What are processed foods?
Processed foods are known as foods that are almost ready to eat. To prepare lunch or dinner for the whole family, you just need to add such products in boiling water, in a frying pan or put them in a microwave.
Despite the fact that processed products are such a real lifesaver for many housewives, but you should carefully think about whether the ones you buy are harmful to your family.
Types
There are three main types of processed products:
- meat – the largest group of processed foods. It includes cutlets, whole meat, schnitzels, nuggets, chopped steaks, fish and chicken sticks, and others. It is not clear from what raw materials semi-finished products of this group are made. This also includes products consisting of flour and minced meat: pasties, pancakes, dumplings, ravioli, and others.
- frozen bakery products: dough of various types, with all kinds of fillings pies, lasagna, as well as pizza.
- frozen semi-finished vegetables: vegetable cabbage rolls, and meatballs, etc.
Are processed foods harmful to health?
Trans fat content
First of all, processed foods should not be consumed because they are rich in trans fats. Margarine, as well as other types of trans fats, are available in most processed products, especially a lot of them in bakery products. In the production of dough (as in other processed products), it is not profitable to use natural fat (say, butter). It is very expensive. The shelf life of the processed product is very short.
A large amount of food additives available in convenience foods affects our health badly. According to experts, the most dangerous of the additives is monosodium glutamate. This white powdery substance makes the taste of the products much more intense and appetizing, and we no longer care what this processed product is made of. It causes only one desire: to eat more. This leads to constant overeating, severe obesity, and the accompanying all this, pathological changes.
Is it reasonable to add salt and spices in such quantities to processed foods?
Processed products do not save on spices and salt, especially in the manufacture of meat or fish food products. As you know, a large amount of salt is an additional burden on our kidneys, spices in excessive quantities cause irritation of the intestinal mucosa. All this can provoke inflammatory processes or, in an aggravating manner, affect those that already exist.
Category: Health and Wellness
Tags: human health, proper nutrition