The Hidden Truth of Processed Foods

At Marc Bony Chiropractic Center, we promote holistic natural health. Discover how processed foods can affect your well-being and what healthy alternatives you can consider.

Food specialist and technologist Laura Saavedra asserts that “we have foods in the fridge that are not food. Here you find: cold cuts, pâtés, dairy desserts, pastries, cookies, snacks, etc., and other processed foods that include additives and low-quality ingredients.” Saavedra says: “Many people think they are taking care of themselves when eating turkey or York ham; however, these two products have an unjustified reputation for being healthy. Moreover, these processed meat derivatives have between 60% and 80% meat.” And the rest, what fills it? Saavedra highlights that these very cheap products always contain the worst quality meats, namely discards,” something that could also apply to sausages. She also mentions that the price is always an indicator of the quality we buy.

“We would never eat industrial processed products again if we knew how and what they are made of.”

Cold Cuts

The WHO is clear: both meats and meat derivatives could be carcinogenic.” This category includes all except salted ham; however, the rest and, for example, mortadella, “is the worst minced pork meat, with injected fat, salts, and additives.” We conclude by saying that it is advisable to avoid any meat derivative as much as possible. Most cold cuts are made from pork meat mixed with fats from bacon or liver (in the case of mortadella), flavorings, and artificial colorings, low-quality starch, salt, dextrose, and, in many cases, also milk powder.

Pâtés

Pâtés contain pork liver, the pâté contains a large amount of starch, bacon, and meat discards, as well as low-quality flour, milk proteins, stabilizers, and salt. The WHO recommends a maximum daily intake of 5g of salt for adults, and a dessert spoon of pâté contains about 20% of this amount, plus nitrites and monosodium glutamate (associated with cancer, fibromyalgia, etc.), a flavor enhancer widely used in many processed products.

Dairy Desserts

According to Saavedra, dairy desserts are not free from harmful additives such as sugar or sweeteners. In fact, “a sugary yogurt (125g) contains 13% sugar, which is equivalent to two packets.” This is outrageous considering the WHO recommends a maximum intake of 20g to 25g daily. And if we also consider products that contain sugar as part of their ingredients like pasta, bread, etc… The author of The Book of Sin Azúcar.org, Antonio R. Estrada, and creator of the blog with the same name. With a natural yogurt with strawberry jam, you are ingesting 6.5 sugar cubes!!!” We recommend organic Greek yogurt and kefir which do not contain sugar.

Fried Tomato

Processed fried tomato is a bomb for your body as we are ingesting up to 9.4 sugar cubes if the jar is small.

Flavored Waters

Why do we need to drink water with sweeteners and additives? A pre-made green tea can contain up to 10.5 sugar cubes in one glass, or a soy and orange drink contains 6.5 sugar cubes.” All these products are presented as healthy when they are quite the opposite.

Crab Sticks

The food industry finds a way to use all sorts of waste, thus inventing products like crab sticks, made with surimi, whose composition consists of fish meat with little commercial demand, water is extracted and mixed with sugar, salt, flour, egg white, or phosphates, among others. Just like with sausages and cold cuts, in this case, “the surimi corresponds to the lowest quality fish,” like Alaska pollock, a fish with a mild flavor to which artificial flavorings are added to imitate the taste of others of higher quality, from crab to lobster.

Gelatin

It is incomprehensible how gelatin has recently become popular thanks to advertising. Many people have incorporated gelatin into their diet believing it is high in protein. Gelatin is made from low-quality collagen, a protein found in the connective tissue of animals, that is skin, tendons, cartilage, and bones. Saavedra says that despite what advertising claims, gelatin is low in nutrients because the protein from collagen is of low quality. Additionally, gelatins often contain a lot of sugar and flavorings (additives). Gelatin itself is tasteless.