Foods to avoid or to eat in limited amounts

Industrially processed foods, which have several disadvantages.

• The quality of the raw materials which, for economic reasons, are often derived from intensive agriculture or sometimes replaced by raw materials which are less costly but less beneficial for your health (sunflower oil vs. olive oil in industrial pesto, palm oil vs. butter in some cookie recipes, etc.).
• Modified ingredients: While it may seem practical and healthy to eat tinned ratatouille or dried soup, it is important to be aware of how they are made. In order to obtain a final result that resembles a homemade meal, several additives, flavourings, preservatives and colourings are added to the original recipe. These have the disadvantage of significantly increasing the levels of salt and chemical components absorbed each day by the whole family and in particular by children. Note that an excess salt intake results in an overly acidic diet, which has a number of consequences on your health (high blood pressure, stress, migraines, conditions affecting the kidneys, bones and joints, etc.) and on your appetite, as salt is a natural flavour enhancer, which means it is a substance which stimulates the appetite and pushes you to eat more. As for chemical components such as preservatives, flavourings, and colourings, they are known to provoke allergies, especially in children. Particularly worrisome are those substances that are inoffensive as far as we know, but for which we do not yet know the consequences of their regular and long term consumption by man.

Trans fats
These come from the agro-food industry: A process called hydrogenation makes it possible to transform the molecular structure of vegetable oils in order to improve their preservation but more importantly in order to change their consistency, as this liquid vegetable matter becomes permanently solid. Trans fats are very common in industrially produced foods. They make it possible to “improve” the texture and creaminess of a certain number of products. This trick means that the ingredients of industrially processed foods can be modified at little cost. Although they can also be found in nature, synthetic trans fats pose a real public health problem: just like saturated fats, they increase levels of LDL-cholesterol in the blood while reducing levels of HDL cholesterol, and as they can be found in a lot of processed foods, they result in a significant increase in factors related to the risk of cardiovascular problems. According to the results of a study published in 1997, trans fats could increase this risk by somewhere in the region of 132%, compared to 32% for saturated fats.*

High-glycemic index foods
After eating, the pancreas secretes insulin in order to regulate the blood sugar levels, which vary according to the type of food consumed. For example, eating grilled meat or green vegetables results in low glycemia and therefore a low secretion of insulin. At the other end of the scale, eating sweets (made from refined sugar) and carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion, such as potatoes, increase glycemia and therefore the amount of insulin in the blood. Foods which increase the secretion of insulin are called high glycemic index (GI) foods, as opposed to low glycemic index foods. The excessive consumption of or “snacking” on high GI foods contributes not only to obesity but also in the long term to the development of type 2 diabetes and all its dramatic consequences for the general health of the individual.

Salt
According to the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA), “4 g of salt consumed per day per person is sufficient to meet the needs of an adult. In France, average salt consumption is 10 g/day/person. According to scientific studies, an excess consumption of salt (over 12 g/day) may be damaging. An excess of salt contributes to increased blood pressure and the development of cardiovascular disease, and further weakens the health of persons suffering form high blood pressure, heart failure or diabetes. For this reason, treatment of these conditions is often accompanied by a salt-free diet. Finally, excessive salt consumption also increases the risk of osteoporosis.”