14 Horrifying Facts About Processed Food You Eat Everyday

What exactly is processed food?

There is a very thin line between wholesome food and processed food nowadays with every label screaming of natural flavors and 100% real juice and 100% whole wheat and multigrain.

If you take a puritanical approach to eating only wholesome food, you will probably starve to death because almost everything out there is processed in one way or the other.

But for this article, we are going to look at food products that have chemical ingredients to make their production more efficient.

1. Citrus red 2 is applied on oranges to make them attractive. It causes cancer.

FOOD-12
Image source

Ever wonder why the oranges you buy nowadays look so “orange”? That’s because they apply citrus red 2
on them. It is a proven carcinogenic. But it is still not confirmed whether it penetrates the skin of the orange or not.

Fact Source

 

2. ALL chronic diseases are partially caused by processed food

FOOD-14
Image source

And we mean every one of them is indirectly or directly caused because of processed food. And this problem is a 21st-century problem. Our great grandfathers never had burger-induced heart attacks.

Fact Source

 

3. Castoreum – natural flavouring in place of vanilla that comes from a beaver’s butt

FOOD-5
Image source

It is a chemical that is used to replace real vanilla in vanilla flavourings. The stunner here is that it is categorized as a natural flavoring.

The second stunner here is that it is sourced from a beaver’s anus.

Just going to leave this here.

Fact Source

 

4. Fecal bacteria are present in soft drink dispensers

FOOD-8
Image source

Have you ever seen the soft drink dispensers at your favorite fast food joint. They take a styrofoam glass and fill it up with your favorite fizzy drink?

Yeah, it contains shit bacteria. Like bacteria that is present in your poop – the same kind. And because the drinks are sugary, it becomes the perfect place to multiply and thrive for them.

Fact Source

 

5. They get you hooked on to them, just like heroin and cocaine

FOOD-2
Image source

Processed food is just like smoking, sex and drugs. Having it leaves you with a rush of dopamine. Dopamine gives you the “high” which literally gets you hooked on to it. And the largest of these food manufacturers are investing highly into this research.

Don’t believe it?

Ever get hooked on to eating apples, or carrots or the chapati your mom makes? No?
That’s because that stuff isn’t processed.

Fact Source

 

6. Candies look shiny because of lac/shellac that is also used to varnish furniture

FOOD-6
Image source

Ever heard of the word “lacquer”? Yes, it is the same thing that gives your furniture such a good glossy finish. Turns out, they use the same thing to coat candies to make them shinier.

And that’s not even the gross part. Lac is sourced from the female lac bug. The female lac bug excretes shellac which goes on to coat your lovely candies.

Fact Source

 

7. You cannot burn calories faster after you eat processed food

Image source

The calories you get from processed food are not easy to burn at all. It is because of all the chemical additives and extra refined sugar and salt in it. In comparison, calories from wholesome foods are 50% easier to burn.

Now you know why you cannot lose weight, but hey, pizza is for life, right?

Fact Source

 

8. Gelatin comes from boiling the skin, bones and ligaments of animals

FOOD-1
Image source

It is what makes your jelly sweets have that thick consistency. It is also what makes your shampoos gooey too.
Also, they use gelatin in face masks.

Fact Source

 

9. Cheap meat is stuck together to make a bigger piece of meat

FOOD-3
Image source

People don’t really eat steak as much in India yet, but this has to be told. What we think is a whole piece of steak could actually be just small shreds of meat stuck together with glue. Yes, special meat glue.

Fact Source

 

10. Processed meat causes diabetes, heart disease, and cancer

FOOD-13
Image source

Eating more than just 90g of processed meat in a day increases your chances of getting bowel cancer. Processed meat is also linked to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Fact Source

 

11. L-cysteine used in bakeries is sourced from poultry feathers and human hair

FOOD-11
Image source

It is used as a processing agent while making pieces of bread and donuts. I am just going to leave this here.

Fact Source

 

12. Red dye carmine comes from squished bugs – strawberry frappuccino

FOOD-7
Image source

Or that lovely strawberry/raspberry yoghurt you love. They have that lovely color of red not because of real fruits.
It comes from the chemical Carmine which is extracted from beetles after they are crushed and squished. It is also linked to ADHD in kids and hence is very dangerous

Fact Source

 

13. Chicken nuggets are not nuggets, but liquid meat moulded into shape

FOOD-10
Image source

They grind meat into a meat slurry and then this slurry is moulded into the shape of a nugget. And we do not even want to get into the amount of processing that goes into it. But just for starters, it is washed with ammonia and it bleaches and then they pour artificial dye in it so that it looks decent when you bite into it.

Fact Source

 

14. Love the icing on the cake? It is probably giving you cancer

FOOD-4
Image source

Do you love that thick coffee you have at your favorite coffee place? It has titanium dioxide. The same stuff that is also present in sunscreens. That thing is used to block sun rays from giving you cancer.

Turns out, consuming it is also harmful because it is categorised as a carcinogen

Fact Source

Realistically speaking there aren’t a lot of options you have to eat completely organic food – because it is dreadfully expensive.

But you can eat healthy without eating junk food and avoiding sweets drowned with refined sugar.

In the end, ghar ka khana rocks!

Cover Image Source

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.