All processed / packaged food is unhealthy and usually harmful no matter how it is marketed to us. This especially applies to food that people consider healthy such as digestive biscuits, cookies with added protein, instant oats, zero sugar jams, Atta noodles, sugar free sweeteners, zero calorie soft drinks etc. Processed foods have a large number of chemicals which you would never find in natural food. Natural food refers to whole grains, fruits, root vegetables, leafy vegetables, lentils (dal), Chana, unprocessed non veg food, milk etc that has been eaten by our ancestors since thousands of years. Chemicals in processed foods serve the purpose of sometimes replacing sugar / acting as a sweetener (marketed as healthier than sugar which is false), preserving the shelf life of food, getting a food item to a certain consistency and stability (due to it being an unnatural food in the first place we have to put chemicals to stabilize it), enhancing flavors and colors etc. Many of these chemicals are known to be harmful especially in the long run. The next time you look at your ex-favorite (you’re going to give up eating such food after reading this post!) boxed / packaged treats look out for these additives in the ingredient list. Artificial Sweeteners / Fat substitutes Artificial sweeteners include acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharin, sugar alcohols, high fructose corn syrup, sucralose etc. These are now found in almost all processed foods especially those labelled labelled zero sugar or low calorie which are marketed as healthy. However, artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, saccharin and sucralose are linked to glucose intolerance which is the precursor to diabetes. Further, consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks by pregnant women is linked to premature delivery and incidence of asthma in the child. #healthyfood #avoidprocessedfoods #avoidpackagedfood #healthyfood #avoidprocessedfoods #avoidpackagedfood