Refined foods are harmful and useless. cereals

Refined products are products that, during their production, have undergone long-term industrial processing (purification of additional nutrients to give them certain properties) by complex chemical, thermal and other transformations.

Refining is a type of product processing and purification, as a result of which food products lose many useful substances (vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other important micronutrients) and become of little value in the nutrition of a pregnant woman.

Consider the main refined products presented on the shelves of our stores, their properties and alternative replacements for them with healthier products.

Refined foods that are better replaced with something else

1. White wheat flour of the highest grade

Upon receipt of wheat flour of the highest grade, grain shells are cleaned to the maximum, with which fiber, B vitamins and minerals are removed. This is also the reason for its snow-white color. Premium flour is made only from the central part of the grain, which is rich in gluten and starch. This is a low-fat, high-carbohydrate dummy that saturates us with empty calories and is rich in gluten. Therefore, such flour is harmful to those pregnant women who suffer from intolerance to gluten, the protein component of gluten. This substance is especially harmful to patients suffering from a hereditary celiac disease. Manifestations of celiac disease - chronic diarrhea, underweight, diabetes, anemia, depression. Previously, it was believed that no more than 1% of the world's population was affected by this disease. However, scientists now suggest that more people have mild gluten intolerance. There are no cures for celiac disease, and the only salvation is the exclusion from the diet of foods containing gluten, primarily wheat flour of the highest grade.

In addition, baked goods and dishes containing such flour, with their active use, can provoke weight gain, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, the development of pre-diabetic conditions and directly diabetes mellitus (due to the high glycemic index of this product).

What to replace?

Oat flour. The simplest and most affordable substitute for premium wheat flour. You don’t even have to buy oatmeal: just take oatmeal or flakes (only not those that need to be boiled for 5 minutes, but those that need to be boiled) and grind them in a blender or coffee grinder. So you get healthy flour, rich in fiber, slow carbohydrates, vitamins and trace elements. It can be used for baking, for making pancakes, fritters, cheesecakes, added to meatballs and other dishes.

Corn flour. Such flour is able to lower the level of cholesterol in the blood, it contains a lot of protein, valuable vitamins (A, E, group B), iron and phosphorus.

Buckwheat flour. Feel free to change wheat flour to buckwheat. It retains almost all B vitamins, zinc, iron and calcium (important for the formation of the nervous, hematopoietic and bone systems of the fetus and maintaining the health of the pregnant woman); iodine - for the optimal functioning of the thyroid gland and increase the body's defenses; as well as folic acid, which is actively involved in the processes of hematopoiesis, which is very important for a pregnant woman and an unborn child.

Chickpea flour. This is a high-protein product that is made from chickpeas (chickpeas). This flour from legumes contains many vitamins A, C, E, PP and K, group B, it also contains potassium, calcium, copper, silicon, molybdenum and boron, which are involved in the metabolic processes of body cells.

2. Refined sugar

White sugar is made from sugar beet or sugar cane and then refined. This is a complex process that involves the use of chemicals.

Talking about the benefits of industrial refined white sugar is quite difficult. White refined sugar contains 99.9% sucrose and a pregnant woman should limit her daily intake of this high-calorie refined carbohydrate. Otherwise, adverse consequences are possible: obesity, caries and deficiency of the vitamin thiamine, which is heavily consumed with increased consumption of simple sugars.

In addition, refined sugar has a high glycemic index. This means that it dramatically raises the level of glucose in the blood, which can provoke diabetes in a pregnant woman.

It can be found in a wide variety of products, so you need to carefully read the composition on the labels. Manufacturers can often disguise the name of the sugar. You may read that the product contains "sugarcane juice", "corn sweetener", "dextrin or dextrose", "molasses", "maltose", "sucrose", but you should know that these are all varieties of refined sugar. So imperceptibly exceeding the daily norm of sugar is as easy as shelling pears.

What to replace?

