In our fast-paced modern world, convenience often takes precedence over health. We find ourselves relying on pre-packaged, processed foods that promise convenience and flavor but come at a great cost to our health.
Processed foods, most produced by industrialized, big food corporations, play a significant role in shaping our dietary choices and have a profound impact on our overall health and well-being.
In this article you will learn the truth about big food companies, from marketing practices to preservatives, and learn how to reset your health if your diet has been high in these “fake” foods.
The Power of Processed Foods
Processed food corporations have immense influence over what we eat. Through extensive marketing campaigns, they shape our perceptions and preferences, often promoting highly processed foods laden with unhealthy ingredients.
Their vast financial resources allow them to influence consumer behavior, encouraging us to consume more and making it difficult to make informed, healthy choices.
Eating processed foods has become the “norm,” and it’s easy to believe it is real food.
67% of the food consumed by children consists of processed food.
Ultra Processed Foods
Processed food companies specialize in manufacturing ultra-processed foods high in added sugars, unhealthy fats and seed oils, and artificial additives and sweeteners. These foods are nutritionally poor, lacking essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber, in addition to causing malabsorption of nutrients, Leaky Gut, inflammation, and addiction to processed food and overeating.
What’s more, processed food companies strategically include ingredients to make these foods addictive, leading to overeating more processed food. Regular consumption of ultra processed foods has been linked to a range of chronic diseases, including obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.
Hidden Ingredients and Labeling Tricks
Processed food companies employ various labeling tactics to deceive consumers. They often use misleading terms, such as “natural” or “low-fat,” to create an illusion of healthfulness. Additionally, they strategically position ingredients on the label, making it challenging for consumers to identify unhealthy additives. This lack of transparency makes it harder for individuals to make informed choices about the foods they consume.
Marketing to Children
Processed food companies heavily target children with advertising, using persuasive techniques to establish lifelong brand loyalties. They promote sugary cereals, snacks, and beverages, which contribute to the alarming rise in childhood obesity rates. The impact of these marketing tactics extends beyond childhood, as it shapes long-term eating habits and increases the risk of developing chronic diseases later in life.
25 percent of children and 45 percent of adults suffer from Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; this disease didn’t exist in children before 1980 when processed food wasn’t heavily marketed.
Environmental Impact of Processed Foods
The practices of processed food companies not only affect human health but also have devastating consequences for the environment.
The industrialized food system relies on intensive farming practices, which contribute to deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and water pollution. Moreover, the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers has harmful effects on ecosystems and biodiversity.
Processed Foods and Disease
Two diseases didn’t exist in children before the introduction of processed foods: Insulin Resistance and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Many of the modern daily health conditions link back to these two diseases.
When you reverse insulin resistance and fatty liver disease, you can reverse many health conditions.
And when you eliminate processed foods, you can help reverse insulin resistance and fatty liver.
In fact, did you know:
- Insulin Resistance at the liver becomes Diabetes
- Insulin Resistance at the ovaries becomes PCOS
- Insulin Resistance at the heart becomes Heart Disease
- Insulin Resistance at the brain becomes Alzheimer’s
Processed foods wreak havoc through multiple pathways: they back up the liver with fructose and toxins, inflame the body with seed oils, increase appetite with hidden sweeteners, and “starve the gut” by taking all of the fiber. Because of the excess fructose, inflammatory oils, and GMO toxins, the liver is overwhelmed by the processed food and gets metabolized immediately into liver fat.
Furthermore, fiber plays an important role in food; it slows the rise of glucose and insulin in the blood and it feeds the gut bacteria. Without fiber, processed food not only starves the good bacteria, but it creates “holes” in the intestinal lining, leading to inflammation and leaky gut. That inflammation and leaky gut lead to nutrient malabsorption, depression, anxiety, autoimmune disease, addiction, chronic pain, brain fog, fatigue, anemia and more.
