“Sugar and junk food are killing me?” “That is a bit overly dramatic, no?”, you may ask.
The answer, is unfortunately, no. The statement IS unfortunately TRUE.
When you take the time to actually stop and think about it, the above title is not nearly as dramatic as you may think. The sad reality is that it is not as far-fetched as it may seem. It should come as no surprise to anyone, that today’s population, particularly individuals living in the western culture, are suffering from an onslaught of diseases that are caused primarily from a lifestyle that includes poor dietary choices.
We are not talking about an occasional lapse is what we eat. We are not taking about poor dietary choices here and there, but rather a lifetime of ingesting foods that are not only devoid of any of the nutrients and minerals their bodies need and craves, but choosing to eat foods also known to cause damaging and harmful effects throughout our entire body.
What Do You Eat? Really?
This is an important point to remember as we continue this discussion. Enjoying a not-so-healthy food choice from in moderation is part of enjoying life. However, centering your entire diet around bad food choices is another thing entirely.
If you find it hard to believe that you are eating poorly, make a log or journal of everything that you eat each day for one or two weeks. Make it easy for yourself. You do not need to count calories. Just make a note of the type of food that you have eaten. Fast-food. Processed food and snacks (just about any and all foods that comes in a package). Real food, like fruits and vegetables or foods that you had to cook, prepare or make yourself.
Keep reading to help figure it out for yourself.
“Sugar. Sugar. Oh, Honey. Honey.”
When it comes to the things that we most commonly consider to be junk food, sugar is typically the first thing that comes to mind. Sugar is not just bad for your teeth.
When consumed in excess, sugar is known to wreak absolute havoc on the body. One of the most obvious victims in our body is the pancreas.
WebMD reports that when blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas secretes insulin to regulate the spike. However, when a person is constantly maintaining excessive levels of blood sugar, the pancreas eventually become unable to cope with the increased workload, this is the basic mechanism behind diabetes. This effect spills over into the cardiovascular system.
When subjected to chronically elevated levels of insulin, the composition of the heart and blood vessels begin to change. Normally, arteries are rather pliable vessels that have the ability to expand and contract to adapt to changes in blood pressure.
The Mayo Clinic says that the portion of the arteries where blood actually flows, the lumen, maintains an adequate diameter for blood to flow through without excessive pressure. The changes that occur with excessive levels of insulin cause these same vessels to become stiff and inflamed, causing the heart to have to work overtime to force enough blood through these narrowed passageways. Over time, this situation leads to several life-threatening medical conditions such as heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
Think about all of this the next time you reach for another scoop of ice-cream, a candy-bar or the second piece of chocolate cake or apple pie.
Salt (No, not the Angela Jolie movie)
Yes, like the healthy fats, we do need some salt in our diet. But the amount of salt that we need is much less than most of us consume on a daily basis.
According to the US Food And Drug Administration:
“Americans eat on average about 3,400 mg of sodium per day. However, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day—that’s equal to about 1 teaspoon of salt!”
US Food And Drug Administration
Note that a teaspoon is the small spoon used to stir your tea or coffee and not the bigger spoon that you use to eat soup with.
Unhealthy Fats
Another common component of junk food are unhealthy fats. Really? Do you think? Wow! Who knew?
Please pardon our sarcasm. We add this section for completeness to this article but we do hope that you are all already well aware of the fact that junk food contains relatively high levels of unhealthy fats. Still, continue reading for some of the science involved.
There are some fats that we do need to consume and that are good and important for our bodies. The CDC reports that there are different categories of dietary fats that range from healthy to disastrous. The latter category includes things like trans fat and saturated fats. These forms of dietary fat cause a variety of issues within the body, most notably an increase in cholesterol.
According to MedlinePlus, Cholesterol is also divided into two categories that include HDL and LDL. HDL is the desirable form that promotes cardiovascular health. However, LDL, the harmful form of cholesterol is the type that typically becomes elevated when an individual consumes excessive amounts of unhealthy fat.
When this happens, more cholesterol is sent to the arterial walls resulting in a buildup of plaque-like material. Similar to the problem described in the previous paragraph, this buildup also leads to an environment in which circulation is impaired, putting the cardiovascular system at risk.
Calories (And The Empty Calories That Can Come From Four)
A rather obvious characteristic of junk food is a large number of calories. (We will skip the sarcasm here).
As we all know, eating more calories than your body burns leads results in more of these excess calories being stored in the body as adipose tissue, or fat. Individuals that carry around a high level of body fat are at a drastically increased risk of developing every one of the conditions that we have discussed thus far.
Furthermore, according to Endocrineweb, obesity is known to be correlated with chronic inflammation throughout the body. Besides the harmful effects to various essential bodily systems, high body fat and inflammation also cause serious issues with the joints, leading to compromised mobility.
Flowers Are Sweet! Flour Is Not.
Then the problem with much of our diet is the amount of flour that we consume. Flour is, of course, used in all baked goods, bread, cakes and cookies especially but it is also used in the batter of most fried foods that we eat. Crispy chicken sandwiches and chicken nuggets, we are pointing at you.
The problem with enriched white flour us that most of the natural nutrients like fiber are processed right out of them.
According to WebMD, see the link at the end of this article, “White food generally refers to foods that are white in color and that have been processed and refined, like flour, rice, pasta, bread, crackers, cereal, and simple sugars like table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup”.
For More Information About Maintaining A Good And Well-Balanced Diet
You can download a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. 9th Edition. December 2020.
Available at: https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/ .
Conclusion
We hate to beat this to death but if you do not change your ways, you will eat yourself to death. Pay attention and be aware of what it is that you are eating. And then pay attention to how much your are eating and drinking.
It is possible for even you to cut back on your intake of the evil three white foods, sugar, salt, flour and thus reduce your caloric intake.
Couple eating right with a regular exercise regimen and you will be well on your way to becoming a much healthier person.
You do not need to change all of your eating habits overnight, but slowly changing how much, how often and what you eat and drink will provide you with results to keep going with your food and exercise plan.
You Can Start With These Simple Changes:
- Start with halving the amount of soda that you may drink every day. And before having a glass of soda, drink one or two glasses of water first.
- If you typically eat a full plate for a meal, start with filling your plate only half full and then waiting 20-30 minutes before taking a second helping.
- Eat four slices of bread? Try eating only one or two.
- Substitute sweet and salty snacks with vegetables, unsalted nuts and some fruits.
The possibilities are practically endless on how you can change your eating and exercise habits
Start today. Take control of your health. Take control of your your life.
Be A Man – Do The Right Thing. It’s Your Life. It’s Your Choice. Take Care Of Yourself. Eat Right And Exercise.
BAM!!! Be A Man! Do The Right Thing.
Be the DtRTy Guy!
Sources
1. How Insulin Works
https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/insulin-explained
2. Sodium In Your Diet
3. White Foods
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/truth-about-white-foods#1