, provide a healthy diet for our families. Meanwhile, processed food companies have made out selling us cheap food at cheap prices with little nutritional value and lots of health concerns. In fact, if we pick up a loaf of processed and packaged white “Wonder Bread” the list of ingredients is a bit dizzying, not to mention that many of them are both unrecognizable as foods and unpronounceable.
Even if we are trying to buy more "healthy" processed foods, many times they end up being just as high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy food additives and colorings.
With the mess of new foods, misleading health claims, and unknown ingredients, in order to provide good, healthy food for our children we are left with two choices when it comes to purchasing processed foods; 1) Trust that these companies only care about our welfare and believe their health claims or, 2) Get an advanced chemistry degree. Neither one of these sounds all that appealing or practical.
So what should we do to endure a healthy diet for ourselves and our children?
The answer is simple. Eat more fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, whole wheats, grains, and other things that we can recognize as real, whole foods.
It is a well known fact that diets consisting of more fruits and vegetables are better for health, while diets consisting of processed foods lead to unhealthy things like chronic disease. Obesity, besides being bad for our bodies, lifespan, and overall health, can also have unfortunate emotional effects on our children. Heart disease, gastrointestional diseases, and cancers are also brought on by our dietary choices, not to mention our mental states and attitudes. Currently there are ongoing studies about emotional problems, especially in young children, due to diets high in processed foods and while eating healthy not only seems to have great physical benefits, it seems to have an effect on our mental states as well.
5 Easy Tips to Better your Child's Diet
1.Eat more fruits and vegetables
Studies have shown that diets consisting mainly of fruits and vegetables help reduce the risks of heart and other chronic diseases.
2. Reduce your child's sugar intake
Sugars are hidden in just about all of the highly processed foods we eat. Firstly they make these foods more appealing to our desires for sugar, an important biological component needed for just about all of our bodily functions. Too much sugar in a child's diet is directly linked to childhood obesity, diabetes and later lifelong health problems such as heart disease.
3. The 5 Ingredient Rule
When picking out foods at the store try to examine food labels and stick to foods with 5 ingredients or less. This will help ensure the foods you are purchasing are not highly processed.
4. Animal, Vegetable, or Chemical?
Make sure that the ingredients on the foods that you purchase are recognizable and identifiable. Most likely if you can't pronounce it you won't want to eat it. For a glossary of food additives both naturally occurring and non-naturally occurring in foods as well as health benefits/concerns see "Chemical Cuisine" at
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
5. Educate
Educate your children on healthy eating decisions and help them to understand that candies and snacks are a privilege, not lunch. Include them in their dietary decisions and set a good example. This will help them learn about healthy eating while still feeling in control of what they eat.
Please take the time to watch this informational video on processed foods, you might be surprised by what it has to say
Studies have shown that diets consisting mainly of fruits and vegetables help reduce the risks of heart and other chronic diseases.
2. Reduce your child's sugar intake
Sugars are hidden in just about all of the highly processed foods we eat. Firstly they make these foods more appealing to our desires for sugar, an important biological component needed for just about all of our bodily functions. Too much sugar in a child's diet is directly linked to childhood obesity, diabetes and later lifelong health problems such as heart disease.
3. The 5 Ingredient Rule
When picking out foods at the store try to examine food labels and stick to foods with 5 ingredients or less. This will help ensure the foods you are purchasing are not highly processed.
4. Animal, Vegetable, or Chemical?
Make sure that the ingredients on the foods that you purchase are recognizable and identifiable. Most likely if you can't pronounce it you won't want to eat it. For a glossary of food additives both naturally occurring and non-naturally occurring in foods as well as health benefits/concerns see "Chemical Cuisine" at
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
5. Educate
Educate your children on healthy eating decisions and help them to understand that candies and snacks are a privilege, not lunch. Include them in their dietary decisions and set a good example. This will help them learn about healthy eating while still feeling in control of what they eat.
Please take the time to watch this informational video on processed foods, you might be surprised by what it has to say
Make sure they're happy and healthy throughout life...
Note: Recently, the President of the United States, in an effort to help reduce the spread of chronic disease brought about by the consumption of processed foods, has passed a bill for better school lunches in school cafeterias. Michelle Obama has also launched a campaign named "Let's Move" in order to bring about awareness on the issues of raising rates of disease in children and adults due to their diets. In her campaign, the first lady is calling for us to help stop these dietary diseases' in our children.
