Why is junk food bad for you?

As someone very involved with the amazing power of food to alleviate and even cure some medical conditions, I am often asked, “Why is junk food bad for you?” This situation has gripped us for the last thirty or forty years, with the advent of so-called “junk food,” a phrase first coined by Michael Jacobson thirty-five years ago. This is a meal so far removed from the unadulterated, nutrient-dense foods of years past, we are now faced with a situation where the younger generation, raised solely on junk food, is unlikely to live as long as their parents, who they have eaten real food. for most of their lives.

Junk food is cheap, convenient and very tasty! So what is the problem? The problem is that it’s too good to be true.

You see, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, the price you see on the grocery shelf is simply your down payment.

After consuming this cheap, convenient, and tasty food for a while, you’ll find that the money you saved buying junk food will be more than eaten up by your doctor’s bills. It also won’t be very convenient when you have to stay in the hospital due to some debilitating illness, caused by the same things that give junk food its tempting taste: fat, sugar and salt, and not much else.

So if you ask me “Is junk food bad?” my answer is a resounding “Yes!”

And don’t think this is a problem that only affects older people, because people as young as twenty-something have diseases that used to be associated with old age. There has even been a recent case of a teenager presenting to hospital with a case of scurvy, a disease caused solely by poor diet and actually eliminated in the 16th century.

Scurvy was not the only disease caused by poor nutrition, and nightmares like rickets have also been eliminated, thanks to our growing knowledge of vitamins and nutrition in general. It is therefore sad that so many turn their backs on this knowledge and prepare for a shorter and less healthy life than current knowledge allows.

So now that you know the answer to the question, “Why is junk food bad for you?” you’re probably wondering, if that’s the case, why is it so prevalent?

You see, there’s not much to be gained from real food. By “real food” I mean food that is alive and rich in nutrients. The biggest problem is that animated food perishes very quickly. Yes, you can freeze some foods, but not all. So, to give it a longer shelf life, food scientists created a totally artificial fat: hydrogenated vegetable oil. This is definitely not something you want on your body, however it is found in almost all processed foods, from cookies to pizza. Fortunately, the tide is turning and some manufacturers are taking advantage of not using it now.

Another way to squeeze a little more profit out of food is to “add value.” This is done by marketing ‘ready meals’ or ‘convenience foods’, which simply need to be heated in a microwave for 30 seconds and is ideal for filling up the increasingly ‘time poor’ people. Presumably fast food eaters are short on time because of all the time they spend waiting in line at the doctor’s office. However, anyone who is so “busy” that they don’t have time to cook and eat proper food should perhaps examine her priorities in life.

It’s a measure of how miraculous our bodies are: they can withstand this onslaught of empty junk food and keep going for years before it’s time for recovery in the form of kidney stones, heart disease, impotence, high blood pressure, arthritis, gallstones. , drop. and high cholesterol. But even then, the twin miracles of our bodies and healthy eating can pull you back from the brink at the last moment and thus avoid medications with nasty side effects or even expensive and painful surgeries.

It is often said that “familiarity breeds contempt” and this is never more true than when it comes to our bodies and, in particular, the food we put into them. Because food is so readily available, we treat both with the same indifference, never questioning whether it will just taste good or if it will taste good and actually do us good.

And, if you’re still wondering if junk food is bad for you, consider this. If we own a car, we pay close attention to it and only allow the best lubricants and the highest quality fuel to be used in it. However, you can always get another vehicle, whereas you only get a body, and it has to last you a lifetime!

So doesn’t it make sense to make sure your body, like your shiny car, is also getting the best lubes and the highest quality fuel?

Fortunately, scientists are now making an increasing number of remarkable discoveries about food, many of which reinforce ancient folklore wisdom, such as “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” So, stop abusing your body with junk food and instead eat the tastiest, healthiest foods on the planet that have been proven for hundreds of years to produce the leanest, healthiest, longest-lived people. People, like Italians, Greeks and Okinawans. You will not only be delighted to know how much more energy you have and how much more alive you feel, but you will also be delighted that the food is not only much tastier but also more varied in taste than your usual food.

At that moment, you will really understand the answer to the question: why is junk food bad for you? And you’ll also be surprised to know that it can be cooked in minutes, making it almost as convenient, but much, much tastier and better for you, than that crap you used to microwave.