Author: Akanchha Aryal
Imagine a McDonald ham/chicken burger. Burger bun
with some mayonnaise spread over it, Then there comes that mouth watering,
meaty, juicy what we call meat, add on some onions, juicy pickles, maybe some
“lettuce”, “tomatoes”, let’s not forget ketchup. Enjoy every single bite of it.
And then, die from heart attack.
Now, you may be wondering what the hell is this girl
talking about. How can one ham burger possibly lead us to heart attack? No, I
am not saying that. But what I want to say is, such kinds of foods, whether
it’s from fast food restaurant or processed food from your wonderful grocery
store ARE NOT something you should be eating every single day of your life. It is
quite addictive. Once you start eating them, you just crave them more and more.
I am not here to tell you what to eat and what not
to eat. In a way it’s not really my business to interfere in your personal
eating lives. But being a human it sort of becomes my responsibility to inform
people around me. I am quite a shy person who tries to avoid talking in public.
But… I think it’s time I come of my shell. The day I started learning about
nasty things about our food habits, I thought it’s my responsibility to let
others know as well. It may not be something you would want to hear, and you
may have lots of questions regarding what I am about to tell you. I really
don’t know what impact my speech will have. Right now, all I want is to get this
off my chest, and maybe, just maybe bring awareness to my generation.
One of the books that I am reading right now is “In
defence of food” by Michael Pollan. Now you may be wondering who Michael Pollan
is. He is one of the well known food journalist in America. He has written lots
of articles and books investigating on our food culture and habits. And right
now, I will be reading a brief paragraph of what this book has to say. (Read
from the book)
I am not only talking about foods from fast food
restaurants, but also the food that we purchase that is previously prepared and can be cooked
within minutes. Guys. Those foods are NOT something we should be eating. They
are processed foods that add nothing but unhealthy ingredients to your
unhealthy diet. They are bulked up with pasta, breadcrumbs, corn flour,
processed potato, processed egg and milk products as well as hydrogenated
vegetable oil, saturated fats, gums, sugar substitutes. They are just fillers
to make your food taste good with the addition of herbs, spices, salt,
monosodium glutamate and sugars. On top all that, they add artificial colours
and preservatives as well as some artificial flavouring just to complete the
unhealthy package.
After days, weeks, months, years, this kind of
eating will deleteriously affect our bodies, and make us incapable of fighting
severe infections and diseases. When we start lacking fresh fruits and
vegetables in our diet, our intake of essential nutrients gets to a zero level.
By replacing fresh foods with the “fake” processed foods we have become
unhealthier. Our rates of “diseases of civilization” have increased. These
include things like raised blood pressure level, increased levels of bad
cholesterol, weakened immune systems, and destabilized blood sugar levels, among
others. And of course, these may lead to more severe and even fatal diseases
like diabetes, cancer, and our number one killer in North America, heart
attack.
I
do realize this is too much information for one night, but it’s not too late to
make changes in our eating habits. It simply starts off with taking small baby
steps. Eating something fresh. For instance, eating an apple instead of chips
or drinking water instead of coke. As Michael Pollan said in his book, “Eat
food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
No comments:
Post a Comment