Even if you’re eating a well-balanced diet, you’re likely consuming some packaged foods…and some of those food ingredients are bad for you. This actually can include healthier options, such as cereal, yogurt, and frozen vegetables.
What’s the potential damage? Eating them can make you deficient in key micronutrients. Luckily, it’s not hard to rebalance your body’s nutrients.
Just read the ingredient lists of any foods before you buy them and watch out for the following seven deal-breaker items:
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1. Sugar
AKA: Agave nectar, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, caramel, crystalline fructose, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, syrup
Found in: Sodas, dessert items, candies, frozen fruits and vegetables with sauces or marinades, sauces, soups
Robs Your Body of: Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium
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Vitamin C and glucose use the same transporters to get into cells, so they compete with one another. Our body wants to absorb a limited amount of fructose, and when we consume more than that, the intestine rejects it and feeds gut bacteria, leading to bacterial overgrowth. These extra bacteria tend to steal nutrients and damage intestinal cells, inhibiting absorption of calcium and magnesium.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Weaker immune system and bones, poorer night’s sleep, compromised cellular and nerve function, chronic inflammation
2. High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
AKA: Corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn sugar
Found in: Packaged foods, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereals, soda, frozen veggies, yogurt, juices, condiments
Robs Your Body of: Chromium, magnesium, zinc
The average American consumed 131 calories of high-fructose corn syrup daily in 2011, the most recent year that the USDA has data for. Biologically, this sweetener has the same effects on your health as sugar, including the formation of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). This is a common condition found in most people suffering from IBS, according to a 2010 report published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Unlike sugar, however, HFCS doesn’t trigger the “I’m full” hormone leptin in the brain, making it easier to overeat, which may lead to obesity.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Impaired immune function, hair loss, lowered blood sugar regulation, elevated triglycerides, discomfort, bloating, diarrhea, obesity
RELATED: 7 Nutrients Black Women Are Most Likely Missing
3. Pectin
Found in: Jams, jellies, fruit juices, milk drinks, canned frosting, yogurt
Robs Your Body of: Beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein
Pectin may look and behave like good-for-you fiber, but it’s not always working in your favor. While this glue-like food moves through you, things get stuck to it, including essential nutrients, which inevitably leave the body with it. You’re simply not going to reap the full benefits of lycopene―or any of these antioxidants―if you’re also consuming foods that contain added pectin. So keep eating your apples and other foods that contain natural pectin, but skip it when it shows up on the label.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Eyesight conditions, decreased immune response, frequent viral infections
4. Disodium EDTA
AKA: Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid
Found in: Processed foods
Robs Your Body of: Vitamin C, magnesium, iron, calcium, zinc, potassium
Disodium EDTA excels at preserving the color and flavor of foods. It grabs any free metals that would normally promote oxidation, therefore increasing shelf life. That’s also why it is prescribed for people suffering from heavy metal poisoning. It binds to minerals in the digestive tract and helps remove them, allowing them to be eliminated through feces. However, just as in relationships, clinginess is a bad thing for healthy people because when you eat foods with the preservative, it pulls out both bad and crucial minerals and disturbs gut bacteria.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Digestive issues, weaker immune system, compromised cellular and nerve function, anemia, cramps, and kidney damage
5. Phosphoric Acid
Found in: Sodas, some flavored waters
Robs Your Body of: Calcium, magnesium
This chemical additive that’s used to keep carbonated drinks from going flat packs a one-two punch for your bones. In addition to blocking the absorption of calcium and magnesium, it may also be dipping into your personal calcium supply in your bones. Calcium and phosphorus like to be bonded, so when you take in phosphorus without calcium, it’ll take whatever calcium is currently in your body. Because calcium comes hand-in-hand with magnesium, when you lose one, you lose the other. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women who drank an average of five colas a week had lower bone mass density than non-cola drinkers, possibly due to lower phosphorus-to-calcium ratios.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Poorer bone and teeth health, osteoporosis, cramping and spasms, increased food cravings
RELATED: 11 Nutrients You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Of
6. Guar Gum
Found in: Beverages, soups, cottage cheese, and some frozen desserts
Robs Your Body of: Beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein
This fiber from guar beans, which functions as a thickener, feeds gut bacteria. And, just as with sugar, this causes an overproduction of bacteria, which compete for key nutrients. In fact, eating guar gum may reduce the absorption of carotenoids by 22 percent, according to research out of the Technical University of Munich.
Increased Health Risks Due to Nutrient Depletion: Eye diseases, such as macular degeneration
