The city can often be a rough place. It’s quick, busy, and often crowded leaving little time for one’s self. Even the hours you may spend stagnant on a distant freeway is cluttered by hundreds of people boxed no more they centimeters away. Peace of mind aside, the hustle of cities can play a significant role in your health. There far more stress factors, pollution, and opportunities to choose convenience and immediate gratification over what is best for us in the long run. The larger the city, the larger these issues correlate with deteriorating health. Los Angeles, in particular, carries a high obesity rate. This is attributed to poor diet, sedentary lifestyles, and high stress factors.
As we all know diet is without a doubt, key in how our bodies look and perform. Those who tend to eat proper diets in moderate portions tend to be healthier and live longer. The same is true for those who do not. It’s easy enough to pick out all the bad foods, cakes, chips, donuts, burgers, but often difficult to spot what is truly healthy. There are probably an almost equal number of commonly known “bad” foods as there are foods that are advertised as healthy when that isn’t necessarily the case. Foods containing various hydrogenated oils, sugars, colorings, enriched flour, and other similar ingredients all play a role in breaking down the body, and building up bad weight. This is what is commonly known as “processed” foods. They are foods that have been chemically tampered with whether it is for greater flavoring purposes or the extension of shelf life. Even foods that are presented as natural often aren’t.
Processed meats are definitely high on the list to avoid. According to National Review.com, “Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives. Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh.” A 2005 University of Hawaii study found that processed meats increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67 percent. Another study revealed that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 50 percent. They are often come with a high sodium content which is directly connected to hypertension and high blood pressure. Processed meats are often packed with such high sodium content for greater preservation, and have been treated with various chemicals that often correlate with cancer agents. A healthier alternative to processed meats is high pressure processing, or HPP. HPP meat and seafood stands alone when it comes to high quality meat. The process of Pressurized meats utilizes a safe, more natural and healthy strategy and technology to bring you fresh products.
All of these factors play a role in not only internally, but externally in our health. Poor inorganic processed foods ultimately shape how our bodies look and behave. With this lifestyle we are more inclined to feel fatigued and encountered a wide variety of short and long term health complications.