We’ve all been told that junk food is bad for us, but because it tastes so darn good, most of us continue eating it. After all, fruits and veggies can’t beat the taste of fries, right?
Wrong! Fruits and vegetables are among the tastiest, healthiest, and most natural foods on the planet.
Junk food is really anything but. It is the lowest common denominator foodwise. It might tempt you with its rock ’n’ roll swagger, but junk food offers absolutely no vital nutrients and zero health benefits.
It does, however, offer some serious health risks, including chronic disease. Here is a list of 10 of those health risks.
Development of Diabetes
Diabetes is caused when the pancreas is no longer able to produce adequate amounts of insulin. Insulin is the hormone that turns sugar into fuel. As experts have repeatedly noted, junk food is loaded with unnatural sugars that can lead to type 2 diabetes, which can unfortunately result in serious complications and premature death.
Elevated Blood Sugar Levels
Since junk food is rich in sugar, it puts undue stress on your metabolism. Moreover, because it’s high in carbs and often low in protein, your blood sugar levels are more likely to plummet when you stop eating it. This can make you feel weak, tired, and moody, and may make you want to eat even more junk food.
Junk food contains very few nutrients, vitamins, and protein, all of which are essential for an invigorated.
If you exist on junk food alone, you’re going to struggle to do anything at optimum power. You’ll largely feel lethargic and run down, and you won’t ever be able to seize the day.
Many people just assume that only our bellies, thighs, and double chins are affected by a poor diet. However, fats don’t just make their way to your bulging abdomen. They also attack your brain.
When bad fats, such as those found in junk food, reach your brain they cause brain fog, which is that feeling you get when you can’t focus on anything.
Digestive Issues Disturbances
Virtually everyone on the planet will encounter digestive issues at some time or other. Among these issues are irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, bloating, and excess gas. Some people complain that they suffer from digestive issues all the time, and this could be due to the fact that they eat too much junk.
Junk food is full of oil, sugar, trans fats, and chemicals that wreak havoc on your stomach. Once your stomach is irritated, your digestive system gets all out of whack.
Depression Among Teenagers
1 in 3 U.S. teens eat junk food each day. In addition to the physical health dangers, it is also important to consider what effect this type of fake food is having on their mental well-being.
Research shows that the more junk food we eat, the more prone we are to depression. This is especially true for teenagers because they are more susceptible to hormonal changes, which can be massively influenced by diet.
Increased Risk of Cancer
The main reason for the link between certain foods and cancer is a lack of fiber. Moreover, as mentioned before, junk food is low in mostly everything else that’s good for you.
Once your liver becomes overloaded with all the junk you’re throwing at it, it will certainly let you know about it. You’ll feel lethargic, stressed, irritable, and you may develop headaches, skin conditions, and a whole lot more.
Junk food has been linked to liver disease on more than one occasion, and it turns out that it can be just as bad for your most overworked organ as alcohol.
Fries are soaked in finely processed salt and oil. When combined with a fatty, greasy hamburger, you’re essentially doubling your risk of kidney disease, which is caused by too much salt in your diet increasing your blood pressure on a consistent basis.
Increased Risk of Heart Disease
Heart disease is really scary, but there are preventative measures we can take to ensure we don’t struggle with it later on in life.
Avoiding junk food is one such method because such food is rich in bad fats that increase your bad cholesterol levels and in turn encourage plaque to form and heart disease to develop.
Part of the reason I love my grandmothers’ old cookbooks so much is that these recipes, for the most part, used real ingredients – not processed junk. Sure, a lot of these recipes use sugar, but honey can easily be substituted in most of them as a healthier alternative. Indeed, you can find healthier alternatives for almost any potentially problematic ingredient. And that’s what I’ve tried to do on this blog – offer recipes for real food, and some really healthy, tasty alternatives to processed junk food whenever possible.
So stay tuned for more updates on old-fashioned goodness!