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Food is one of the main ways to stay healthy. Not surprisingly, Hippocrates himself, the father of medicine, said "may your food be your medicine, and may your medicine be your food." These words, despite all the centuries that have passed since the death of Hippocrates, are still valid today. A healthy diet, based on natural foods rich in nutrients, promotes strong health and general good health, as well as helping to prevent the onset of disease. When this healthy and balanced diet is completed with physical exercise, we can be sure that we are doing everything in our power to enjoy iron health.
However, today we are surrounded by so-called foods that, rather than nourish us, the only thing they achieve is to make us sick and our health to suffer more easily than it should. If you want to know what the unhealthy foods Keep reading Green Ecology and we will reveal some of the most important aspects that you have to know.
What are we talking about when we talk about food?
One of the most important aspects that we have to take into account when we talk about food is knowing how to correctly define what they are. We have the habit of interpreting that food is everything that we ingest through the mouth and that ends up in the digestive tract. However, the most accurate definition when talking about food would be everything that, once ingested, is used by the body for its proper functioning.
In this way, although there are a lot of substances that we ingest, it would not be fair to speak of food in these cases. In fact, the correct thing would be to call them, simply, as "edible substances", but not as food, since they do not promote or are necessary for the proper functioning of our body. A good example, which is also very widespread, would be alcohol, which, although it is a substance that we eat, is not necessary for the proper functioning of the body and, in fact, not only is it not necessary, but it negatively affects our health.
However, in this regard, we could talk about a large number of substances that we eat regularly that are not food. From the aforementioned alcohol, to typical chemical additives such as sweeteners or colorants, as well as metals foreign to our body or flavor enhancers. In short, everything that we can eat but that does not fulfill the function of food itself.
Can there be harmful foods?
In this way, it can give the feeling that food, by virtue of being food, must necessarily be good for our body. However, here it would also be necessary to qualify it. In fact, there are foods that can fulfill a function in our body as they are substances that can be used by it but that, due to their nature, also they can hurt us. An example that can clarify this case would be the White sugar. As we all know, white sugar is a food that the body uses to obtain energy and to be able to perform many of its functions normally, for example, something as simple and necessary as cellular metabolism. Despite this, white sugar is also a food that can lead to appearance of certain diseases, such as being overweight and associated with heart disease, or diabetes among many others.
In this way, although all foods fulfill a function in the organism, this does not mean that they are all the best option with which to feed ourselves. In this way, there are certain foods that act in a harmful way in the body, so it is better to do without them in favor of others that do offer greater advantages by not having so many counterparts.
Unhealthy Foods
In reality, making a list of unhealthy foods would be too big an undertaking and, in many cases, would require quite a few qualifications. However, it is possible to establish a series of general rules that will help us define what foods are the healthiest for our body, as well as the most harmful.
Natural foods and denatured foods
The first element that we have to take into account when distinguishing between healthy foods and harmful foods is their processing. As a general rule, it can be said that the more natural a food is, the healthier it will be. What does it mean to say that a food is natural? That has not been artificially modified by humans. For example, a natural food would be an apple, but not a packaged apple juice that, in addition to having been modified, has also been mixed with other components completely unrelated to the apple. In this way, we will have two foods that, indeed, are foods, but whose action in the body will be different. An apple will be a natural food, and the canned apple juice will be a denatured food. Both foods will have nutrients beneficial to health, but, in comparison, natural food is always going to have a much better impact on our body than a denatured one. Thus, to avoid harmful foods, a fundamental element is to link our food choices to natural products and the least processed or denatured as possible.
Contaminated food
On the other hand, it must also be taken into account that there are foods that, although they are foods, are also accompanied by substances that detract from its positive effects In the health. In this case, we can continue talking about the example of the apple, a natural food and, therefore, recommended. However, if this apple is accompanied by chemical pesticides, it will be a food that, despite its positive impact on our health, will also have a negative one. associated with these chemicals. In this case, it will be necessary to look for food that is not contaminated, such as organic food. U, another option, would happen to eliminate the pollutants present in food, for example, by properly washing the apple to remove the pesticides present on the skin.
If you want to read more articles similar to What are unhealthy foods?, we recommend that you enter our category of Foods harmful to health.
