Top 3 Ingredients You Should Avoid In Packaged Food

In today’s fast world, nobody has time to be eating freshly cooked food all three times of the day. Most of us are living away from our parents alone, and do not have time to cook our own food, so we tend we go for packaged food to meet our daily caloric needs also to save on time. While I personally do not encourage the use of packaged food as they have been a cause of numerous chronic diseases as well as health conditions that have serious consequences. But I understand that it is not possible for some individuals to cook each meal, so here is a list of 3 main ingredients that you should avoid in your packaged food. Do not forget to check the nutrition table for ingredients the next time you buy your packaged food.

1. Hydrogenated Oils/ Vegetable Oil — While our body always needs good and high-quality fat to keep our heart healthy, there are various types of fats that can be very harmful to use. To give you a rough idea, there are 3 main types of fat — Saturated, Unsaturated, and Trans fat. While unsaturated fat is the best quality of fat needed for optimal health and is present in Mustard Oil, Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Canola Oil (cold-pressed), etc, Saturated fat is also needed in little proportion and is present in butter, egg yolks, etc. The main problem is transfat, which is present in a lot of packaged food. It is one of the most harmful substances to put inside your body and you should avoid it.
2. Sugar — Who was not expecting sugar to be on the list? Whether you have diabetes or not, I strongly recommend you to avoid any form of processed sugar because it can have very bad effects on your body. Natural sugar sources like sugarcane, jaggery, mishri are equal in calories but have far fewer side effects and far more nutrients and minerals. Processed sugar is used in many packaged foods, and if you find sugar on the list of ingredients, do not buy it.
3. Preservatives — Every packaged food needs preservatives right? But it is the quantity and number of different preservatives that are being added to the product that matters. Did you know that the ingredient list is written in descending order, that means the first thing has been put into the packet in the highest content. So if you see multiple preservatives by the name of INS followed by a number (eg — INS 53. INS 679, etc) pretty high on the list, stay away from the product as preservatives can cause cancer and other organ-related diseases.

While I cannot guarantee that every packaged food without these ingredients is healthy, I can assure you that you can opt for the top 1% healthiest packaged food items if you follow these criteria. I hope this article has helped you and you have learned something useful for your health.