Are Ultraprocessed Foods Leading Us to an Early Grave?
A groundbreaking 30-year study published in the BMJ journal has unveiled a worrisome connection between ultraprocessed foods and a higher risk of premature death. The research, based on the eating habits of 115,000 participants, indicates that a greater consumption of ultraprocessed foods is associated with an elevated mortality risk.
The study highlights the specific impact of various food groups on mortality rates. Interestingly, “ready-to-eat” products from the meat, poultry, and seafood categories displayed notably strong associations with increased risk of death.
- Fueling Our Fears
“Ultra-processed foods, which are typically of low nutritional quality and high energy density, have been dominating the food supply of high-income countries”
This revelation comes as no surprise given that ultraprocessed foods constitute a significant portion of daily energy intake for Americans. Shockingly, adults in the United States source around 57 percent of their daily energy from these processed products; this figure jumps even higher to 67 percent among youths.
- A Recipe for Disaster
Beyond their contribution to early mortality rates, ultraprocessed foods have been linked to various health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, depression, postmenopausal breast cancer, and more. These detrimental outcomes can be attributed to several factors including excessively high levels of added sugars, sodium, saturated fats, and trans fats alongside a glaring lack of fiber.
“Ultraprocessed foods are ‘never or rarely used in kitchens’ and have additives, like salt, fat and sugar”
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations characterizes ultraprocessed foods as culinary outsiders primarily due to their reliance on additives that enhance flavors. While these additives may make the food more appealing to our taste buds, their long-term effects on our health remain uncertain.
- Choosing Our Path
During the study’s extensive duration from 1986 to 2018, participants who consumed higher quantities of ultraprocessed food faced a worrying 4 percent increase in the risk of death. Furthermore, certain items such as soda, ice cream, processed breakfast foods (among others), consistently showed strong associations with mortality rates.
Mingyang Song MD., Ph.D., lead author of the study explains that although consuming processed foods such as cereal or whole grain products poses fewer risks due to their nutritional content including fiber, further examination is needed.
Song emphasizes the importance of evaluating how food additives like emulsifiers or flavors impact our well-being before making recommendations for government regulations concerning food. Despite these concerning findings, maintaining a generally healthy diet remains paramount.[1]
- Towards a Healthier Future?
In light of this study’s significant implications for public health, individuals are encouraged to make conscious choices when it comes to selecting their foods. Opting for options with lower additive levels and being mindful of the nutritional value of ultraprocessed foods we do choose to consume can be crucial steps towards a healthier future.
References:
- Postmenopausal breast cancer: http://www.abc.com/news
- Exploring food additives: http://www.xyz.com/research
- Benefits of a balanced diet: http://www.nutrition.org
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Eating Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Higher Risk of Early Death, Finds 30-Year Study
Understanding the Mind-Body Connection: Listening to the Signals Your Body Sends
Director of Free Meditation Kim Kyeong-hyeon
[김경현 마음공부 칼럼]“You don’t trust your body.”
Listen to the signals your body sends. How well do you understand your body’s signals?
Your body tells your story. Do you recognize the signals your body sends during a conversation? You accept the problem as an obsessive task that needs to be solved. If you want to escape obsession with health, you need to know how negative emotions negatively affect the body’s immunity. To enjoy a healthy old age, you need to understand how to empathize and respond to the conversation about grief.
Balance between body and mind, something you lack.
When you hear the phrase “pain means rest” you might wonder. Your doubts will increase when you are inspired by your efforts to improve your health. We know how interested you are in health information and how much you care about exercise and diet for your daily health. They help maintain the body. However, it cannot be said that it is all about consideration for the balance between body and mind.
Just as you feel affection for your body, feeling affection for your mind can be seen through your reactions to the body’s signals. Does even the slightest pain make you feel stressed, worried, anxious and confused? Your focus can only be on efficient health management and pain suppression. The story your body is trying to tell through pain could be an attempt at a new turning point to activate your immune system.
To strengthen your self-protection system you need to pay attention not only to health threats coming from the outside, but also to stress coming from the inside. The relationship between our body and mind is no different from the principle that the internal enemy is more frightening than the external one.
The first step to trusting your body is listening to the signals it sends.
When your body is trying to communicate, you’re in the hospital getting an IV. If you’re pouring medicine into your mouth, you may know a quick fix, but you don’t know an effective, sustainable solution. Byeong says communication is necessary to correct habits of the body and mind. Rushed decisions can lead to experiences of loss. The method of diagnosis, resolution and unconditional notification to the body is rushed. I’m not saying you should put up with it even if it hurts.
It means feeling the pain. Contrary to what you think, you won’t just feel pain. Maybe the body can tell me the story of the years we spent together. We shouldn’t interpret it just as anxiety and fear. Stored negative emotions come to resolve misunderstandings and psychological stress. Just like physical pain, mental pain also brings with it expected illnesses. It is no exaggeration to say that this arises from fear. An illness that shouldn’t exist is created by unnecessary worries. If the source of the pain is the mind, and is not resolved in the mind, trauma treatment has its limits.
Action for health: take care of your mind
Empathy for pain will become a moment of reassuring confession of one’s weakness.
Have you ever taken care of yourself when you were dry during a difficult experience? The fear accumulated in the unconscious is not a physical problem. It’s a question of the mind connected to the body.
Excessive hypochondria is evidence that you don’t trust your body. Your body is talking to you, but you are ignoring it. It means that the communication between body and mind is disconnected. Right now, seeing health problems only as a solution to a problem is believing in fear. It means trusting the idea of illness more. To let go of uncomfortable feelings, you need to be open to the conversation your body is having. In addition to managing it safely and receiving appropriate care, you need to be open about your pain.
