While we are destroying our own health by choosing heavily processed food, we are also contributing to all of the environmental problems including pollution, excessive resource consumption and global warming. Many of us are unable to resign from these products as they seem to be so ordinary to us and we can hardly see any threat in them while they are slowly killing our bodies and our home.
Instant sauces and dressings
Another group of heavily processed food which is frequently chosen by many people includes various dressings and sauces. These products are one of the most common sources of excessive amount of sugar and salt in our diets even though we might be absolutely unaware of it.
Indeed, sugar is frequently added to such sauces in order to maximise their flavour and also preserve them for a longer time. Many people do not pay any attention to rather poor content of ready-to-use sauces and dressings as they are not supposed to be eaten in large quantities. Actually, many manufacturers are giving nutritional value for a portion equal to one or two spoonful. Unfortunately, this is not showing the real situation as people tend to add a way more of these products into their meals.
When it comes to the natural environment, it is obvious the amount of chemical additives in such goods is extremely large and each of them requires its own infrastructure for production which results in heavy pollution and resource usage. At the same time, they are usually packaged in plastic bottles which are pretty inconvenient for washing. As a result, many people just throw them away even with some reminder which make sit difficult to prepare them for recycling if there is anyone willing to do anything such in the first place. Furthermore, many of these products have to be consumed within a certain time after opening and not everyone manages to do it throwing the product away.
All of it is rather bad for our planet and taking into consideration the poor quality of such products, it is obvious one should resign from them. By the way, this will allow you to avoid up to 300 extra kilocalories.
Preserved fruits
Not everyone necessarily buys this type of nutritional products, however, looking at the variety of preserved fruits in jars and cans, it is obvious there is a certain group of people enjoying it.
Preserved fruits are simply extremely sweet. Besides their natural sugars, they have a lot of sugar added for the sake of preservation. At the same time, their preservation requires hitting which significantly decreases the amount of healthy nutrients in such products. Essentially, there is no sense in such fruits at all, however, there are enough of people finding such products tasty.
Of course, not all of such preserved fruits are available to customers in their raw form as it all limited by the region. It is not a reason to reach out for such food though.
Instant porridges
Depending on your personal attitude towards grains, you might either love porridges or hate them. It is important to note that apart from normal grains available on the market, there are also real frankesteins such as instant porridges, especially oatmeal which are mixtures of partially processed porridge with artificial flavour and sweeteners. On top of that, these unhealthy ingredients are successfully closed in the packages similar to the ones used with instant noodles. Made of paper and a layer of polymers, they cannot be biodegraded and are also unsuitable for recycling. This is very unfortunate and mixed with an awful nutritional value making the product a rather bad choice for a healthy diet no matter how tasty it seems.
Actually, making your own oatmeal is one of the simplest things you can do and you can add anything you want whether it is chocolate, nuts. seeds, spices such as vanilla or cinnamon and of course various fruits, dried or raw. There are endless variations and they do not require any cooking skills.
Margarine
Even though so many experiments have already proved that margarine is not at all helpful for health and might even be contributing to their illnesses, it is rather difficult to break the habit of many people to chose this weir product over butter or natural oils.
Margarine is heavily processed being based on hydrogenated trans-fats which have been proved to be rather harmful for humans’ health. You can easily imagine how much chemical industry is involved into the production of margarine and, at the same time, how frequently it is packaged into plastic boxes. Actually, you will hardly find any other packaging used for this popular product. Aren’t these facts enough to resign from purchasing it?