Today, most of the foods that star in our dishes are processed . This means, mainly, that they go through some chemical modification (usually so that their conservation and properties are more durable) and therefore, they are no longer 100% natural.
Taking into account the current pace of life, it is not surprising that more and more foods present some of these manipulations. The food industry has also had to adapt to that daily frenzy of people, often losing the true benefits of the product itself.
In this evolution, for example, new labels have been added to classify foods, such as “light” or “low in fat”, given the growing concern about eating a healthy diet. However, do we really know what we are consuming?
In Spain, light products were introduced in the 1980s and present at least a 30% reduction in energy value compared to their reference food (non-light). These are popularly considered as healthier, but the reality is that they have a large number of additives that end up calling into question this “healthy” label.
The World Health Organization ( WHO ) has established a more precise classification of types of food according to their degree of manipulation and their implication for health . There are thus three large groups: natural and minimally processed foods, culinary ingredients and finally, processed and ultra-processed products.
In this last section, the WHO warns that edible foods ready for immediate consumption are the most harmful . These are nutritionally unbalanced , due to their high doses of saturated fats, salts or sugars. They can also easily modify our consumption habits, and even cause an addiction to these foods .
Some of the most common products on our table hide a preparation that is somewhat … striking. Many create a false impression of being healthy and mask a reality very different from the one they lead us to believe. Do you know what the pate is made of? Or gelatin? We review it in this gallery.
