The Dangers of Eating Habbits

Today’s world offers a plethora of variety when it comes to feeding your body. To many people, this is a good thing because you have options, meaning you don’t get sick of eating the same thing day after day. Many people, however, don’t realize the harm that the ingredients of many foods can have on the human body. Specifically, sugar, salt, saturated fats, and starches can cause the body a great deal of harm in the long run, but not many people stop to think about the potential risks of what they eat.

Sugar: It makes everything taste better, right? While this may be true to most people, it doesn’t mean that is a healthy additive to food. Sugars of all kinds play a key role in deteriorating health in people with poor diets. According to an article by Jennifer K. Nelson, an R.D. and L.D. at the Mayo Clinic, “Studies have linked consumption of large amounts of any type of added sugar – not just high-fructose corn syrup – to such health problems as weight gain, dental cavities, poor nutrition, and increased triglyceride levels” (1). These risks, whether they seem severe are not, can lead to much bigger problems. For example, weight gain over a long period of time, can lead to obesity, especially in children, and increased triglyceride levels develop a greater risk of heart attack. Do all sugars carry the same levels of consequence? According to a 2010 article by Hilary Parker of Princeton, the answer is no: “A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain” (2). This study indicated, with the use of rats as test subjects, that high-fructose corn syrup led to significantly more weight gain than did regular table sugar, “even when their overall caloric intake was the same” (2). This study also showed long-term risks such as abnormal body fat increase (especially the abdomen) and an increase in triglycerides in the bloodstream (which are signs of metabolic syndrome in humans). As you can...