Human Health and Processed Food

John King^*
*Correspondence: John King, Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA, Email:

Introduction

The focus of traditional health and nutrition education and practice is almost always on nutrients, or on meals and beverages. Eating guidelines, such as the United States Food Guide Pyramid, are intended to encourage people to choose healthier foods, which are frequently those that are already high in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are considered appealing. These strategies, which currently dominate official and other authoritative information and education programmes, as well as food and nutrition public health policies, typically overlook processing. Increased use of ready meals, such as preprepared foods, is well recognised as one of the key drivers of the current obesity pandemic and associated chronic disorders. On the other hand, food processing is frequently ignored or minimised in culinary, health, and health education and information, as well as health programmes. A brief examination cannot be comprehensive, and a wide proposal such as the one described above will undoubtedly have defects and abnormalities. The social, cultural, economic, and environmental consequences of food processing are also ignored [1].

Description

All foods have been processed in some way, yet not all processed foods and beverages are alike. Food processing changes in terms of style, quantity, and purpose are critical for human health. In truth, there is nothing wrong with processing fresh foods. Processing type and intensity have a significant impact. Authorities and other reputable sources may say that certain foods are less nutrient-dense. Foods in Group 1 have been processed to the bare minimum. It is made out of whole foods that have been processed in a way that does not dramatically alter their nutritional properties. Cleaning, removing indigestible fractions, feeding, chilling, freezing, pasteurization, freezing, pasteurization, fermentation, pre-cooking, drying, skimming, bottling, and packing are some examples of such activities [2]. Fresh meat and dairy, grains, legumes, nuts, fruits, vegetables, roots, and bulbs are frequently mildly cooked before being sold. These are traditional ingredients used in the preparation and cooking of dishes made mostly of natural foods in the home. Ultra-processed foods are mostly confections of group 2 ingredients, usually linked with advanced chemical use, to make them healthy, pleasurable, and habit-forming [3].

Traditional diets that are wholly or mainly made up of unprocessed and minimally processed foods usually provide enough nutritional and energy density once a wide variety of plant foods is paired with just reasonable amounts of animal foods and little salt. Even if processed foods from group two become a large component of these traditional diets, the overall quality of the meals can be maintained. Except for some flower oils, oils are extremely deficient or devoid of micronutrients. These are rarely compatible with survival in and of themselves, as well as serving as the foundation for ultra-processed foods in diets that contain almost no foods. While these diets often include group 1 natural foods, meat, and dairy, they frequently maintain many of the unhealthy qualities of the additives on which they are based: excess simple carbs, saturated fats, sodium, and Tran's fatty acids, as well as low nutrient density, little dietary fibre, and excess simple carbohydrates, saturated fats, sodium, and Tran's fatty acids [4,5].

Conclusion

Diets based on relatively convenient processed products like caloric soft drinks have result in a considerable amount of energy being ingested in liquid form. Aside from milk during infancy, which is a time of rapid weight growth, liquid calories are not a regular element of any mammal's diet. According to a recent review of a wide range of sophisticated studies ranging from brain imaging to elegant behavioural human testing, excessive eating is largely the result of automatic and uncontrollable responses to unappreciated environmental cues such as food accessibility and food advertisement.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

1. Keating, Catherine, Kathryn Backholer, Emma Gearon, and Christopher Stevenson, et al. “Prevalence of class-I, class-II and class-III obesity in Australian adults between 1995 and 2011-12.” Obes Res Clin Pract 9(2015):553-562.

Google scholar, Crossref, Indexed at

2. Swinburn, Boyd A, Vivica I. Kraak, Steven Allender, and Vincent J. Atkins, et al. “The global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change: the Lancet Commission report.” Lancet 393(2019): 791-846.

Google scholar, Crossref, Indexed at

3. Ng, Marie, Tom Fleming, Margaret Robinson, and Blake Thomson, et al. “Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.” Lancet 384(2014): 66-81.

Google scholar, Crossref, Indexed at

4. Ramos, Flavia Pascoal, Ligia Amparo da Silva Santos, and Amélia Borba Costa Reis. “Food and nutrition education in school: a literature review.” Cad Saude Publica 29(2013): 2147-2161.

Google scholar, Crossref, Indexed at

5. Tavares, Leticia Ferreira, Sandra Costa Fonseca, Maria Luiza Garcia Rosa, and Edna Massae Yokoo. “Relationship between ultra-processed foods and metabolic syndrome in adolescents from a Brazilian Family Doctor Program.”  Public Health Nutr. 2012;15(1):82-87.

Google scholar, Crossref, Indexed at