Junk Foods to Avoid

According to the Food Standards Agency (UK), junk foods are those foods that offer extremely low nutritional value.

Junk foods often contain high levels of saturated fats, sugar, salt, food additives, colouring, artificial flavourings and lack protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. The sad reality is that kids are increasingly trying to nourish their growing bodies with these junk foods. No wonder why we are seeing an ever increasing tendency in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dental cavities and other illnesses.

Let's now take a look at some of the junk foods contained in today's society:

Refined Grains

Grain products are included in the food groups recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA's recommendation, however, doesn't differentiate between whole grains and refined grains. It is the latter that should be avoided as much as possible. Refined grains contain less than half the nutrients contained in whole grains, as the husk (where the nutrients are in the first place) is removed during processing. Even so-called 'enriched' flour made from refined grains is enriched only in comparison with regular white flour. So, compared to the nutrients of whole grains, it is still lacking. The consumption of refined grain products has also been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, whereas whole grains are associated with a reduced risk. So it's generally a good idea to replace refined-grain food products in your diet with those made from whole grains.

Sugar

The prevalence of sugar in today's diets has been shown to be a factor in contributing to widespread obesity, leading to a number of different illnesses. But not all sugars are created equal, and therein lies the problem.

Common table sugar is made up mainly of sucrose, a disaccharide made up of half glucose and half fructose. It's also found in sweeteners used to flavor food and drinks such as colas. Fructose, unlike glucose, can't replenish muscle stores of glycogen, so it usually ends up being stored as fat. What makes matters worse is that high-sugar foods are usually low in fiber, so they are digested very quickly instead of being absorbed over time. Couple that with the generally sedentary lifestyle of today's people, and you've got a major health problem with potentially long-term consequences.

Saturated Fat and Trans Fat

These two kinds of fat are bad news when it comes to your health. Both have been linked to increased risk of heart disease and conditions such as Alzheimer's. Margarine, which is high in trans fat, was once promoted as a healthy alternative to butter, which is full of saturated fats. Time and research showed this to be untrue. The warning may be too late for some, but by removing these from your diet, you can help lower your susceptibility to these diseases.

Food Additives

Food additives are added to help a product taste better, look better, or have a longer shelf life. The human body, in its millions of years of evolution, isn't built to metabolize them. As a result, some of these, like the sugar substitute aspartame, have been shown to pose health risks, while the risk posed by other additives is still unknown. Although aspartame-carrying products are labeled accordingly, other additives can sometimes be labeled incorrectly or sometimes not at all. Food additives give no additional nutritional value and may pose known or possible health risks, so it's wise to steer clear of them as much as possible.

Unlike butter, margarine has few nutritional value whatsoever. Margarine was actually developed to fatten up turkeys, but the turkeys instead died from it. Those who invested in the development of margarine obviously wanted some return on their money, so instead added yellow colouring (margarine was initially white) to make it more attractive for human consumption.

Here are some basic truths about margarine:

• High in trans fatty acids
• Has the same amount of calories as butter
• Butter (8 grams) is slightly higher in saturated fats than margarine (5 grams).
• Triples your risk of coronary heart disease
• Increases LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreases HDL (good cholesterol)
• Increases risk of cancer up to five fold
• Lowers breast milk quality
• Decreases immune system
• Decreases insulin response
• Eating butter increases the amount of absorption of nutrients from other foods. The same does not apply with margarine.

And are you ready for the very SHOCKING truth about margarine? It is only 1 molecule away from being plastic! So it's almost like melting your tupperware container and spreading it on your toast. You can confirm this by placing some margarine on a bench top and leaving it there for a few days. No ants, no mould, no flies! It does not rot, doesn't smell and attracts no microorganisms. Nothing will live on it as it's almost plastic!

Guten Appetit!