Does your diet look like the question mark to your left or the one to your right?
Now, take a guess… What percentage of your diet do you think comes from processed breads, pizza, donuts, buns or chips?
So what’s your processed foods figure?
If you’re like most Americans, more than half of your diet comes from ultra-processed foods. So found a study in the peer-reviewed medical journal, BMJ during which 9317 were surveyed, more than half of people’s foods (57.9 percent) are “ultra-processed.”
The researchers, who were from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Tufts University in Boston, defined “ultra-processed” foods as: “Industrial formulations of several ingredients, which besides salt, sugar, oils and fats, include substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations.”
Why is it so troubling that 57.9 percent of your diet comes from ultra-processed foods?
- First, ultra-processed foods account for almost all added sugars that Americans eat—almost 90 percent.
- Second, as this study points out, ultra-processed foods “displace more nutrient-dense foods” — meaning, bye-bye, real foods such as cucumbers, celery and avocados, hello, nutrient-poor, unreal junk foods.
- Third, ultra-processed foods make you “overfed and undernourished,” as the study observes. That’s not a recipe for good health.
- Then, all those processed carbs you’re eating quickly metabolize into sugar so you’re getting far more sugar than you realize.
- Then, your high intake of both sweeteners and sugars from processed foods can — as I shared in my books, Sugar Shock and Beyond Sugar Shock — increase your risk of weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes; higher serum triglycerides, high blood cholesterol; higher blood pressure; stroke; coronary heart disease; cancer; and much more.
[shareable cite=”Connie Bennett, The Cravings Ninja”]The more processed foods you eat, the more you’ll crave them and the more weight you’ll gain.[/shareable]
Now for less-obvious conclusions, which come from my new insights into cravings:
- The more processed foods you consume, the more you’ll get cravings for sugar, carbs, fat and salt.
- Then, you’ll eat more processed junk foods.
- And you’ll gain more weight….
- The alarming result: Hello, disease, bye-bye, good health.
So what’s the big takeaway?
Eliminate or drastically cut out processed foods, and you’ll cut your cravings, take back your power and peel off your excess weight.