Are your food consumption patterns damaging your body?

Every second food item you purchase from supermarket is mostly processed with high calorific value. Over the years food companies have reached every home by attracting younger population through more variant of flavors &making foods juicer, more crisper, saltier & sweater labelled products. However, nutrition experts have blamed such marketing gimmicks & outright junk foods as the primary reason for obesity. Such products have driven people’s desire towards high calorie & tastier foods. 

In the recent past, food makers have taken some steps in the right direction by advertising & launching campaigns to bring healthy & nutrient rich foods to school campuses. However, all of these are marketing ploys. This raises serious question about intention of food makes to help combat obesity & other dreaded lifestyle diseases. These food companies are more focused on to increasing shareholder value- maximizing profits which essentially translates into consumer eating more of their products. 

So how do these junk foods make a way into your life?

1. Huge emphasis on advertising: These food makers spend huge amount on advertisements for promoting unhealthy & junk food. To entice children to eat more of these junk stuff, promotions use cartoon characters & free goodies. On Television alone there are thousands of advertisements promoting high sugar breakfast cereals, sodas, fast food, candies & other aerated drinks. In comparison, children see only a handful of campaigns related to healthy foods, fruits & veggies. 
2. Higher processing translates into higher profits: Processing strikes off essential nutrients from food & in most cases replaces them with sugar, sodium or other harmful preservatives. Food makers are least interested in selling minimal processed foods such as fruits & veggies. The higher version of processed foods lack fibre, macronutrients  & phytochemicals that prevents from various diseases such as heart disease & diabetes
3. False claims on food labels: Claims on food labels such as “ Zero trans fat”, “ Contains whole wheat” creates a wrong impression that food is healthy. Although these claims are true, food is added with artificial sweetener, sugar & sodium, saturated fat & lacks fibre & other nutrients. Such claims are distractors & make people forget about calories. For instance, when you buy packaged juice with pictures of real orange, pineapple or mangoes, you are made to believe that juice is made from fresh fruits. However such packaged juices contains, corn syrup & sugar.  (check out my blog on food labels- https://thesushantkumar.com/2019/09/19/how-to-read-a-food-label/)

Unfortunately, we have developed a habit of eating such highly processed & calorie dense food & have already done damage to our bodies. With our busy schedule, we give limited attention to what we purchase & consume. In most of the cases, you would prefer buying groceries for the entire month from a supermarket & do not consider reading the content of food items. We are detailing below some standard items which you may consume. However, the composition of your diet may vary based on your fitness goals, gender, age & body biochemistry

So now how do you undo the damage already done & take corrective action?

We at passion for fitness help our clients curate a nutrition plan consisting of whole foods rich in nutrients, fibre & other vital macros in line with their fitness goals. Join our fitness community & get trained by our certified international trainers.