Packaged Food Youre hungry and you dont have time to make food. What do you do?

Grab a fruit juice, coke,biscuits, chips packet ,or cup noodles. Yes ! Thats exactly what lot of us today. In this fast moving life ,where do we have time to cut vegetables and make food for ourselves? So, we go for canned food! Portable, compact and ready to use. Food packaging is a very common practice in the modern marketplace. Packaged foods are really beneficial for working couples and students who dont find enough time to cook themselves. Aside from the simple advantages of convenience and storage, food packaging has revolutionized the market. For millennia, humans stored their food in containers they found in naturedried gourds, shells, hollow logs, leavesas well as baskets and pottery. By first century BC, the Chinese were wrapping foods with treated tree bark and other forerunners of paper. Centuries later, Napoleon Bonaparte used some of the first mass-produced canned food to feed his troops in the Franco-Austrian War of 1809. Plastics were discovered in the decades following that innovation but were not used beyond military purposes until well into the twentieth century.1,2 The art and science of food packaging have evolved a long way from those origins. Today, products often are wrapped in multiple layers of packaging to get them safely from the point of manufacture to consumers cupboards and refrigerators.

Packaging plays an important role in maintaining food quality and preventing bacterial contamination. It is not only important for better hygiene and convenience but also helps in extending shelf life of foods, and most importantly it helps to reduce food wastage to a great extent.

However, this whole concept of packaged food has lot of harmful impacts right the from the very first step of using a packaging material tillthe point wherein the food is packaged and delivered to us. Here are common packaging materials that have been associated with health hazards. 1. Glass: Glass is recognized as a safe packaging material by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but a few types of glass bottles used for storing liquids may contain lead. Lead is a potent known neurotoxin and is known to interfere with several functions of the body. Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of lead can cause vomiting, poisoning, and liver and kidney damage. The metal caps used on the top of glass bottles and jars are also known to release a chemical contaminant called phthalate which is linked to several disturbances in the hormonal (endocrine) system. 2. Aluminium cans: Aluminum cansare light weight, compact and come at a lower price Most often foods are put into aluminum cans, then seals, and then cooked, supposedly retain the freshness. Well, it will certainly retain the aluminum free radicals hanging around after heating and contaminating the contents. Over a period of time Aluminum accumulation in body can cause memory problem like Alzheimers. Those thin aluminum and tin cans used to store refreshing beverages contain ortho-phenylphenol, a pesticide that is used kill bacteria and fungus; it is known to be carcinogenic. More than 5,000 million pounds of aluminum is used every year for making food cans. 3. Plastic packaging: Plastic usage for packaging foods was the greatest controversy that food industry had to face. A petition was filed requesting the FDA to ban the use of plastic in packaging foods because of the presence of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is a toxic chemical that causes hormone imbalances and wide variety of health issues ranging from hypertension, aggression, obesity tocancer and heart disease. 4. Plastics for juice and milk cartons: These packaging materials are called polyolefins .They contain benzophenone, a compound that

mimics a female reproductive hormone estrogen and interferes with reproductive health of women. 5. Recycled Paper boxes: Environmental health concerns associ-ated with the use of paper food packaging have focused on the use of recycled paper products. Printing inks from earlier incarnations of the paper can be trapped in this material, potentially exposing consumers to phthalates as well as to other suspected endocrine disruptors, including benzophenones and mineral oils. Packaged food contains preservatives and additives designed to increase the longevity of the food items, maintain their taste and protect them from harmful germs while sealed inside the container. Although the additives do succeed in achieving these objectives they have a side effect of decreasing the nutritional value of food products. Following are the Food additives found in packaged foods which should be avoided: 1. ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS: Aspartame (INS 951 number coded) found commonly in sweeteners such as Sugarfree and Equal is usually added in diet or sugar free products. Found in: Diet carbonated drinks (Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi, Sugar free gums, Sugar free desserts and sugar free biscuits! 2.HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP Compared to traditional sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup costs less to make, is sweeter to the taste, and mixes more easily with other ingredients. Today, we consume nearly 63 pounds of it per person per year in drinks and sweets, as well as in other products.. It gives bread an inviting, brown color and soft texture, so its also in whole-wheat bread, hamburger buns, and English muffins. Research is beginning to suggest that this liquid sweetener may upset the human metabolism, raising the risk for heart disease and diabetes. Researchers say that high-fructose corn syrups chemical structure encourages overeating. It also seems to force the liver to pump more