Processed food leads to diseases through multiple pathways:
- Fructose. Fructose in processed foods is concentrated, overwhelms the liver, and causes the body to store it immediately as fat. It has been linked to the development of insulin resistance and metabolic disease. In addition to not being utilized by the muscles or body for energy, it actually STEALS energy from the cells by lowering ATP, which is the energy in the cell’s mitochondria. As a result, blood sugar and insulin rise exponentially, fatty liver increases, uric acid increases, triglycerides increase and metabolic disease manifests. To make things even worse, fructose depletes the body of copper, and copper is needed to decrease uric acid; without copper, uric acid leads to insulin resistance and obesity.
- Lack of fiber. Not only does the fiber slow the rise of blood sugar, but it also feeds the good bacteria which is an integral part of the immune system. Without fiber in processed food, the cells become “resistant,” and do not “listen” to the messages of insulin, leading to the state of insulin resistance where more insulin is needed to move the sugar into the cells. This will cause the body to crave more sugar to fulfil the increased insulin levels, and it becomes a vicious cycle of quickly escalating the blood sugar and the insulin. This will trigger massive inflammation in the gut and wipe out the gut bacteria responsible for nutrient absorption and strengthening the immune system.
- Inflammatory seed oils. Fats are the primary building blocks of your cell membrane. However, linoleic acid, which makes up 60% – 80 % of omega-6 fats in processed foods, is the main contributor to chronic disease. The seed oils include canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, rice bran oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, grape seed oil, and peanut oil.
- Artificial sweeteners. Many believe that artificial sweeteners are better than sugar because they have no caloric value, but they actually do more harm than sugar itself. Not only do they increase the cravings for actual sugar, leading to overeating, but they cause a leaky gut and disrupt the signaling pathway from the gut to the brain to control appetite. Furthermore, as they cause leaky gut, they inhibit the absorption of the little nutrition that one may take in from processed and non processed foods! Even though these sweeteners don’t have calories, they trigger an insulin response, causing insulin resistance, fatty liver and weight gain.
- Emulsifiers. processed foods uses emulsifiers in them, bringing fat and water together to extend their shelf life. Yet, these emulsifiers destroy the mucosal lining in the gut, causing the sensory neurons responsible for telling the brain what nutrients you have consumed to be wiped out. Therefore, the brain never receives the proper signal to shut off the appetite after eating, even with non-processed, healthy food. As a result, cravings increase while nutrient absorption diminishes, leading to malnourishment, inflammation, overeating, and a compromised immune system.
- Gluten. Gluten and other grains not only are covered in glyphosate and GMOs which cause inflammation and leaky gut, but they are referred to as “anti-nutrients,” meaning they steal nutrients out of the body. They too destroy the gut microbiome, lower the immune system, disrupt hormonal balance and contribute to insulin resistance.
- GMOs and Glyphosate. GMO foods and glyphosate not only lead to inflammation, malabsorption of nutrients, and Leaky Gut, but also inhibit Phase 2 estrogen detoxification, leading to estrogen dominance.
- Acidity. Processed foods are extremely acidic for the body and cause the body to overcompensate to balance out the pH by stealing calcium, magnesium, and other minerals from the bones. As a result, conditions like osteoporosis, arthritis, and other diseases dependent on alkalinity may arise.
Processed Foods and Food Addiction
Beyond just the damage that processed foods do to the body, processed foods utilizes multiple strategies to ensure not just cravings for processed foods but actually perpetuates addiction to these foods.
The following explains how processed food can lead to food addiction.
- Destroys CCK. CCK is a hormone in the gut triggered by amino acids and omega 3 fatty acids to tell the brain it received sufficient nutrients during a meal and to stop eating. Processed food destroys that signal, perpetuating an insatiable appetite for more processed foods.