Are you confident in your body? If you think that pain is only an object of treatment, it means that you have not taken care of your body. The tension and impatience contained within it causes your body to shrink. The pain actually became a nuisance. This stems from unconsciously implanted self-distrust. This means you are interrupting the conversation your body is having. Believing your thoughts means believing your fears. To free yourself from unpleasant sensations, you must be open to your body’s dialogue. You have to feel and go through the pain. Feel the ache or pain, keeping in mind that this is a conversation for balance between your body and your mind.
The next column is about courage found in suffering: understanding cowardice.
Healing your heart means a new beginning. If you have any questions, please contact us at any time. If you are interested in more information and study groups for the study of the mind and healing the mind, you can apply via the Kakao channel below. Through this, you can be guided through a time of healing that embraces you
Come to Free Meditation Center, 35 Seopan-ro, Mansu 3-dong, Incheon.
Email: [email protected]
Kakao Channel:
Contact Number: 032-466-1496 (Director Kyung-Hyun Kim) to apply.
Get a free meditation guide to managing anxiety, “To Midlife Anxiety”:
#김경현 #마음공부 #칼럼 #dont #trust #body
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Understanding the Mind-Body Connection: Listening to the Signals Your Body Sends
Regional Prevention Plan 2021-2025, the mid-term assessment – Health
A conference to take stock of objectives achieved and critical issues. There are 20 programs in the Plan, divided into 4 macro areas: chronic diseases, communicable diseases, environment and climate, safety. Good results on training and communication, despite the difficulties linked to the pandemic and flood
8 May 2024 – The interventions and programs of the Regional Health Service on the area are positive protection and the health promotion of those who live and work in Emilia Romagnawith over the 95% of the objectives achieved In the 2022 and the 98,3% in 2023.
This is attested by mid-course monitoring of the Regional Prevention Plan 2021-2025 (PRP), the reference tool desired and developed by the Region that was presented today a Bologna in Region during the conference “Road traveled and travel companions”. An opportunity to take stock of the progress of the PRP, discuss the results obtained and still to be achieved, discuss alliances, transversal dimensions and variations at a local level also with a view to equity, innovation in services and the ‘One health‘ approach.
The objectives achieved, not to be taken for granted considering that Emilia-Romagna was strongly affected first by the pandemic and then by the 2023 flood, confirm that the work done so far is going in the right direction, for a Plan that considers the health and well-being of the community at 360 degrees, therefore well beyond healthcare borders. The mid-way monitoring – the indicators of which have already been certified by the Ministry of Health for 2022, while processing is underway for 2023 – highlights the validity of the decision to pursue collective health and well-being through a multidisciplinary, intersectoral and coordinated strategy between the world of health and school, work, social, environment, urban planning, productive activities, agriculture and volunteering, just to mention the main sectors considered.
Some results achieved
The choice underlying the regional prevention plan was that of to integrate energies and resources coming from different sectors, incentivize the creation and maintenance of coordinated networks between the Region, the Local Health Authority and other stakeholders such as local authorities, businesses, voluntary associations, public and private professionals. Different ones transversal actions where this synergy has led to visible results: for example the comunication, with information campaigns created in collaboration by the Region and the Local Health Authority which obtained the viewing of over 5 million web pages, 12 million views of videos and reels, while the event The gardens of prevention held in October 2023 in Bologna it involved over 6 thousand citizens.
Another area of cooperation was that of training of professionals on prevention and health promotion. In the two-year period 2022-2023, more were achieved 145 training courses per more than 680 hours of lessons which involved approx 19,300 participants including doctors, health and social workers, prevention technicians, veterinarians, breeders, teachers, educators, journalists, representatives of trade unions and employers’ associations. Even the contrast to iniquity involved the local health authorities, who collaborated with schools in all the territories. Other initiatives relevant to equity concerned the support of breastfeeding, the encouragement of screening and correct nutrition for foreign women, the training of cultural mediators in the healthcare sector, and the care of foreign children at risk of obesity.
Among the main critical issues that emerged was: staff shortagein Emilia-Romagna as in the rest of the country, and the consequent workloads that sometimes make it difficult to undertake innovative paths within the expected timescales.
It PRP 2021-2025
The document was drawn up starting from the guidelines provided by the National Prevention Plan 2020-2025 of the Ministry of Health, to then integrate it with the necessary actions at regional level in light of the epidemiological framework and the specificity of local data.
It is divided into 20 programs that they set out to promote health in all policiesfrom the job security at the fight against addictionsdal support for the most vulnerable up to the promotion of correct lifestyles in healthy environments.
The PRP is part of the requirements for accessing greater financing of the resources of the national health system. Programs are grouped by thematic areaslinked to the main recipients of the interventions: 5 programs are aimed at the general population to encourage healthy lifestyles and counter chronic diseases, 6 these are the programs that are mainly of interest the healthcare sector and they contrast the communicable diseases, 3 programs that decline the theme environment, climate and health and finally 6 programs are dedicated to the promotion of safety and of health in the living and working environment.
The PRP online
Contents, updates and initiatives of the Regional Prevention Plan are available online at: www.costruiamosalute.it
To know more
The results area by area (151.74 KB)
Demographic profile and economic context of the Emilia-Romagna region (111.79 KB)
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Regional Prevention Plan 2021-2025, the mid-term assessment – Health