Processed Foods - High Carbs Low Nutrition

With so many food choices readily available, what do we choose? Way too often, it’s what’s at the check-out counter, in the vending machine, or through the fast-food drive through. The problem with these foods is that they are highly processed and full of highly refined carbohydrates.

There is a controversy right now about the benefits or harmfulness of carbohydrates in your diet. Many feel that is our major source of energy intake and others feel you should totally avoid carbohydrates as if they were the plague.

One thing that is not a controversy, however, is that if you get your carbohydrates from whole foods, they are much better for you than refined carbohydrates found in processed foods. These carbohydrates in processed foods are refined in many different ways.

Refined carbs are simple carbs and break down quickly during digestion. This can cause you to have high spikes in insulin levels and blood sugar. This causes you to have cravings for these foods when these levels decrease. The roller coaster of insulin/blood sugar levels can be very damaging to your badly. These carbs can lead to many chronic diseases and other negative health issues.

Don’t let “whole grain” stamped on a label fool you. Some companies simply take these “whole grains” and grind them into fine flour that can be just as harmful as grains that aren’t whole. There is a big difference between these “whole” grains, and the real thing. Just because you read it on your cereal label and see it on the commercials, doesn’t make it so.

When you choose carbs, you should get them from single ingredient, whole foods…not junk food.

In addition to being high in carbohydrates, most processed foods are very low in valuable nutrients that are essential for good health. When you compare them to whole foods it’s as different as night and day.

A lot of food labeled “healthy” should be wrapped in crime scene “caution” tape. It should be a crime to eat it because there’s nothing healthy about it. Sure, some manufacturers try to compensate for the vitamins and minerals lost during processing by pumping the food full of synthetic forms of minerals and vitamins. These are definitely a poor excuse for the real thing you find in whole foods.

Real, whole foods contain more natural vitamins and minerals than any added vitamins and minerals. There are trace elements that mankind may never be able to create a replacement for. That makes these whole, unprocessed foods much better for you than anything you find that has been processed to death…literally.

It’s a vicious cycle, the more processed foods you eat, the more you want. The more you want, the more you eat. Over time you get less and less valuable minerals, vitamins, trace nutrients and antioxidants you need for optimal health.

Whether you eat carbohydrates or not may be debatable, but the fact that processed foods are loaded with it is not a debated issue. It is also not a debated issue that whole, unprocessed foods are much better for you. The decision whether or not to eat processed foods can very well be one of the most important decisions of your lifetime.

Processed Foods - High Carbs, Low Nutrition