Originally published December 14 2005
Student paper examines the nutrition of prepackaged foods
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Indiana Daily Student looks at prepackaged foods and the consequences of their high sodium content, which acts as a food preservative but often impacts human health by contributing to high blood pressure.
Sophomore Charles Lee's dinner on a recent weeknight consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and apple cobbler for dessert.
Preparation only took minutes -- in fact, all he needed to do was set the timer for his microwave oven.
Many find prepackaged foods -- including frozen pizzas, toaster pastries, microwave dinners, canned products, macaroni and cheese and various snacks -- an inescapable presence in their diets.
"When foods are prepackaged, they are usually prepared with more salt, sugar and calories than they would have if you made them yourself," said Victoria Getty, director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at IU.
"For example, a package of frozen french fries is certainly higher in fat and salt than if you had made it from whole potatoes."
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, excess salt contributes to high blood pressure and possibly osteoporosis.
Natural foods contain varying levels of saturated and unsaturated fats, said Mary Jo McClintic, a registered dietitian and health educator at Bloomington Hospital.
Both are linked to atherosclerosis, a condition characterized by plaque buildup in arteries, but trans fat is considered especially detrimental.
Most of the trans fat found in prepackaged foods is the result of a widely used industrial process known as partial hydrogenation.
In its natural form, vegetable oil is in the liquid phase at room temperature.
According to Channing Laboratory at the Harvard School of Public Health, replacing hydrogenated fat with unhydrogenated vegetable oils in consumer products would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year.
Due to recent increase in trans fat awareness, food manufacturers in the United States are required by the Food and Drug Administration to list trans fat content on nutrition labels by Jan. 1, according to the FDA Web site.
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