- Leptin Resistance. Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells that play a key role in regulating appetite and energy balance. It signals to the brain that there is enough stored “energy” as fat and helps regulate food intake. When leptin levels are high, it signals to the brain that the body is satisfied, reducing hunger and increasing metabolism. However, with processed food overriding the satiety response, the body experiences Leptin Resistance, where the cells become less responsive to the leptin signal. This will lead to overeating, which will worsen insulin and leptin resistance, becoming a vicious cycle.
- Salt. Food addiction is centered around salt and sugar, not fat or protein. If you are depleted of salt, it will evoke a process in the central nervous system that induces you to satisfy the sodium appetite. Most processed foods are highly palatable with salt and sugar. When you eat sugar, the brain gets signals mixed up and thinks the salt cravings are satisfied by the sugar. By repeating this behavior just a few times, the brain has created a habit loop of satisfying sodium needs with a sugar craving.
- Dysregulates Dopamine. Dopamine is the hormone to “motivate” for an action, and it is what becomes dysregulated with any type of addiction. Addiction occurs when you are no longer able to function without pleasurable results coming from an activity or substance. In other words, you need the substance just to feel “normal” and not even experience pleasure. Processed foods cause food addictions in many people where they create an unhealthy relationship with food, especially considering the hormones leptin and insulin which are responsible for “appetite control” become dysregulated. As a result, you feel “out of control” over your food consumption and don’t see food as a necessary daily nutrition need, much like an animal would.
Most addictions, whether behavioral like gambling or engaging in social media, or habitually using substances such as cocaine or drinking excess alcohol, work through one pathway to the brain. Sugar impacts three separate dopamine pathways in the brain, making it the most addictive substance in existence. The three pathways are:
- Taste of sweet. The pure taste of sweet releases dopamine, which causes you to crave more sweet containing foods to achieve the level of dopamine you just experienced. As you finish eating the “sweet” food, the dopamine level drops below base level, encouraging you to increase that dopamine by having more of the sweet containing food. In other words, after eating the sweet containing food with sugar and artificial sweeteners, your dopamine level is LOWER and your appetite has increased compared to before taking your first bite.
- Post ingestive dopamine. This mechanism is triggered in the gut where the body is registering foods that increase glucose in the blood and occurs about 15 minutes after food consumption. The body is wired to encourage anything that will raise glucose for survival purposes, and will activate dopamine to tell your brain to “eat more.” This includes hidden sweeteners that don’t taste sweet in the mouth, but still trigger the dopamine pathway to increase cravings for sugar. Most notably, maltodextrin is a hidden sugar that raises blood sugar higher than sugar itself but doesn’t taste sweet. This is used in processed foods like crackers, chips, meats, and dairy.
- Rise in blood glucose levels. If the gut registers that a certain food will increase blood glucose, it will drive up the craving for that food to store more energy as a survival mechanism.
Supplements to Help Reset Your Health after a Diet Heavy in Processed Food
If your diet has consisted primarily of processed foods, then it’s time to change your perspective on food and start eating for nutritional value and health benefits, as opposed to flavor and cravings.
It’s worth noting that if indeed you have been consuming processed foods for a long time, your body will be depleted of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and more. Therefore, the very best place to start is with a supplement routine to help recover the loss of those essential nutrients.
These are my recommended essential supplements to reclaim your health.
Accelerated Fast™
The priority in overcoming a processed foods addiction is to shut off cravings, reset insulin resistance, reset leptin resistance, and take control of your “willpower”. Accelerated Fast® flips you into ketosis, burning your own body fat stores for energy which naturally turns off your desire for external sugar energy sources.
Furthermore, Accelerated Fast™ begins burning liver fat and visceral fat which is the metabolically unhealthy fat that leads to most diseases including Insulin Resistance.
Accelerated Fast™ will help to improve dopamine, GABA, and serotonin levels, allowing the brain’s addictive thought patterns to subside.
Accelerated Scalar Copper™
Copper helps decrease insulin resistance, uric acid and disease in multiple different ways:
- Copper blocks the Polyol Pathway; this pathway is responsible for converting glucose into sorbitol and fructose. Because of this mechanism, the body maintains a healthy level of uric acid, preventing Insulin Resistance and weight gain.