heart-threatening triglycerides into the bloodstream. In addition, fructose may zap your bodys reserves of chromium, a mineral important for healthy levels of cholesterol, insulin, and blood sugar. Found in: Bread, Canned Vegetables, Candies and flavoured Yoghurt. 3. MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG/ INS621): MSG is found in soups, salad dressings, chips and some frozen foods. Regular consumption of MSG may cause eye damage, fatigue, headaches and obesity among other conditions. Found in: Chinese food, chips, cookies, some packaged frozen food. 4. BUTALATED HYDROXYANISOLE (BHA) and BUTALATED HYDROZYTTOLUENE (BHT) INS320: This common additive used to prevent oxidation in a wide variety of foods and cosmetics is listed by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in 2005 as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen on the basis of experimental findings in animals. It is also used in jet fuels, rubber petroleum products, transformer oil and embalming fluid Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) warns that BHT should not be allowed to enter the environment, can cause liver damage, and is harmful to aquatic organisms. Found in: Potato Chips, Cereals, Chewing Gum, Candies. Truth About Packaged Foods 7. TRANS FAT: Trans Fat is among the most dangerous preservative. It is used to prolong shelf life of products and commonly found in deep fried fast foods, food made with margarine or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans Fat increases the risk of heart diseases. This type of fat is an artificial fat and is harder than normal fat. This fat can gradually clog the arteries leading to the risk of heart attack and strokes. Check the ingredient list for any of these words: partially hydrogenated, fractionated, or hydrogenated (fully hydrogenated fats are not a heart threat, but some trans fats are mislabeled as hydrogenated). The higher up the phrase partially hydrogenated oil is on the list of ingredients, the more trans fat the product contains.

I know this fact that trans fat enhance the taste of any food and thus, bakeries often use these while preparing cookies and cakes. Found in: Cakes, cookies, biscuits, popcorns. Common Food Dyes: Artificial food colouring found in soft drinks, popcorn, fruit juices and frozen peas are known to contribute to behavioural problems in children such as hyperactivity or ADHD, trigger allergic reactions, cause asthma and may even lead to a significant reduction in IQ. Salt
Three-quarters of the sodium in our diets isnt from the saltshaker. Its hidden in processed foods, such as canned vegetables and soups, condiments like soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, fast-food burgers (and fries, of course), and cured or preserved meats like bacon, ham, and deli turkey.

1,500 milligrams of sodium should be consumed per day, about the amount in three-fourths of a teaspoon of salt. (Table salt, by the way, is 40 percent sodium, 60 percent chloride.) Older people should eat even less, to counteract the natural rise in blood pressure that comes with age. People over 50 should strive for 1,300 mg; those over 70 should aim for 1,200 mg. When you eat more salt than your body needs, your body retains fluid simply to dilute the extra sodium in your bloodstream. This raises blood volume, forcing your heart to work harder; at the same time, it makes veins and arteries constrict. The combination raises blood pressure. Found in :Canned vegetables, Milk, Soy sauce, Fast food burgers.

Simply try to eat foods in the most unadulterated original format as often as possible. And heres a shortcut, any food packaging that has a long list of ingredients with names that sound like theyre from a distant planet is not the kind of food you want to eat. For strong and healthy bones, eat foods with a short and easy to recognize list of ingredients. Completely eliminate canned foods and if you are looking for your favorite tomato sauce use the ones in glass jars. Dont consume vegetables or grains in cans, simply buy fresh ones. Your Health is in your hands!