Ultra Processed Foods, Risks, and Dangers

There have been many studies about the increasing adult, adolescent and child obesity published over the years. And a good percentage of them appear to blame the junk, processed and especially the ultra-processed foods. And there are a variety of short-term and long-term risks and dangers associated with consuming too much of such foods.

You’ll find different food products with varying degrees of processing on the market. When you cook mackerel on the stove it is slightly transformed or processed. Canned tuna or other types of fish are cooked, salted, oiled and processed at a normal level. Then you have the fish or chicken products that are covered by breadcrumbs and pre-cooked.

They take on such a different form and appearance that you can’t even tell what they were original. They are almost like foods created artificially from zero, with smaller percentages of natural ingredients in them. They often include too much salt, sugar or fat but this is not often what makes them so bad for consumption. It is more about the number and amount of bad artificial chemical additives they have.

As a simple common sense, when you see a long or very long list of ingredients, it is often better to stay away from that food. They are low in healthy nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and dietary fibers and are high in calories. They also tend to be high or very high in glycemic index and will cause a spike in your blood sugar followed by a sudden drop and will make you feel tired and the sugars will turn into fat quickly in your body.

A common problem with some of the additives is they can prevent the feeling of full and make you eat more and cause a variety of health problems and diseases in the long run. The food processing by the food companies plays a significant role in the epidemic of the chronic diseases.

But there is nothing wrong with eating these foods occasionally as long as you generally have a balanced and healthy diet of different food groups and nutrients. And you need to consider the ingredients in a food as a whole, and ironically it is often not salt or sugar in isolation that we need to blame.

According to another recent research, some 80-90% percent of the foods displayed and sold on the breakfast shelves at the supermarkets were ultra processed foods, and only 5-10% were little or moderately processed. These ultra processed foods include the biscuits, cookies, breakfast cereals and bread which contain lots of stabilizers and preservatives as well as bad fats. A lot of the gluten-free products are found to compensate gluten with thickeners and additives.

If the food product has more than 5-6 ingredients and a nice and attractive packaging, it often indicates ultra processing. The longer any food is processed industrially, the more likely it will affect your health badly and much worse if you consume them regularly. The ultra processed foods are not limited to just soft drinks or biscuits as most of you may think, but actually, accounts for a good 80% of all foods in the supermarket.

Any natural foods obtained directly from animals or plants, like fruits, veggies, milk, eggs, and meat and are consumed after being taken from the source are unprocessed foods. And if they are washed, dried, ground, frozen or pasteurized without any chemicals added to them, they are still unprocessed. The main reasons for processing foods are extending their shelf life, making them tastier or easier to digest.

Moderately processed foods are those that are made by just adding salt, sugar, vinegar or oil to prolong their consumption. Such foods include the canned fruits or veggies, or in jars, canned tuna, sardines and other fish, cheeses, nuts, and seeds. And anything that you eat as snacks, desserts or ready quick meals are made with many additives replacing the natural ingredients.

The manufacturer tries to copy the taste and texture of natural ingredients to reduce the cost of manufacturing, make them last longer and taste better so they can sell more. These ultra processed foods include the cakes, cookies, biscuits, sodas, fries, dried products, instant noodles, instant soup, cereal bars, sweeteners, a variety of sauces, sausages, chicken and fish nuggets, ice creams and more.

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Vitamin K, Best Sources, and Deficiency

Vitamin K, often known as the “clotting vitamin”, is a fat-soluble vitamin that is not susceptible to nutritional losses due to high heat during cooking. Fat soluble means it is soluble in fat but not in water. It was first isolated in alfalfa and the name comes from the German word Koagulation (as it plays a role in coagulation). It is an essential vitamin that plays a significant role in heart health.

You also need it for your bone strength, bone mineralization, cell growth and coagulation- to stop bleeding. For healthy adults, the recommended daily dose of vitamin K is 1 μg / kg of your body weight. Moderate or light vitamin K deficiencies are common in adults but severe deficiencies are rare, while they are quite common in newborn babies.

Two types of Vitamin K are vitamins K1 (mainly in green veggies) and K2 (fermented and dairy products). Vitamin K1 is directly involved in the blood clotting process, while the vitamin K2 helps more with the tissue calcification. Vitamin K2 is synthesized in the human organism in small amounts, that are not adequate for organism’s needs.

Phylloquinone is the other name of vitamin K1 that helps with blood clotting and enhancing bone density. Foods that are rich in Vitamin K1 include the green leafy veggies- especially the darker greens (kale, spinach, collards, curly cabbage, Swiss chard and dandelion greens), fresh and dried herbs, broccoli, asparagus, scallions, Brussels sprouts, fortified cereals, soybean oil and Hawaiian spirulina.

Vitamin K2 is also known as menaquinone and helps protect skin, promote cardiovascular health, protect your cells against oxidation, strengthening bones and regulate blood sugar levels. It is produced by the bacteria in the colon up to a certain level- in not sufficient amounts (when the intestinal flora was healthy) and you need to take in by eating animal products like red meat, turkey, chicken, liver, eggs (raw egg yolk), butter, cheese, curd cheese, Edam, salami, and fermented products, miso, natto, cheese, milk, yogurt, pickles and fish oil.

