“Healthy Balanced Diets May Be Hard To Find”
We are repeatedly told to eat a healthy balanced diet but who determines what is included in that diet? Opinions vary considerably, and it is difficult to find conclusive scientific verification of the ideal healthy balanced diet. A new study shows that a diet that includes a lot of highly processed foods loaded with sugar, fat, and salt may do more than raise the risk for overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. French investigators have found that highly processed foods such as packaged baked goods, instant soups, reconstituted meats, frozen meals, and shelf-stable snacks also contain substances that may significantly increase overall risk for cancer and breast cancer. But, a British expert said, “People shouldn’t worry about eating a bit of processed food here and there based on this study.” We are admonished to avoid “processed foods” that include mass-produced packaged breads and buns, sweet or savory packaged snacks, packaged confectionery and desserts, sodas, and sweetened drinks, meatballs, poultry and fish nuggets, and other reconstituted meat products using non-salt preservatives such as nitrites.
