07 Apr 10 Serious Reasons to Step Away From Ultra-Processed Food
It seems we can’t get enough of ultra-processed foods, it is believed that over 50% of what we eat falls into this food category – that’s if you can call it food. According to Mark Hyman, renowned American physician, and best-selling author “There is no such thing as junk food. There is junk. And there is food.”
The oh-so-clever emotive marketing
The biggest problem we face is the clever marketing of these foods that play on our emotions and our innate sense of lack. Take a look at the following and check out the potential each slogan promises.
Once you pop you can’t stop! – Pringles
Taste the feeling – Coca Cola
I’m lovin’ it – McDonald’s
Finger licking good – KFC
The more the better – Krispy Kreme donuts
Open your world – Heineken
The amber nectar – Fosters
Guinness is good for you – Guinness
Feel the rainbow. Taste the rainbow – Skittles
Have a break, have a KitKat – KitKat
You choose the moment, we’ll provide the bliss – Lindor chocolate
Then add the emotive visuals
And these are just the words, couple these with the emotive images, the perfect friends, the immaculate families, the fabulous parties, the do-gooders, the magnanimous smiles, raucous laughter, and full-on emotion, and we are right there with them living the dream and reaching for their products!
Can you see what they are doing? Can you stop for a minute and realise nothing in your life will change for the better when you pop open a can of Pringles, open a bottle of Coca-Cola, or take a bite out of a Krispy Kreme donut, except for these……
10 seriously good reasons to stop
You will be poisoning your body with junk that has no nutritional value whatsoever and in fact, will readily use up important nutrients during the digestive process.
Receptors in your brain will light up like a pin-ball machine which will create an addiction to these types of ‘edible food-like substances’*
The additives and excess sugar found in ultra-processed foods can lead to a number of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, bad memory, learning difficulties, and ADHD. Not forgetting guilt, lack of self-esteem, anger, and weight gain which in turn can lead to a number of chronic diseases including diabetes and Alzheimers.
You will be creating more environmental waste, as the packaging is rarely natural or recyclable.
You will be encouraging a global mono-culture as farmers increasingly make space to grow the main three ingredients of these products – wheat, maize, and sugar – not forgetting non-sustainable palm oil and cocoa, amongst other things. Lack of diversity affects bird and insect life as does pesticide use which is more prevalent in mono-cultures.
Your body will be attempting to digest artificial preservatives, sweeteners, sensory enhancers, synthetic colours, man-made flavourings, and industrial oils manufacturers use in order to make this seemingly ‘perfect’ food. This junk is engineered, not grown in the same way as real, whole food!
You will be putting into your body unnatural, unrecognisable and often unpronounceable substances, that will not fuel your miraculous, awe-inspiring vehicle for life. “Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.” Michael Pollan – American author and journalist
This hyper-palatable – translated into excessively appetising – junk, has been engineered, and subsequently proven to elicit a desire to overeat and to crave it over and over again – encouraging more sales and greater shareholder profit.
You are worth way, way more than the junk the food industry promotes in order to allegedly make your life better and more fulfilled! Instead, fill yourself up with food that justifies your worthiness because you really are worth it.
Oh, and did I mention, many of the foods are genetically modified too?
Do you want this in your body, for your life, on your gravestone? Not me!
Feed Good Habits
Kathy Mac
xx
*Brazillian scientists, in 2009, officially categorised ‘ultra processed’ foods as a unique NOVA food group, referring to them as ‘edible food-like substances.’ They are created by processing already heavily refined ingredients with a series of artificial components.
Kathy Mac – author Feeding Good Habits – 12 weeks to rewire your mind, reset your habits and renew your relationship with food for improved health and sustained weight loss.