Why Preservatives, Additives and Other Chemicals Cause Weight Gain
You probably have some sense already that eating foods with preservatives, additives and other unwanted chemicals rather than choosing to eat organic may lead to weight gain. What you may not be clear on is exactly why that is. Understanding how processed foods contribute to weight gain can help you learn what foods to stay away from as you lose weight.
Preservatives and Weight Gain
Preservatives are added to make food last longer, and are valuable to supermarkets that want to leave products up on the shelves until sold. Preservatives, however, are not great when put into your body. The most common - and possibly the most dangerous - preservatives are hydrogenated oils, or trans fats. These are oils that have been solidified with hydrogen and then added to food to preserve it. When you eat processed food that has been preserved in this way, you are eating this fat. Trans fats are among the worst kind of fat, as your body cannot easily digest trans fat like it can break down REAL food. Trans fats have been linked not only to obesity, but also to a variety of health issues. Organic foods, on the other hand, do not contain trans fats.
Additives and Weight Gain
The biggest cause of weight gain when it comes to food additives is high fructose corn syrup. This very sweet sugar blend is used to enhance the flavor of many foods and drinks, from soda to ketchup, jellies, syrups, and pretty much any other sweet condiment or sauce that is not organic. The body cannot break down high fructose corn syrup as effectively as simple sugars. For you, this can lead not only to weight gain, but also to other health issues.
More Sources of Weight Gain in Food
When you consume food with toxic chemicals, such as residue from the pesticides found on many fruits that do not come from an organic farm, you are consuming something that does not belong in your body. These chemicals tend to be very fat soluble, meaning that your body responds to your consumption by storing these chemicals as FAT. This means if you have been eating fruit that you did not buy organic, you may still be carrying around the toxins you have consumed in your body as fat.
It is important to understand that your body is not designed to assimilate processed foods; despite the fact that processed foods are what many Americans consume every day. When you eat this type of food, your body becomes filled with chemicals that it cannot process, which are consequently stored as fat. If you're not eating organic, you may be sabotaging your own health and any weight loss plans!
Organic foods are grown and produced without preservatives, additives, and toxins so that the body can break them down and absorb their nutrients, making it easier for your body to run effectively. With a diet rich in organic, chemical-free foods, losing weight is much easier. You'll feel pretty great too.
For more information on the relationship between preservatives and other chemicals and weight gain, check out these resources:
- UT Southwestern Medical Center - Health Watch-Weight Loss: Fructose
- Newswise.com - Trans Fat Leads to Weight Gain Even on the Same Total Calories
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration Database: Everything Added to Food in the United States (EAFUS)
- Chemical toxins: a hypothesis to explain the global obesity epidemic. J. Altern Complement Med. 2002 April; 8(2): 185-92
- The obesogen hypothesis: a shift of focus from the periphery to the hypothalamus. J.Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev 2011;14(5-7):423-48.
- Weight gain associated with chronic exposure to chlorpyrifos in rats. J. Med Toxicol. 2007 Sep; 3(3):89-93.
- Neonatal exposure to parathion alters lipid metabolism in adulthood: Interactions with dietary fat intake and implications for neurodevelopmental deficits. Brain Res Bull.2010 January 15; 81(1):85-91.
- Insecticide-induced changes in protein, RNA, and DNA contents in ovary and fat body of female Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). J. Econ Entomol 2009 Aug; 102(4):1506-14.
- Chronic exposure to the herbicide, atrazine, causes mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance. Plos One April 2009, 4(4) 1-11; e5186.
- Role of neuropeptide Y in diet-, chemical- and genetic-induced obesity of mice. nt J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1998 Jun;22(6):506-12.
- Monosodium glutamate versus diet induced obesity in pregnant rats and their offspring. cta Physiol Hung. 2011 Jun;98(2):177-88.
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