Processed Foods

Foods prepared with physical or chemical treatments are considered as processed foods. They are almost always high in salt, which is their main negative point.  While salt in high quantities is unhealthy, small amounts are actually good for you and crucial for the function of all of our organs. However, the salt has its antibacterial properties, which make it ideal for preservation. Humans have been preserving foods for centuries. Your ancestors used to dry, freeze, can or pickle foods to extend their shelf life. Now with an increase in packaged foods also came an increase in different preservation methods. Chemical preservation is used to delay spoilage, enhance colour and flavour, and maintain consistency and texture of foods. The common preservative in many cured or smoked meats, such as bacon, jerky, deli meats and smoked salmon is sodium nitrate which helps to reduce colour changes.

Sodium nitrate in processed meat can damage the blood vessels around your heart, which can cause them to harden and narrow, which makes it more likely that you will develop heart disease. Eating regularly sodium nitrate with food you also increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in additional to these your chances of developing certain types of cancer increases too.

Processed foods include synthetic additives; E numbers are codes for substances that are permitted to be used as food additives for use with in EU^] and Switzerland. They are commonly found on food labels.  Example cereals are very often fortified with calcium. Whenever cereals are refined the vitamins and minerals are removed and the companies must replace them later by law. This process is called “fortifying”. The nutrients that have been added to foods afterward they are less effective synthetic substances and often harder for the body to absorb but they are still better than nothing and they can provide an important way for us to get certain vitamins and minerals. For instance, someone who has a lactose intolerance might use a water fortified with calcium. Meanwhile fortification is the only way that vegetarians can get vitamin B12 in their diet, which is highly important for brain function and nerve health.

Often the reason that foods are fortified and processed is to improve the taste Often they will taste fresher after a longer amount of time.

Many of the processed foods we get from fast food chains have added saturated fats and trans fats. While these aren't good for us, they do make us feel full for longer due to their slowest digestion.

Generally the processed foods are not as healthy as getting fresh foods and nutrients by controlling your diet closely. 

Some foods are worse for you than others and are increasing your risk of many conditions and diseases. While cancer is one of the worst, regularly eating the cancer causing foods can also lead to heart disease, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and so much more.

Here is the evil food list: canned foods, refined sugar, salted, pickled and smocked foods, grilled red meat, carbonated beverages, white flour, hydrogenated oil, microwave popcorn.

Fun Christmas Facts - The History of Gingerbread Men

By Gwen Nicodemus 

Gingerbread has been around for a long time, but the recipes used to make it have changed considerably over the years. Initially gingerbread was made from breadcrumbs, ginger, and a sweetener, like honey. People discovered that ginger has preservative properties and used it accordingly.

The recipe for gingerbread changed, and by the 15th century (the 1400s), the breadcrumbs had been replaced by flour. Honey was replaced with molasses. The biscuit became lighter. Some recipes made sweet, thin crisps of ginger and others were thicker and more biscuit-like.

Pictoral scenes that told stories were carved in wood and the gingerbread was rolled and pressed into them.

It was first made into figures (like people) n the 16th century (the 1500s). Queen Elizabeth I of England is credited with the first gingerbread men.

Queen Elizabeth was queen of England starting in November of 1558. (She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.) Queen Elizabeth was known for having well dressed courtiers in her court. She has been credited with the first gingerbread men. The story goes that she had gingerbread cookies made and decorated to look like her favorite courtiers, and had the cookies presented to them.

Gingerbread men tend to have vague shapes. For instance, the legs do not have definite feet, and they certainly don't have any toes. The arms don't have definite arms, and they definitely don't have any fingers. Gingerbread women are equally simple in design. Gingerbread expands when it bakes, even recipes without eggs. As a consequence, the cookies work better when they are not overly detailed.

The detail work comes into play when you decorate these cookies.

So, gingerbread men and women needed houses, chairs, tables, beds, wagons, trees, and livestock that is also made out of gingerbread, and bakers created these.

The Brothers Grimm wrote Hansel and Gretel in 1812. The story told of a witch that wanted to eat the children, Hansel and Gretel. She fattened them up with candy and other sweets, and the children munched on a house made of gingerbread. Gingerbread houses became popular at that time, especially in Germany.

Gingerbread houses are popular in the United States and many parts of Europe, but oddly, not England. These houses are most common during the Christmas season, but also work well for every other holiday. Valentine's Day houses are decorated with pink, red, and white candy. Halloween houses have ghosts popping out of them and are often purposely constructed "wrong." The only limits with gingerbread houses are your imagination and the size of your cookie sheets. (I like to design one or two each year from index cards. Remember that gingerbread is thicker than paper, but put together the cards into whatever kind of house you can design.)

My favourite recipe for gingerbread houses is called " the alternate recipe." I replace the shortening with butter and use corn syrup instead of molasses.

Gwen Nicodemus is a freelance engineer/writer and a homeschooling mom. Visit her website, Notion Nexus, for unit studies, worksheets, notes, and educational videos.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gwen_Nicodemus/776087

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