Sugar gets a bad rap, but exactly which sugar is meant? Nutrient-dense sweet ripe fruits are a far cry from refined table sugar – and their differences can have big health implications.
You can’t exercise away a poor diet.
(Shutterstock)
Exercise can’t make up for a poor diet, but it can help change eating habits. Regular exercise improves the brain and cognitive processes that help regulate junk food consumption and reduces stress.
Early-onset colorectal cancer rates have been increasing since the 1990s.
kajakiki/E+ via Getty Images
Sixty percent of the Standard American Diet consists of ultra-processed food, which isn’t great for colon health. Researchers are looking into whether artificial food colors play a role.
Research reveals links between the irritability, explosive rage and unstable moods that have grown more common in recent years, and a lack of micronutrients that are important for brain function.
(Shutterstock)
Ultra-processed foods high in sugar, fat and empty carbs are bad for the mind as well as the body. Lack of micronutrients affects brain function and influences mood and mental health symptoms.
You might like both, but guess which has addictive properties.
Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images
Big Food companies producing ulta-processed foods are using a range of key market and political practices to increase their reach, particularly in developing countries.
To understand how healthy a food is, we often look at fats and proteins, vitamins and minerals. But this approach overlooks one property that’s a key part of a food’s health potential – its structure.
Ultra-processed products have little or no intact ‘food’ remaining in them. And much-praised industry led reformulation is doing nothing effective about this.
Don’t shun processed or ultra-processed foods entirely. Not only do they save families time and money, many processed foods have been unfairly maligned and can be nutritious as well as economical and convenient.
(Shutterstock)
Processed foods can be nutritious as well as economical and convenient. So let’s stop demonizing processed foods, and ease up on those who turn to them for convenience and price.
The study showed that every 10% increase in consumption of ultra-processed food was linked to a 12% increase in developing some types of cancers. But it didn’t show the processed food caused cancers.
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University
Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand