Shocking Things, You Never Knew About Preservatives

Do you love packaged foods more than your home-made food because you feel they taste nicer? Have your excuses always been, “if I start cooking now, I will be late for work?” Do you just fancy eating packaged foods just for eating sake? Well, it is no crime to love fast and packaged foods. In fact, research has found that most people love eating foods that were prepared outside their homes because they feel it tastes better. Also, fast and packaged foods have saved a lot of people over the years from the stress of cooking. It has also saved some other people from getting to work late. However, on the flip side, eating fast, packaged, and canned foods have side effects that you least imagine.

It is not new to you that every packaged and canned food you eat has preservatives in it. Preservatives carry out their preserving function very well, they prevent foods from getting spoilt, but on the other hand, the effects of these preservatives on your health are damning. Does this sound new to you? Well, this article can serve as an eye-opener for you to discover the health risks you expose yourself to each time you eat foods that contain preservatives. By the time you are done absorbing this article, you will make that big decision of making your own meals, fresh and sweet, instead of getting one that is not so fresh and is being preserved by things that would kill you slowly and gradually.

Foods That contain Preservatives

Packaged foods like; crackers, bread, cereals, snacks, already-cooked-foods, cheese, yogurts, and so on.

Canned foods like; fish, corned beef, sweet corn, sweet peas, and so on.

Other ones include; wine, peanut butter, diced fruits, and cheese.

Harmful Preservatives

Though some food producers claim that the preservatives’ contents and ingredients in keeping their products fresh are not harmful to the health and have been approved by the country’s food inspection agency. However, some other preservatives have been found to be very detrimental to health. The list of harmful preservatives includes;

Calcium sorbate

Potassium nitrate

Benzoic acid

Bromate

Sodium nitrate

Aspartame

When buying packaged foods (if you must), check the ingredients to know if any of these harmful preservatives are contained in the food you are about to get. This is a significant first step towards preserving your wellbeing.

Why People Prefer Packaged Foods Over Fresh Foods

• One of the very basic reasons for this is the lack of time to cook. This has been the excuse over the years. Depending so much on packaged foods while ignoring fresh, one can put your health at risk as some of these preservatives contain chemical properties that are incredibly harmful to your health.
• Another reason people give is the laziness to cook; they feel cooking is a lot of work. This singular act of laziness to cook can throw your health off-balance.
• Price; To some people, packaged and canned foods seem cheaper. They feel that since they can afford three square meals a day with eating processed and packaged foods, unlike when they buy ingredients to cook the foods themselves, they would rather go ahead with buying packaged foods. And this is because all that matters to them is ‘just eating’ and not the ‘eating healthy‘ part.
• Some other people eat packaged foods because they see other people eating it. It is easier to eat what other people are eating.
• To some, they eat packaged foods because it tastes better than their home-made foods.
• Some claim not to know how to cook.
• Some do not count food as something that matters. They eat just to fulfill all righteousness and satisfy their angry bellies; they actually do not know that what we eat is part of what makes us.

Eating fresh meals is healthier than packaged ones, no matter how sweeter packaged ones seem to taste in your mouth. Fresh meals do not contain preservatives, coloring, artificial sweeteners, and so on. They keep you healthy, protected and leave you with a strong immune system.

Foods like fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts, and seeds are usually not altered from their natural states. They contain vitamins and minerals, sodium, and low healthy fats. Processing them includes pressing, heating, fermenting, and steaming, thereby reducing the nutritional values of nature’s free gift and giving chronic health conditions in exchange for your sound health.

Health Risks Caused by Food Preservatives

• Food preservatives can cause breathing problems such as asthma.
• The weakened heart is also a significant resultant effect of excessive consumption of foods that contain preservatives.
• Preservatives contain chemicals that are capable of causing cancer. They contain nitrates, and when nitrites mix with gastric acid in your body, the result of birth complications and cancer-causing agents.
• Processed foods contain preservatives that can cause obesity because they contain fatty acids; this obesity is the hub of many health-related issues. One of the possible causes of obesity is eating fast foods, foods that contain preservatives, or canned foods excessively.
• Preservatives like propyl gallate, which is generally used to preserve meat, is capable of causing complications at birth and can also cause liver damage.
• Joint pain is also an effect of consuming too many preservatives.
• Preservatives allow the depositing of fats in your liver, which is extremely harmful. It can lead to kidney failure and swollen thyroid. The preservative that majorly causes this particular health issue is bromated oils, which is used to preserve bottled drinks
• Preservatives in ice creams, cheese, and chocolate milk can cause a tumor.
• Bromates used in preserving bread can cause diarrhea.
• Benzoates can lead to brain damage.

These are the health risks you expose yourself to each time you consume packaged and preserved foods. Their tastes can be very tempting and enticing, but their backlashes are more extreme than their preferences.

It is imperative to note that you should not buy meats from meat sellers in the market whose meats flies are not hovering around. I know it is quite unhealthy and irritating to watch flies hover around the meat you want to buy; however, meat sellers nowadays have started using very harmful chemicals to chase flies away from their meat tables. These preservatives are chemicals toxic enough to take your life if proper care is not taken.

Preserving Your Foods Naturally at Home

Preservation, as you know, helps to delay spoilage and tend to keep your foods fresh. Preserving with chemicals can sometimes be harmful. However, in order to prevent your foods from spoiling and preserving their nutrients, natural ways in which you can maintain them have been discovered by food practitioners and nutritionists. These natural preservatives have 0% side effects, and they include;

• Garlic: Garlic contains anti-viral properties that help prevent foods from getting spoilt. Put some cloves of garlic in your soup; it will help the soup stay fresh.
• Lemon: Have you ever diced fruits and watched it change color and probably taste after some time? Sprinkle lemon juice on the chopped fruits and watch it stay fresh until you see the end of it. The peel also helps to preserve cooked foods. Squeeze out the liquid from the peel into your cooked food while it begins its preservation process.
• Sugar has been discovered to help get rid of moisture from foods hence reducing the tendencies of that food getting spoilt.
• If you have a freezer, freeze the food. This is also an excellent method of preserving foods without any side effects.
• Have you tried salt? Salt has been the widely known food preservative since the time of our forefathers. It is proven over the years to be very effective. It is used to preserve meat and fish. Just like sugar, it carries out its preservation process by getting rid of moisture, thereby reducing the water available for bacteria to grow in.
• Honey: Due to its sugar content, it reduces the level of water in foods, thereby giving bacteria no chance to develop.
• Vinegar: Vegetables, eggs, and fruits can last for months when preserved with vinegar.
• Do you hate beans weevils as much as I do? Try adding dry cayenne pepper to your bag of raw beans. This would chase every single weevil in your beans and keep your beans fresh and weevil free.

After reading all these, would you continue with those excuses that land you into eating processed and packaged foods? Would you still put your health at risk because you are lazy to cook? Or because you think you would be late for work if you cook? Remember that only living people work. If you allow the effects of preservatives to take the best of you and finally takes your life, then someone else would replace you at work. It is important to watch out for harmful preservatives when buying edible things from the supermarket, which can help make you live longer and healthier.