5 Important Reasons Not to Feed Your Children Processed Food (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)

News flash- the state of nutrition among many American children is bad…very bad. Obesity and metabolic disease are now common in children, largely due to the consumption of an abundance of processed food. And by the way, being obese, having hypertension, or an elevated blood sugar during childhood imparts a good chance of that child having long-term health consequences as you are about to see in today’s pedcast so stay tuned! Image by Sarah Smolen Musical Intro What is ultra-processed food? There is a new buzzword floating around. You might have heard it - “ultra-processed foods”. The term ‘ultra-processed foods’ essentially means, just like as the name implies, foods that have been drastically altered in various ways from their original form in nature, like potatoes being made into potato chips or French fries, whole grains being made into breakfast cereals or donuts, or fruit being made into fruit gummies or fruit drinks. You get the idea. This is not cooking; this is fundamental changing the food through processing turning them into what your grandmother called “junk food” being full of “empty calories”.  Ultra-Processed foods have been industrialized with added sugar, artificial colors and flavors, oils that are unnatural, preservative additives, lots of salt and chemically modified fats, and are often low in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. We call these “foods of convenience” or "industrial foods" since many of their ingredients are artificially manufactured. And recent data shows that about 50% of American diets consist of ultra-processed foods. That is a crazy amount that we know can’t be good for children, especially their hearts!   What is the Evidence that Processed Food is Harmful to Your Children? What is the evidence that processed food is harmful to your children? According to emerging science, there are direct negative health effects of ultra-processed foods on a child’s long-term heart health in particular.  I’m sorry to say that might be your child if they eat a lot of fast