Unhealthy Food is Really Not Food at AllUnhealthy food was not made by God, because everything God made for food is good for you. God did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17) What is Unhealthy Food
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In general there are two procedures that can be carried out upon healthy food in order to make it into unhealthy food: 1) taking things away from it, or 2) adding things to it. A third possibility, mixing foods together, does not generally make your food less nutritious. In fact, God told Moses to teach the people to make bread by mixing flour and oil, and either baking it in an oven or cooking it in a pan.
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Why is Processing of Our Food Allowed?
Obviously there are differences of opinion regarding the relative positive vs. negative consequences of the alterations of the food we eat. Most food processing is done for the purpose of convenience, i.e. to make food products readily available for extended periods of time. Other potentially harmful treatments are administered to our foods in order to increase the bottom line for the growers, e.g. hormones and antibiotics for animal products, and pesticides, herbicides, and genetic modifications for plant products.In addition to the vast array of chemicals added and processes applied to our food products, there remains, of course, the ubiquitous additions of salt and sugars. Nearly every food product containing grains uses flour from which nearly every vestige of nutrition has been removed. Again, the reasons for these additives and processes are to increase appeal and convenience for the consumers, as well as profitability for the manufacturers.
How Pervasive is This Alteration of Our Food?
A Wikipedia article lists 24 different classes of food additives, as well as an alphabetical listing of some 770 actual additives that are found in our food today! If you want to succeed at anti aging, you need to take control of your food consumption and do a little research for yourself: become a label reader. Read the lists of ingredients on the foods that you are eating.If you can only pronounce the ingredients with difficulty and don't know what they are, why are you putting them into your body? Are you confident that the manufacturers have done long term studies on your behalf to determine the effects of consuming them? They may not be bad people, but clearly, their primary motivation is to make their food products as appealing to you as possible, so that you and all your friends will keep buying them.
Trying To Make Unhealthy Food, Healthy Again
Because of an increasing awareness and concern for eating healthy food, manufacturers have taken to replacing the nutrients and fiber they have taken out of the food. They call these food products "enriched". But, unfortunately they have still added sugar and salt, to make them palatable to us, as well as other sundry chemicals to make them more appealing and last longer on the shelf. Even with so-called enrichments, they are still unhealthy food.While it's nice to have foods that last longer on the shelf, we must consider at what cost we are trading for the luxury of this convenience. In the well-publicized documentary Supersize Me, we saw McDonald's french fries remain in an apothecary jar for two weeks and never change in their appearance. Because of processing and the addition of a variety of chemicals, most of the food we buy at the grocery store is so dead, nothing will eat it, not even microorganisms. Nothing will eat it, that is, except highly-educated humans!
So What?
When hearing about all of these things being done to our food, most people have one of two reactions: 1) Whatever - "I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well enjoy myself"; or 2) Worried - "There's nothing I can eat without the danger of killing myself". I believe there is a moderate balance that can be maintained between these two extremes. I am confident that it is possible to live in the real world and still avoid unhealthy food.
