When Your Diet is “Sugars and Fats and Salt, Oh My!”

Modern convenience food does little to help you manage your diet. Low fat, non-fat, reduced fat, high protein, low carb, gluten-free… the “healthy” formulations are all over the place but achieving good Health is still a challenge.

So, if all of these magical concoctions have failed in their promise of a healthier you, why do we keep buying them? Why do they keep making new ones?

Metabolic disorders like Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease are still on the rise in our modern society and the food industry has employed a shell game of altering our foodstuffs that leaves us sicker than when we started. If we really want to restore our Health, here’s what we can do about it now.

Is this Really Food?

The processing of, and I hesitate to use the term here, food has always been a delicate balancing act of creating something that is flavorful enough to be consumed and the marketing to sell the product. With our modern scientific knowledge and considerable funding of our food industry, products are sold that we like to buy and eat. Health takes a backseat on most of them.

The addition of sugar, fat, and salt to foodstuffs allows the flavoring to be adjusted to where we like the taste. What our body does or doesn’t do with the food after that is not a concern of the businesses marketing the products.

What Goes Wrong?

The addition and subtraction of parts of our food means that we lose the balance naturally found in unprocessed or minimally processed food.

Sugar – The whole apple you eat contains a balanced amount of fruit sugar, fiber, and a variety of vitamins and minerals. The processed apple juice you drink contains the sugar of several apples and much of the nutrition is removed. It started off as a healthy food but that changed with processing.

With high sugar intake, your body responds with insulin to store those extra calories away – as fat. Then we start down that road towards Diabetes, obesity, and many other less than ideal physical responses.

Fat – In the 1970’s, reports started coming out of the food industry that fat was the culprit for all of our food driven ills. Cut out the fats and we get healthier, went the thinking.

The food industry then started taking out the fats from our favorite foods. The problem is that when you take out the fats, you take out the flavor. To up the flavor again, lots of sugar was added and the taste was good again.

Now we are finding that the moneyed force behind such studies was the sugar industry. Not so oddly enough, any reports that implicated sugar as a problem were ignored or dismissed.

Fat is only recently rebounding from this bad rap and finding its way back as part of a balanced diet.

Salt – In efforts to bolster food flavor, a considerable amount of salt is often added to processed foods. High salt intake is considered a risk in developing hypertension (high blood pressure), Diabetes, some cancers and much more.

The amount of salt in your body is a delicate balance. Salt attracts water. When you eat too much salt, water and some other elements have to shift to maintain the balance. (Like eating a bunch of potato chips will make you thirsty.) If the water isn’t available in the gut, it draws water from the body’s cells.

With processed foods, the food may not even taste salty but the chemical needs are the same in the body. If the imbalance goes on long enough, this can eventually compromise the function of your organs.

How to Fix It

First off, the solution to the processed food problem is not creating or consuming more processed food. The solution lies in following diets that give our bodies what they really need – balance.

Reduce the frequency and amount of processed food in your diet. The more often you practice this, the better you will feel and your Health has a chance to rebound.

Processed foods taste good. They are supposed to taste good but you needn’t deprive yourself. Just think “moderation”. Your favorite junk food isn’t off the menu, just not offered as often. Just watch the  cheating, though.

Include unprocessed whole foods in your diet. Make friends with the produce area of your grocery store. Raw or home-prepared fruits and vegetables can easily be part of your daily diet. There are lots of these foods, especially as seasonal ones become available. Find the adventure in exploring new tastes and textures. Meals will never be boring.

Explore cooking. Preparing meals at home may seem antiquated but there are some good reasons for these traditions. The best of which is that preparing meals from scratch provides you with control. Control over the about of sugar, fat, and salt you consume.

Best of all, home cooking gives you control over the taste of your food. You will find that food actually has some pretty cool flavors you’ve never experienced.

And if you haven’t cooked from scratch before, it is a little theory and lots of practice. Follow a TV chef or try a few cookbooks but get in the kitchen and enjoy!

Food should nurture our bodies, as well as our spirit. It shouldn’t be hurting us.

 

“God sends meat and the devil sends cooks.”
    – Thomas Deloney