Processed Foods

Common processed foods may deliver a sugar-equivalent load far above the roughly 1 teaspoon normally circulating in the bloodstream. Food consumed mainly to change mood or sensation is framed as drug-like rather than nourishing. Processing kills food enzymes, requiring the body to produce more digestive enzymes internally. Modern U.S. sugar intake averages roughly half a pound per person per day, equivalent to about 800 calories from refined sugar, syrup, and corn syrup. The most dramatic expansion of heavily processed and altered foods occurred over the last 50 years, especially the last 20. Processed foods became significant in the food supply only about 150 years ago. Many modern carbohydrate-rich foods such as bread, pasta, and candy did not exist during most of human evolution. Processed foods are grouped with other recent practices that allegedly created an unprecedented health situation. Many processed or convenience foods rapidly convert into glucose and raise blood sugar quickly. Processed foods, especially refined sugar and refined grains, are absorbed more rapidly than whole foods because they have already been mechanically or chemically broken down. When food is altere…