Researchers have been interested in vitamin K2 for the role it could play in the prevention of heart complications and treating the bone disease osteoporosis. You can also get your daily vitamin K1 intake through supplements in drugs or as part of the multivitamin supplements (found in the US and many European countries). There is also the vitamin K3- menadione in synthetic form but is currently restricted to veterinary use in North America. The reason is that the K3 may be potentially toxic as it may interfere with the functioning of glutathione, and is linked to hepatic toxicity.

You can treat the vitamin K deficiency in newborn babies by supplements. The deficiency in adults is quite rare and can be seen in cases of severe diseases of intestine, liver or bile duct which you need medicine for. And in the case of vitamin K deficiency, you will experience hypoprothrombinemia, which is the blood clotting failure. Some recent epidemiological studies also argue that the lower your vitamin K intake, the higher the risk of fractures and osteoporosis. The Nobel Prize in Medicine was given to the American Doisy and Danish Dam (biochemists) in 1943 for their discovery of the vitamin K1 as the coagulation factor.

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Natural and Healthy Appetite Suppressants

In nature, there are certain types of foods that will help suppress the appetite naturally and help you lose weight by making you eat less and by increasing your metabolism. Unlike certain weight loss supplements on the market, these foods are not harmful and will reduce your appetite and help you lose weight naturally.

They are often high in dietary fiber that is a natural appetite suppressant and make you feel satisfied quicker and longer. The way fibers work is that they absorb the water and increase the food volume in your tummy and stop the feeling of hunger. Different kinds of vegetables, legumes, and fruits are rich in dietary fiber but please do be careful with the fructose- sugar content in different fruits.

High sugar intake from high sugar fruits like grapes, bananas, pineapple and oranges can lead to weight gain. And the type of sugar- fructose is claimed to be more harmful than the normal sugar- glucose. Having said that the fruits are rich in fiber and other healthy nutrients like antioxidants and you should eat them with their skin on. Water also increases the volume in the stomach and helps with decreasing your appetite.

Exorphin substance found in dairy and especially cheese is what makes them addictive but also give you that feeling of being satisfied and full. And the same argument is valid for the leptin protein that works on the hypothalamus that is responsible for appetite and feeling full. Sodium glutamate (the sodium salt of the glutamic acid non-essential amino acid) found in food proteins of cheese, tomatoes and other foods works just like an appetite suppressing medication.

Coffee contains caffeine, magnesium, vitamin E, and antioxidants, which help with suppressing appetite and increasing metabolism. You shouldn’t really drink more than two cups a day though, as it is addictive and can make you feel nervous and anxious over time. Ginger will help enhance the way your digestive system works and give you more energy and make you feel less hungry during the day.

Avocado includes the good fats– the healthy monounsaturated fats and dietary fiber, both of which help suppress appetite by sending signals to your brain to let your brain that your tummy is full. Hot spices, especially the cayenne pepper increases your metabolism and just a teaspoon of it will help your body burn an additional 20 calories. Try and add the cayenne to all your meals and you will lose a few pounds in a matter of 4-5 weeks, without doing anything extra.

Other natural appetite suppressants include green tea, apple, probiotics found in fermented foods like yoghurt and pickles, saffron extract for elevating mood and suppressing appetite, almonds with vitamin E, magnesium and antioxidants, grapefruit essential oil scent by exciting the sympathetic nerves and stimulating weight loss, eggs, anything high in fiber, healthy fats and protein.

By regulating the hormones, essential oils and nutrients they curb your appetite, especially for sweet stuff and junk foods, burn some of the stored body fat, balance your blood glucose, giving you more energy to use during your workout and enhancing thyroid and releasing serotonin. Please also make sure you get enough sleep every day, drink water, do not overtrain at the gym as it can leave you feeling hungry.

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Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?

Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? The primary reason for breakfast being important is that you sleep all night and have nothing to eat for about 8-10 hours. And if you wake up hungry from sleep, breakfast will obviously be your most important meal, in terms of how it will make you feel. There are a couple of studies out there that found no connection between the weight of slim or obese people and what they eat for breakfast.

So there is not a lot of scientific proof that backs up the claim that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Those that eat breakfast every day tend to be healthier and slimmer. But these same people often have healthier and more active lifestyles and eat healthy overall. The breakfast is important for overall health, according to a three-year long British study called the BBP- Bath Breakfast Project, that looked at the link between breakfast and overall health of overweight people.

They found that having breakfast regularly doesn’t really cause any significant change in body weight of obese adults. But it is also found to make these people be more active in the morning, and eat less throughout the day. They studied a total of 70 adults between the age of 21 and 60, half of these were asked to eat at least 700 kcal worth of food till 11 am (and at least 350 kcal within 2 hours of waking up) and the people in the second group only had water till midday.

