Reduce the Intake of Highly Processed Foods
Avoid
highly processed foods. Why? One very obvious reason is that there tends to be
many chemicals added to those foods, such as preservatives, coloring materials,
and other chemicals to enhance the looking, taste, texture, etc. Even though many of them have been studied for
their side effects, the long term effects from some of these chemicals may not
be fully investigated or understood.
In addition, common
soft drinks tend to have a lot of sugar. Most people probably didn’t realize how much sugar they are taking from a
16 oz. can; each contains at least 20 or sometimes almost 30 grams of sugar. The fact is that too much sugar is linked to
many health issues including tooth problem, diabetes, obesity, high
triglycerides, and even high blood pressure. In fact, too much sugar is not good especially for cancer patients as we mentioned
before.
Another example is
processed juice. I used to have a
misconception that juice is much healthier than soft drink. When I checked the labels, I was totally
surprised. If you compare the sugar
contents between a soft drink and a processed juice, you won’t see a significant
difference; they both have very high sugar contents. To counter this, some manufactures are
producing a variety of drinks with low sugar content. If you are health conscious, you may want to
consider which drinks to take. Although
it is not always possible, it is probably better to eat fresh fruits than
processed fruits.
Another example of highly processed food is
cookies. Usually the fat content of the
cookies is high. Remember that taking
too much fat and less fiber may increase the chance of getting colon
cancer? Control the consumption of
cookies is a good way to healthier life. Again, manufacturers are making adjustments in making cookies that are
low in fat and/or low in sugar, which is a right thing to do.
© Jiajiu Shaw, 2017
Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I wrote, "IS CANCER IN US", published recently.