- Copper helps keep triglycerides and liver fat in a healthy range; fatty liver and triglycerides are what lead to Insulin resistance and most metabolic disease.
- THE BODY CANNOT METABOLIZE FAT WITHOUT COPPER!
- Copper inhibits PDE3 enzyme, which is an enzyme that blocks fat burning. If the body doesn’t block PDE3, then it can’t burn fat.
- Low levels of copper make fat cells “fatter” by changing how they process their main metabolic fuels, such as fat and sugar.
- Copper helps improve fat-burning mechanisms.
Copper helps regulate iron in the blood which is the root cause of oxidative stress. With less oxidative stress, there is less inflammation and uric acid.
Accelerated Scalar Copper™ is the only liquid copper supplement with 100% absorption (vs 5-10% in other supplements), made with proprietary scalar technology and enhanced with frequencies for increased healing and efficacy.
Acceleradine® Iodine
Not only does Acceleradine® Iodine help speed up your metabolism, fat oxidation, and thyroid function, but it has been shown to help lower blood sugar and devitalize foreign pathogens that may increase cravings for processed foods.
Acceleradine® Iodine also increases ATP by 18 times compared to when iodine is deficient and the body is fueled by fructose. Iodine is also known to help alleviate mental health issues and may help reverse addiction to processed foods.
Acceleradine® Iodine helps push out the known toxins found in processed foods out of all 100 trillion cells in the body and helps detox the body of radiation as well. These heavy metals, toxins and radiation are key components of disease, inflammation and accelerated aging.
Additional Supplements to Help Reset Your Health
Accelerated Colloidal Silver™
The excess fructose, seed oils and fake ingredients in processed foods suppress the immune system, creating a perfect environment for fungus, parasites, bacteria and viruses to thrive. Accelerated Colloidal Silver™ helps devitalize foreign pathogens in addition to reducing inflammation throughout the body.
Accelerated Ancient Salt™
Because there are parallel pathways for sugar and salt to the brain, Accelerated Ancient Salt™ may help reduce cravings for hyper-palatable sugary processed foods and help control appetite.
Accelerated Ancient Salt™ has over 62 minerals and holds a negative charge to help “pull out” the positively charged toxins, parasites, and undigested fats.
It is enhanced with scalar field technology to increase its healing properties and provides much needed electrolytes, helps reduce blood sugar, helps reduce appetite, helps reduce nausea, helps improve fat and protein digestion, and increases detoxification. Accelerated Ancient Salt™ also helps lengthen periods of fasting which helps reduce inflammation, reverse insulin resistance, and improve the immune system.
Some gut issues are directly related to psychological stress and the feedback loop between the gut and the brain. This unique probiotic combination targets the gut-brain axis and supports the relief of occasional gastrointestinal discomfort and its associated psychological stress. It addresses digestive discomfort, gas, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. It also helps maintain normal cortisol levels, energy, vitality, mental acuity, and sleep.
Leaky Gut Bundle
The combination of the Megamucosa, Megapre, and Megaspore in the Accelerated Leaky Gut Bundle reconditions a healthy gut microbiome after being destroyed by processed foods. It also supports microbial diversity and short chain fatty acid production.
Thorne Berberine
Berberine helps support pathogenic and bacterial balance caused by processed foods in addition to improving blood sugar, digestion, and weight management. It helps break down proteins and fats as well.
Lifestyle Changes to Help Reverse Health Issues Related to Processed Food Consumption
In order to get out of the vicious cycle of processed food addiction causing sickness and fatigue, leading to overeating more processed food and hoping for renewed energy, a few steps need to be taken.
With the below guidelines, insulin resistance and leptin resistance will reduce (if not reverse), appetite will normalize, and energy will increase:
Prioritize eating wild animal protein
When you start filling your plate with wild animal protein, your appetite will begin to be reset, leptin resistance will reverse, insulin resistance will reverse, cravings for processed sugars will decline, and energy will improve.