But they were allowed to choose what they wanted to eat, so some had sugary cereals, other had healthy high-protein breakfast. There is no doubt that the unhealthy and healthy breakfasts will affect people differently. Everyone will react differently to having or not having breakfast. And they need to look at the effects of different kinds of breakfasts. What was good about this study was that they studied the different components of the energy balance, like the energy inputs, the basic metabolism, food thermogenesis and physical activity.

It is a common belief that nobody should skip a breakfast and potentially risk putting on weight, developing a heart disease and even dying of a heart attack later on. And there are some studies that show an association between not having breakfast and coronary heart disease rather than a causal link between them. And nutritionists often love to interpret the results of these studies as “it is important to have a large and healthy breakfast to avoid obesity”. But unfortunately, there is not much out there in terms of reliable and scientific studies that supports this notion.

There is often no difference in weight loss between having and not having breakfast. The studies that claim otherwise are supported by the food industry, like Kellogg funding a study that claimed that having breakfast cereals made you thinner. And another study funded by Quaker Oats by Pepsi found that you will have more cholesterol if you do not have porridge or even better the corn flakes with added sugar. These are nothing but biased studies with conflicts of interest. If you look at it in terms of losing weight and calorie gain, have a healthy breakfast if you’re hungry and just wait till you get hungry if you don’t feel like breakfast when you wake up.

There is absolutely no reason to force yourselves or your kids to eat in the morning if you or they are not hungry. But if you’re going to work or send your kids to school it is best to have a snack ready when up for it. So is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Yes, in a way and it is better to have a bigger breakfast than a bigger dinner, but definitely not if you’re not feeling hungry. It is important to make a habit of eating healthy and smaller portions throughout the day, and eating only when you’re hungry and not having a sedentary lifestyle- being more active.

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How to Avoid Sugar in Your Diet

When we say sugar here, we’re mostly referring to the added white or brown sugar or the artificial glucose and fructose syrup. But the sugars naturally available in relatively healthy foods like fruit juices, fruits and honey are also sugar and in terms of calorie count, they add up to your daily calorie total.

The main sources of sugar that we consume on a daily basis are found in sweet foods like pastries, cakes, jam, biscuits, cookies, chocolate bars, spreads and desserts including the milk desserts, sodas and fruit juices (juice from three to four oranges in a glass vs. eating a single fruit with dietary fibre) and some dairy products. The main reason sugar is discussed often is because eating too much of it will increase the risk of obesity and a variety of serious diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

And almost half of the people in Europe and American populations eat too much sugar. Sugar is considered to be just like a highly addictive drug, so it doesn’t matter whether you eat too much or not, even if you have a normal sugar intake, you will want more and more of it. That’s why it is important to reduce your intake from things that include added sugar. Sugar is basically your number one enemy if you are trying to lose weight. It is known to be much worse than fats and even saturated fats. There is a variety of precautions you can take to reduce your sugar consumption.

You may start by avoiding candies and other processed sweets, stopping adding any sugar into your tea and coffee, using natural sugars found in flowers, fruits and plants like the agave syrup with lower caloric value, choosing natural fruit and veggie juices over sodas and concentrated juices and nectars, choosing brown sugar with molasses over white sugar, having less of honey and maple syrup on your pancake, having cereals with no or very little added sugar or sweetening it with dried fruits, eating wholemeal bread rather than white bread, choosing dark chocolate with high cocoa and low sugar content over regular milk chocolate, having less of lactose-rich milk and going for soy, almond or rice milk.

It may seem hard to avoid it completely at first, but you just need to reduce your consumption of added sugars gradually. By replacing your bad eating habits with the healthier alternative, you will get there eventually. Start by getting rid of all the sweet and bad snacks in your kitchen cupboard and fridge and do not buy more. If you like peanut butter and jam sandwich, have it with 100% peanut butter with no added sugar and replace jam with a bit of avocado and olive oil. Go for cheese rather than dessert at the end of your meal, and also do not eat fruits straight after your meal as this will affect your stomach badly.

Get plain yogurt or Greek yogurt and white cheese when you’re at the supermarket, rather than processed sweet biscuits and cookies and do not go food shopping when you’re hungry. Make a habit of reading the labels of all the foods you buy at the supermarket and check the sugar content first. Be very careful with light or low-fat versions of products as they will usually have more sugar than the regular or full-fat version. Use cinnamon and natural vanilla powder if you like a bit of sweetness in your snacks. If you will bake a cake at home, replace sugar with stevia and dried fruits.

It is a good idea to use natural sweeteners like stevia but it is best to be careful with sweeteners. Not only because some of them are artificial and not good for your health and may disturb your intestinal flora, but also having sweeteners instead of sugar will not stop your craving for sugar at all. This way you will only be reducing your caloric intake. Try and be careful with your wine and sweet liquor intake and have a couple of glasses of red wine and keep away from any form of drink that tastes very sweet. Fruits have sugar content in the form of fructose and choose those with less fructose like cranberries, blackberries, melon, avocados and strawberries. And if you have a sweet tooth just be easy on yourself and do not stop immediately, but reduce your intake slowly.

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