Why Processed Foods Are Harmful to Your Health

Processed foods may look and taste delicious, but are they worth it in the long run? Many people ingest these foods on a daily basis without knowing the detrimental effects they can have on the body. They may not even stop to think about how the bag of chips they have every day could ruin their lives in the future.

  Right now is one of the most important times to focus on our health because our minds and bodies are still growing. Any habits we form could follow us through the rest of our lives. The American Medical Association states, “While it may be convenient, consuming ultra-processed foods on a regular basis increases a person’s risk of health complications including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, obesity and type 2 diabetes. But it can be hard to tell when these foods are on your plate.” Consuming ultra-processed foods won’t result in just a stomach ache; it can give you chronic diseases that will follow you throughout your life.

There are many foods you may not know are processed but actually are, like canned vegetables or fish. Meats, like hot dogs or baloney, are also examples of processed foods. No matter how hard you try, it is nearly impossible to eliminate processed foods from your diet entirely. This is mostly because of the companies’ advertising these foods. 

Because companies are constantly advertising processed foods and making them more popular, it is virtually impossible to stock your fridge without having at least a few items that are extremely processed.

The National Library of Medicine said, “Over the past 50 years, the health of Americans has gotten worse, and now 71% of Americans are overweight or obese—not 66%, which was reported 5 years ago. That means a staggering 100 million people in America are obese. Today, eating processed foods and fast foods may kill more people prematurely than cigarette smoking.” The consumption of processed foods has skyrocketed in recent years; if things keep going the way they are now, we might not be able to go back. The fact that these numbers are increasing is not only something that is bad right now, but it could become even worse in the future. 

We need to put preventative measures in place to at least stop the consumption of processed foods if we cannot reduce it. Unfortunately, it would take an extremely long time to get rid of them, since, as I mentioned before, processed foods have become so ingrained in our lives that asking people to cut them out entirely would almost be like asking them to cut off food entirely. Because of the sheer impossibility of cutting processed foods out entirely, our best bet would be to simply try preventing them from getting any worse. We could do this by making petitions that could limit the advertisement of these foods. Then, we would be left with the problem of the foods already in stores that people are already buying. For these items, it is simply a personal choice of buying them or not.

Most importantly, something we can all do is educate ourselves and others so we know what we are buying and consuming. Hopefully, with these efforts, we can work towards making a better world for our future generations.