Ultra-processed foods, sugary drinks, industrial pastries, sweets, sugary dairy desserts, foods with fats and extra salt, are foods and meals that are very present in the daily lives of millions of people, but many of them do not really know its consequences. Next we will cover this problem from a medical point of view and you will know why it is important to learn to moderate the consumption of this type of food in your daily diet.
Recently, the case of a young European man who has developed blindness from eating only processed foods on a daily basis, especially French fries, white bread, ham and sausages, became known. The case reported in the scientific journal Annals of Internal Medicine points out that experts point directly to junk food as the culprit.
It is then worth asking how aggressive ultra-processed foods can be and the consequences that this entails for your health.
Bad lifestyle habits have become the greatest threat to global health. According to the study published by The Lancet; an unbalanced diet is directly related to more than 11 million deaths in 2017 in the world. This figure represents a fifth of the 57 million deaths annually worldwide, and is higher than deaths attributed to tobacco (7 million), cancer (8.2 million), heart attacks (5.5 million) and obesity (2.8 million). For this reason, the authors point out that one in five deaths in the world is related to a poor diet.
The study finds that, although the impact of individual dietary factors varies from country to country, three dietary factors such as low intakes of whole grains, fruits, and high salt intake account for more than 50% of diet-related deaths . The other 50% were attributed to the high consumption of red and processed meats, sugary drinks and trans fatty acids, among other foods.
Too much salt raises your blood pressure, which in turn increases your risk of heart attacks and strokes. Salt can also have a direct effect on the heart and blood vessels, which can lead to heart failure.
Whole grains, fruits and vegetables have the opposite effect, they are cardioprotective and reduce the risk of heart problems, cancer and diabetes mellitus. The growing evidence in all studies indicates that the Western diet pattern, especially the large amount of meat and ultra-processed foods, is strongly associated with the risk of developing these types of chronic diseases.
The NOVA system classifies foods by their degree of processing into four groups, from food raw materials to what is known as ultra-processed foods.
Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made from refined ingredients (sugar, starches, vegetable oils, salt) or synthesized (trans fats, hydrolyzed protein, additives) and do not contain any recognizable whole foods (Figure 2). They generally have more than five ingredients, are nutritionally unbalanced, have high palatability (they are extremely tasty), and are easy to mass produce and consume.
More and more studies show the danger that the consumption of this type of “food” poses to health.
A new study of 20,000 volunteers published in the British Medical Journal shows that consuming more than four daily servings of ultra-processed foods is associated with a 62% increased risk of all causes of death. What’s more, for each additional serving the risk grows 18%, the researchers said.
However, we must not forget that in addition to the consumption of processed foods, the consumption of sugary drinks further aggravates the situation. The largest study conducted to date in Europe has just been presented in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The results show that people who drink just two glasses of soda a day, that is, half a liter, have a 17% higher risk of premature death than occasional users who drink one glass a month at most. The analysis, of almost half a million Europeans, points to both sugary drinks and those sweetened with artificial sweeteners.
In reference to the case of the young European diagnosed with blindness, the patient confessed that since primary school he had eaten a daily portion of French fries, sausages, white bread, ham and avoided at all costs many foods that were unpleasant for his texture. His poor diet had led to a vitamin B12 deficiency, as well as low levels of copper, selenium, vitamin D, and bone mineral density.
After years of bad habits, the young man ended up developing a nutritional optic neuropathy. Recent scientific evidence, as we have seen, has linked ultra-processed foods with a risk to physical health, but this case has surprised the scientific community, as the authors conclude that it is important to explore the psychological damage caused by these foods, since it is the first clinical case of blindness due to consumption of junk food associated with an eating disorder.
Therefore, the researchers emphasize that the risks of an unhealthy diet are synonymous with poor cardiovascular health, it favors obesity and cancer associated with the consumption of this type of food. A harmful nutrition, goes further, and can considerably damage the nervous system.
A recent study with more than 14,000 volunteers from the SUN Project cohort (University of Navarra Follow-up) concludes that regular consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of developing clinical depression in the future.
With this post we want to convey to you the importance of having an adequate diet and leading a healthy and active lifestyle since the scientific evidence about the problem for our health that the consumption of this type of food supposes is more and more solid. From chronic diseases, to cardiovascular, obesity, cancer, diabetes, psychological disorders and clinical depression.
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