Over the past thirty years, the number of obese people has doubled. According to WHO statistics, 1.9 billion adults and 41 million children up to 5 years old have extra pounds. Scientists predict that by 2025 the number of obese people on the planet will be 40-50%.
Excess weight spoils the appearance, worsens the quality of life, and increases the risk of premature death. The main cause of obesity is harmful food - beverages and foods containing carcinogens, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors. Food is considered dangerous for health, if it increases the level of "bad" cholesterol in the blood, causing allergic reactions and lack of reproductive functions.
In the list of the most harmful products, including for vegetarians, we can include:
- fried potatoes and chips;
- ketchup;
- canned food;
- candies;
- corn sticks;
- margarine;
- popcorn;
- fast food;
- sugar;
- salt.
Some of these products should be completely excluded from the diet. Sweets, ketchup and popcorn can be consumed on condition that they are cooked at home without harmful additives. Consumption of salt is desirable simply to reduce.
Harmful and that’s final
Potato tubers contain organic acids and nutrients, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins A, C, and B vitamins. Still, nutrition experts recommend to reduce (not to give up altogether!) consumption of this vegetable, as it is rich in starch. Fried potatoes – fries and chips – are particularly harmful.
Starch and fats clog the blood vessels, provoking the development of atherosclerosis.
Store chips contain glutamate sodium and chemical flavors. In fast-food establishments, vegetable oil for deep-frying is used many times, which contributes to the accumulation of carcinogens (source). Scientists have found that frying carbohydrates at high temperature leads to the formation of acrylamide - a toxic substance that causes cancer.
In the list of harmful products, canned foods are naturally included - long-term storage products that had squandered most of the vitamins during heat treatment. Sterilization within 70-95 minutes kills the pathogenic microflora, but, as practice shows, it is not always complete. In swollen canned foods there are botulinum sticks - microbes that can reproduce without access to oxygen. Getting into the body, the infected product causes a serious infectious disease that affects the nervous system.
Cornsticks loved by many children can also be classified as harmful. Airy, crispy snacks are prepared from refined, and therefore poor in vitamins flour. But miraculously preserved remnants of useful substances are destroyed in the process of heat treatment. As a result, the food product, lean with micro-and macronutrients, is flavored with sweeteners and flavors. At the same time, the content of carbohydrates in corn sticks overtake popcorn. They cause increased flatus, interfere with the work of enzymes, slow the progress of food through the intestines (source 2).
Invented 1.5 centuries ago, a substitute for butter, margarine, consists of vegetable fats (80%) and water. The rest of its ingredients: corn syrup, stabilizers, emulsifiers, taste modifiers and colorants. In order that the emulsion from water and vegetable oil becomes a solid product, the structure of fatty acids undergoes hydrogenation.
As a result, trans fats appear in the product – which are toxic substances that our body can not digest.
Australian scientists have proven that eating margarine adversely affects children's intelligence. Harmful nutrition leads to cardiovascular diseases, oncology, diabetes mellitus.
The most harmful foodstuffs are fast food products obtained by sublimation and dehydration. These include: snacks, breakfast cereals, soups and noodles in briquettes, bouillon cubes, powdered mashed potatoes, packaged porridges. All fast food products retain their taste for a long shelf life. However, there are no vitamins or fiber in them. But there is sodium glutamate, which causes human food dependence.
