Organic Food - 8 Surprising Ways Junk Food Harms Health

Author: Amira Elgan

The health hazards of unhealthy foods can seriously threaten your overall well being. Most people understand that processed and artificial foods are bad for you. But few understand how poor food choices combined with genetics, lack of exercise and drugs can seriously damage your health.

Processed foods such as fast, canned and packaged foods are manmade and completely adulterated. These industrial food products are not natural. They've been stripped of important nutrients, making them not only inadequate for proper nourishment but highly detrimental to the immune system and subsequently to all bodily functions and total health.

Here are 8 surprising things you need to know about the relationship between diet, genetics, lifestyle and drugs.

1. A vast number of Americans -- possibly a majority -- suffer daily or frequent pain or discomfort they think is normal and natural, but is in fact caused by diet. Even foods such as cheese, wine and some fish including tuna, for example, may cause histamine toxicity. This occurs when the body has an allergic reaction in response high levels of histamine sometimes found in such foods.
2. When a disease has a genetic "cause," that doesn't mean diet isn't the triggering factor. Some people are "genetically predisposed" to some cancers, heart disease or diabetes, for example, but often a healthy and balanced diet can prevent the "genetic" disease from ever affecting health. Celiac Sprue, for instance, is considered a genetic disease, but carriers can protect against it by eating a healthy diet and leading an active lifestyle.
3. Medical professionals often categorically blame the frequent consumption of a particular food as the culprit for food sensitivities and allergies. But it's likely that allergies arise not just from the quantity, but the quality of foods we eat. As the quality of foods has increasingly declined over the past 50 years, sensitivities and allergies have augmented. Food intolerances can be triggered by other factors such as poor diet, lack of sleep, pollution, over-the-counter and prescription drugs -- even state of mind, stress and lack of exercise.
4. Many illnesses, physical discomforts or other health problems stem from a compromised immune system resulting from poor diet. Often, the drugs taken to treat a condition exacerbate the problem, or cause imbalances elsewhere making the side effects of drug treatments worse than the illness itself. In battling health conditions, prevention is best. But once a condition develops, getting to the root of it generally begins and ends with food and lifestyle choices.
5. Each individual illness or dysfunction caused by diet takes an unpredictable amount of time to develop. Over time, the cumulative effects of a poor diet manifest as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer to name a few.
6. Diseases are progressing, even when there are no detectable symptoms. For example, young children who eat a lot of fast foods are likely to already have advancing cardiovascular disease.
7. One of the underappreciated effects of junk food is that it displaces healthy food. Maximum health requires that every calorie consumed has nutritional benefit. Every 1,000 "empty" calories eaten means that 1,000 calories worth of nutritional food is not eaten. And many of the ill health effects of junk food results from nutritional deficiencies, which leads to a weak immune system and in turn disease.
8. Even contagious diseases have a dietary factory. If immune function is compromised by an unhealthy lifestyle, including food and lack of exercise, catching an otherwise minor virus -- even the common cold -- can become a major illness.

The bottom line is that poor lifestyle choices, including eating junk food and processed foods and leading a sedentary lifestyle can harm your health in all kinds of hidden or unpredictable ways.

Modern processed foods are not even slightly acceptable replacement of real whole foods. It's best to eat a variety of healthy foods including fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds and variety of beans. Don't drink too much alcohol, get plenty of rest and exercise daily and eat foods as close as possible to their natural state.

More Articles by: Amira Elgan

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