Wild animal protein will start triggering the hormone CCK in the gut to tell the brain to stop eating when it registers sufficient amounts of amino acids and omega 3 fatty acids from the protein. This will reset the brain’s connection to food and energy.
Stop eating processed food!
Processed foods are so hyper palatable with an abnormal amount of sugar, fat, and salt combination that doesn’t occur in nature. This combination changes our taste buds so that real whole food almost becomes tasteless. Furthermore, the emulsifiers in the processed food disengage the natural appetite regulation hormone, CCK, in addition to causing Leaky Gut and malabsorption of nutrients. All of these factors create inflammation, disease, and increased addiction to these foods.
Intermittent fasting
Research clearly shows that Incorporating an intermittent fasting regime will support gut healing, insulin sensitivity, leptin sensitivity, anti-inflammatory mechanisms and a stronger immune system. When you combine intermittent fasting with Accelerated Fast®, the benefits are enhanced and it is much easier to do. Accelerated Fast® shuts off sugar cravings and increases energy while you are trying to fast.
Fill up with certain vegetables
In order to stop eating processed foods, you need to “fill up” on healthy veggies and protein to be able to abstain from the addictive nature of processed foods.
Eating vegetables without oxalates and sulfur will help heal your gut faster, resetting a healthy microbiome, improve your mood and energy, and adjust your addictive relationship with food.
Sulfur and oxalate vegetables include the cruciferous vegetables spinach and kale, and most nuts. These “healthy foods” may slow down your healing process and actually back up the detoxification pathways in the liver.
To help you, follow my Accelerated Food Guide to choose the right vegetables for energy and healing.
Limit starchy carbs
In a study, Treating Binge Eating and Food Addiction Symptoms with Low Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diets, results showed success in using a low carb diet in treating those with food addiction.
Limiting carbs will help insulin sensitivity, and leptin sensitivity, which in turn will blunt the cravings for sugar. This helps deactivate the brain’s dopamine trigger from high carb food and reactivate the brain’s association of protein and fat with good nutrition and energy.
Stop using artificial sweeteners!
Fake sweeteners such as erythritol, aspartame, saccharin, dextrose and maltitol, raise your insulin levels, stimulating your appetite for real sugar and processed foods. Moreover, these sweeteners destroy the gut microbiome, which further causes bloating, leaky gut, malabsorption, and inflammation.
Monk Fruit and Stevia are better options in moderation but can also contribute to a backed up liver.
Identify your cravings and triggers
Each one of us has a trigger food that we will binge on and can’t restrain from having in moderation. Take those foods out of the house so they aren’t tempting your willpower.
Get outdoor and enjoy the sunshine
Ultraviolet light exposure to the eyes stimulates MSH, which is a molecule that reduces appetite and can help with cravings for processed foods. Sunlight also helps regulate your sleep circadian rhythm which directly affects your hunger hormone ghrelin and your appetite control
Move around mealtime
By moving, rebounding, walking, or doing any type of physical movement before or after a meal, blood glucose will stay low and help reverse insulin resistance and reduce cravings for sugar.
Get 7 - 8 hours sleep
If the body doesn’t get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep, ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and cortisol, the stress hormone will increase, and actually increase blood sugar without eating and increase appetite.
In conclusion
The evidence is clear: eating too many processed foods is bad for your health! These foods are often packed with unhealthy fats, added sugars, and too much salt, leading to chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers. Sure, processed foods might be convenient and cheap, but if you want to stay healthy in the long run, it’s important to focus on whole, unprocessed foods. By making smarter food choices and cutting back on processed options, you can take control of your health and improve your quality of life.
Sara Banta
Sara Banta is a Stanford University Graduate with a Degree in Economics and Psychology, and a certified Natural Supplement Expert & Graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara is the Founder of Accelerated Health Products and host of the health & wellness podcast, Accelerated Health Radio.
