A Formula 1 car usually costs between $10 and $20 million. Imagine, for a second, that you owned one. Which kind of fuel would you use? Pure, high-octane gasoline? Or cheap gas filled with additives and other impurities?
That’s easy. You would pick the good gas, because you wouldn’t want your supercar breaking down during the last lap of the Grand Prix Montecarlo.
Low-quality fuel won’t just shorten an F1 car’s lifespan, of course. It would also worsen its performance, and ultimately require more inconvenient and expensive repairs. In fact, those are all the same reasons why you should…
Fuel Your Body Right
We can’t attach a dollar value to you. You are priceless, and deserve only the highest-quality fuel as well. This presents a challenge in 21st century America, where it’s possible – inadvisable, albeit possible – to subsist wholly on a diet of garbage. By “garbage” we mean ultra-processed foods, which:
- are mostly made of substances that are extracted from foods, as opposed to whole ingredients, and;
- contain high quantities of added fat, salt, sugar, preservatives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, artificial colors, and/or artificial flavors.
Don’t mistake all processed foods for ultra-processed foods. Technically speaking, any food becomes “processed” once it has been changed in some way. If you slice a tomato in half, you have processed it. Canned fish, freshly baked bread and pasta are all processed foods, whereas ultra-processed foods include things like:
- Soda
- Chips
- Liquor
- Cookies
- Fast food
- Ice cream
- Sausages
- Frozen dinners
- Instant noodles
- Flavored yogurt
- Mass-produced bread
- Some breakfast cereals (e.g. anything with a cartoon mascot)
Why Are Ultra-Processed Foods Bad for You?
We can’t list every single way ultra-processed food is bad for you. On a good day, it can have zero impact on your health. On a bad day, it can kill you. With that said, here are three of the worst ultra-processed food “ingredients,” along with what they can do to your health.
- Sugar is one of the leading causes of obesity in the U.S., and a large reason why 1 in 10 Americans has diabetes. Note that many ultra-processed foods are made with high fructose corn syrup, which increases appetite, promotes obesity, and raises the risk of diabetes even worse than sugar.
- Salt is part of a healthy diet, in very small quantities. But when consumed in excess, it causes high blood pressure: the primary precursor to stroke and heart disease. Salt is also potentially linked to certain types of cancer.
- Hydrogenated oils also increase the risk of heart disease, and are otherwise unhealthy for many of the same reasons that got trans fat banned in the U.S. (imagine that: a food so bad for you that even the government doesn’t want you to eat it).
A diet rich in ultra-processed food won’t just damage your internal organs. It will also accelerate wear and tear on the joints in your spine, hips, knees and ankles, which can greatly increase your risk of suffering an orthopedic injury. In no uncertain terms, if you want to move freely and painlessly, then unprocessed foods are the right way to go!
Recover From Injury With Acucare Physical Therapy
We don’t just offer our patients dietary advice here at Acucare Physical Therapy. We also offer the exceptional physical therapy services they need to recover from injury, as well as avoid it in the first place. If you would like to discover how our Sioux Falls, SD physical therapy clinic can help you, then we welcome you to contact us today!
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