Are Preservatives — Good or Bad?
How Can You Avoid Them?
Introduction: What is a Preservative?
Preservatives are used in food production to prevent food from becoming spoiled.
A preservative is a substance that prevents the growth of organisms (bacteria, fungi, or yeast) or slows their growth.
What Are The Different Types of Preservatives?
Preservatives are substances that inhibit growth of microorganisms in food and beverages, thus extending their shelf-life.
There are two types of preservatives: natural and chemical.
Chemical preservatives have been used for a long time because they have been proven to be effective in inhibiting the growth of bacteria, fungi, yeasts and other microorganisms in food products.
Natural preservatives are not as effective as chemical preservatives but they do have their own benefits. They can help people with certain allergies or sensitivities to common chemical preservatives that are found in many foods today.
Example of a Natural Preservative: Citric acid is a natural food additive with antioxidant properties which can help prevent oxidation and browning of processed foods such as meats, vegetables, fruit juices and fruit drinks.
Health Risks Associated with Preservative — Containing Foods:
Avoiding preservative — containing foods
Is the best way to prevent health risks.
Some foods that are immune to this risk are whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and beans.
The best way for your body to stay healthy is by eating healthy foods that do not contain artificial additives.
Eating fresh food can decrease chances of health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
How Can We Avoid Dangerous Preservatives?
The idea of preservatives is to keep food from spoiling. They are mainly composed of chemicals that are toxic for our body.
Some of the dangers of preservatives are:
— Potentially causing asthma.
— Creating an imbalance in the gut flora because their job is to kill bacteria and other living things, but also kills our own natural bacteria, which can lead to other health problems.
— Some preservatives have been shown to cause hormone imbalance and change the levels of certain hormones in the body that regulate appetite, growth, reproduction, moods and sleep patterns.
Identify Foods — Without Harmful Additives:
When they are looking for food that doesn’t have artificial additives, people usually examine the ingredient labels.
There are not always preservatives listed in the ingredients list.
Some of the most dangerous additives are hidden in other words like “flavor” or “spices”.
Some countries require manufacturers to disclose all chemicals used in their products on packaging labels while many don’t.
This makes it difficult to know
if a food has artificial additives.
In order to stay safe — you need some background knowledge about what is typically added to foods.
Final Thoughts: Stay On a Healthy Diet!
A healthy diet is important for many reasons.
It can help you maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease, and lower your risk of certain types of cancer.
In order to have a healthy diet that is low in preservatives, processed foods should be limited or eliminated from your diet.
A good rule of thumb is to stop buying foods with more than five ingredients on the label.
