Dangers of processed foods

pharmacy

Advances in science and technology have affected every area of life, including the food we consume. Today’s trend is to drift from the foods God has provided for us to chemically processed foods. The result is often breakdown of our body systems, which inevitably attracts debilitating diseases and premature death.

In our human wisdom, we think we can make better what God created and gave us to eat as nourishment to the body which He also created. When God created things, both living and non-living, He certified them ‘good’. In other words, they were perfect, and no created person can make it better.

The food we eat is key to good health. But because we want to gratify the desires of our flesh, we have departed from God’s way and turned to our own way. The Bible says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Diseases and premature death are ravaging mankind today because we are deviating from God’s ways, violating His natural laws and misapplying our intelligence. As we deviate from natural foods and natural ways of preparing and preserving them and go towards artificial or synthetic processes, we shall continue to suffer from known and emerging diseases, age fast and die prematurely.

Again, in our human wisdom, the pharmaceutical industry embarks on mass production of various chemical formulations and we load our bodies with these chemicals God did not put in the human body when He created it. The body systems get more disorganised with these strange or foreign chemicals. This is an abuse or defilement of the body. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

The pharmaceutical industry will continue to flourish as long as we consume genetically modified foods, boxed, canned, jarred, and refrigerated foods. These foods are processed to make them look more attractive, to be instantly prepared, to have longer shelf life and for convenience. The industry will continue to search for new and more effective medicines as long as the food industry continues to contaminate and inoculate natural foods with chemical preservatives, flavourings, colouring agents, synthetic vitamins, sweeteners, bleaching agents, emulsifying agents, acids, alkalis, buffers etc.

These additives will continue to fill our bodies with toxic poisons, foods deprived of life-giving vitamins, minerals, and digestive enzymes. We will continue to provide our bodies with calories with only little nutrition. These foods are devitalised and dangerous. Consuming them is another way of defiling the body, instead of nourishing it.

Foods that are not natural will always interfere with the body’s functions. On the other hand, natural foods promote health and life. Processed foods promote disease and death. Many are ignorant of the fact that medicines are only trying to help where and when the natural   foods have been substituted with processed ones.

It is ironical that heavy consumers of processed foods get overfed but remain undernourished, The more processes a food goes through before it gets to the body, the less nourishment it provides. When you eat refined, processed, devitalised foods, your body is not nourished and you don’t feel satisfied. You feel hungry. Then you continue to overfeed on empty, processed, devitalised, sugary foods. This causes you to get fatter and fatter, forcing your body to gain extra weight, resulting in obesity.

Recent studies have implicated obesity in very many health issues including heart disease, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, and other painful and debilitating degenerative diseases.

Refined and processed foods are highly addictive and often contain phosphates that destroy some organs and bones and cause rapid ageing and kidney deterioration. Recent epidemiological investigation in Nigeria revealed a growing incidence of kidney problems and Type 2 diabetes among the youth. This is attributed to heavy consumption of highly refined carbohydrates and sodas containing lots of sugar. Digestion processes are ruined by processed foods because they are stripped of natural fibres, enzymes and vitamins.

Fast foods contain a lot of calories, sugar, sodium and unhealthy fats which are substances that increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Increased health risks are directly associated with increased consumption of fast foods.

Another area of concern is the increasing consumption of genetically modified foods. There is ample evidence of health risks of such foods in animals and man, including inhibition in the development of the brain, liver, and testicles; partial atrophy of the liver; enlarged pancreas; as well as intestines and immune system damage.

Only natural foods prepared and preserved in the natural way, can supply the essential nutrients required by the body and promote health and longevity.