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There are many reasons to avoid processed foods...- They Ruin Your Taste. Processed foods often contain refined sugar, extra salt, and other flavor enhancers. Not only are these potentially unhealthy, but they dull your taste buds to natural flavors. The result? A need to eat more processed foods to get the taste you want, and natural foods that don't taste as good as they should.
- Unhealthy Additives. Unhealthy chemical additives are added to foods so that they will stay fresh longer or to enhance color.
- Hidden Ingredients. Processed foods often contain hidden sugar, salt and fat. All three of these contribute to health problems.
- Mystery Ingredients. Many processed foods are filled with strange, indistinguishable parts and pieces. For example, hot dogs contain "edible offal": animal skin, snouts, ears, esophagi, and worse.
- Lost Nutrients, Empty Calories. Processing takes a lot of the nutrients out of otherwise nutrient-rich foods. You get less of what your body needs.
- Fortification Through Synthetics. To make up for the loss of nutrients during processing, synthetic vitamins and minerals are added. Although helpful, these synthetics are not as healthy as their natural counterparts.
- Market Forces. When you spend money on processed foods, you encourage growth in this market. spending your money on fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, encourages others to enter this market.
- Expense. Although fruits and vegetables often appear to be expensive, they are often less expensive than processed foods, particularly when the nutrient content is considered. Frozen vegetables, for example, often cost 50% more than their fresh equivalents.
- They're Dead! Much of the goodness is cooked or processed out of our foods. We do not benefit from the enzymes and nutrients the foods normally contain. Dead foods = Dead cells!
In short, the convenience of processed foods does not justify the cost to our health.
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