The Price of Food:
A Price That Goes Beyond Monetary Costs
Most of people believe they are aware of what they eat. People count calories, choose the non-fat milk, and buy whole grain oatmeal. We know we eat unhealthy food sometimes, or most of the time, but when we think about the food items mentioned above, we believe it 's safe to consume them. However, most people having difficulties losing weight are consuming the same items. So that rises a flag that something is wrong with our diets. We tend to think eating oatmeal with milk is healthy because that 's what we see advertised on TV as a good meal to start the day. Many diet magazines have suggested that consuming nonfat, diet, reduced sodium and many other processed products can help lose …show more content…
In the article "Surprise! This is Processed Too!", the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics explains that in fact, processed food is any food that has suffered any alteration, be it chemically or simply chopping and cooking. When we cook or bake our food we are processing it (Andrea Giancoli qtd). Basically, any food that comes in a package has suffered some sort of processing. Understanding this concept would make everyone think that 's impossible to eat healthily then, since today even fruits and vegetables come in packages. Making such affirmation would be unwise. The fact that a product comes in a package doesn 't make the product unsafe or unhealthy. Although chopping and cooking are forms of processing, it doesn 't mean they are unsafe. The real concern is with highly processed food. Those foods have been so processed that its substances don 't resemble the original aliment. They contain, besides added chemicals, high fructose corn syrup that is made from genetically modified corn. These are the kinds of food we should keep distance …show more content…
Even though highly processed food are too different than what our body needs, we still absorb the added chemicals, sugars, fats and more. To make it worse we do it even faster, and most of the time disposing the rest of nutrients present in the food. Our body doesn 't know that we don 't need to save energy, now that we have food easily available to us. The body becomes "confused" because the nutrients it knows how to absorb aren 't as appealing as the added ingredients. Present in the processed food in great amounts, sugars and fats are mainly sources of energy, so they are the first ones to be absorbed (Forks Over Knives). Our brains love sugar and fat, so we are always going to absorb and crave for them in our food, says Michael Moss in the article "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" for The New York Times. Since we don 't use all the energy consumed, it 's stored as fat in our bodies because it "thinks" we need to save more energy. Consequently, this cycle is contributing to obesity, diabetes and all kinds of diseases related to diet. Unfortunately, most of Americans ' food comes in a sealed package. That means most of our food is highly processed. Our bodies are lacking so many nutrients that it 's easy to get sick. That 's why we need to put more raw food in our diet. Many illnesses can be controlled or even cured by changing the diet and
A Price That Goes Beyond Monetary Costs
Most of people believe they are aware of what they eat. People count calories, choose the non-fat milk, and buy whole grain oatmeal. We know we eat unhealthy food sometimes, or most of the time, but when we think about the food items mentioned above, we believe it 's safe to consume them. However, most people having difficulties losing weight are consuming the same items. So that rises a flag that something is wrong with our diets. We tend to think eating oatmeal with milk is healthy because that 's what we see advertised on TV as a good meal to start the day. Many diet magazines have suggested that consuming nonfat, diet, reduced sodium and many other processed products can help lose …show more content…
In the article "Surprise! This is Processed Too!", the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics explains that in fact, processed food is any food that has suffered any alteration, be it chemically or simply chopping and cooking. When we cook or bake our food we are processing it (Andrea Giancoli qtd). Basically, any food that comes in a package has suffered some sort of processing. Understanding this concept would make everyone think that 's impossible to eat healthily then, since today even fruits and vegetables come in packages. Making such affirmation would be unwise. The fact that a product comes in a package doesn 't make the product unsafe or unhealthy. Although chopping and cooking are forms of processing, it doesn 't mean they are unsafe. The real concern is with highly processed food. Those foods have been so processed that its substances don 't resemble the original aliment. They contain, besides added chemicals, high fructose corn syrup that is made from genetically modified corn. These are the kinds of food we should keep distance …show more content…
Even though highly processed food are too different than what our body needs, we still absorb the added chemicals, sugars, fats and more. To make it worse we do it even faster, and most of the time disposing the rest of nutrients present in the food. Our body doesn 't know that we don 't need to save energy, now that we have food easily available to us. The body becomes "confused" because the nutrients it knows how to absorb aren 't as appealing as the added ingredients. Present in the processed food in great amounts, sugars and fats are mainly sources of energy, so they are the first ones to be absorbed (Forks Over Knives). Our brains love sugar and fat, so we are always going to absorb and crave for them in our food, says Michael Moss in the article "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" for The New York Times. Since we don 't use all the energy consumed, it 's stored as fat in our bodies because it "thinks" we need to save more energy. Consequently, this cycle is contributing to obesity, diabetes and all kinds of diseases related to diet. Unfortunately, most of Americans ' food comes in a sealed package. That means most of our food is highly processed. Our bodies are lacking so many nutrients that it 's easy to get sick. That 's why we need to put more raw food in our diet. Many illnesses can be controlled or even cured by changing the diet and