Chocolate is bitter. This chocolate is made with minimal (or no) sugar. The benefits of dark chocolate as a substitute for refined sugar are due precisely to the composition of cocoa beans. It contains theobromine, which relaxes the muscles of the bronchi, blood vessels (mainly the vessels of the brain, skin and kidneys); improves renal blood flow. In addition, theobromine, normalizing the respiratory function, helps to saturate the blood with oxygen and reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide, and also stimulates cardiac activity, so chocolate is very useful when playing sports or other physical activities.

With mental stress, chocolate theobromine will have a psychostimulating effect - it will increase attention and memory.

Dark chocolate flavonoids are good for the heart and blood vessels. In addition, these valuable substances neutralize the action of free radicals, protect cells from destruction, and thus prevent premature aging of the body, save from the development of atherosclerosis. Also, flavonoids are able to normalize the functioning of the immune system, slow down inflammatory processes and prevent the reproduction of cancer cells.

In addition, dark chocolate belongs to the group of foods with a high content of tryptophan (an amino acid from which serotonin is formed). And serotonin is a well-known hormone of happiness. In addition to cocoa products, chocolate contains soy lecithin, which is responsible for the uniform consistency of chocolate. Lecithin is a member of the group of phospholipids that are essential for building the membranes of all cells, especially the nervous system and brain tissues. The consequence of this is the positive effect of lecithin on memory, thinking, mental performance. In addition, lecithin prevents fatty degeneration of the liver and normalizes the functioning of the liver, and also has anti-atherosclerotic properties - it lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood and prevents its deposition in the walls of blood vessels.

Thanks to lecithin, chocolate is classified as an aphrodisiac product, since it normalizes the function of the gonads and has a positive effect on sexual activity.

Marmalade. The most useful is jelly fruit marmalade, since it combines the beneficial substances of all types of marmalade, namely pectin from fruit puree and agar and agaroids of jelly marmalade.

Thanks to pectins, heavy metals, radionuclides, and pesticides are bound and excreted from the body in our intestines. In addition, pectin helps to reduce cholesterol in the body and is used for diseases associated with metabolic disorders, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, liver and pancreas.

Agar-agar and agaroids. These are gelling agents made from red and brown algae. Agar-agar contains a large amount of mineral salts, vitamins, polysaccharides, agaropectin and vegetable acids. Agar is not absorbed by the body, but it serves as food for beneficial microorganisms in the intestines, which protect it from the introduction of pathogens. In addition, agar helps to reduce the level of harmful triglycerides and cholesterol in the blood, normalizes the level of glucose in the blood, reduces the increased acidity of gastric juice, stimulates peristalsis, and has a mild laxative effect.

Zephyr and pastille. The benefits of these sweets, like marmalade, are due to the agar, agaroids, pectin included in them, as well as egg white, a source of all essential amino acids for our body. By the way, egg protein, as well as milk protein, is a protein standard in terms of content and balance of amino acids (meat and fish proteins are much inferior to them).

3.Refined sunflower and rapeseed oil

During the production of these types of refined products, the seeds are pre-filled with hexane, an organic solvent, to maximize the release of oil. After that, the remaining solvent is removed (more precisely, they are trying to be removed) using steam and an alkaline solution. What happened as a result of exposure to hexane and alkali is further refined - the product is purified, but many nutrients (vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, lecithin) are lost. Then the oil is further bleached, due to which it acquires a transparent yellow color. Additionally, the product is filtered and deodorized (all odors are removed from the oil).

When we buy, we succumb to marketing tricks: they write it does not contain cholesterol, and naturally it cannot be found in plant products, since cholesterol is found only in animal products. It may also indicate that the oil does not contain preservatives, but such a chemically processed product does not need preservatives.

What to replace?

Unrefined olive oil. This useful plant product is rich in oleic acid (it is an omega-9 unsaturated fatty acid), its share reaches 70-80%, while in refined sunflower oil it is only 23%. Oleic acid is well absorbed in the intestines, contributes to the optimal flow of metabolic processes, strengthens the walls of blood vessels and has a pronounced hypocholesterolemic effect. Olive oil also contains other beneficial omega-9 fatty acids that have anti-carcinogenic effects, help lower blood pressure, and are also beneficial in preventing diabetes and obesity.

Vitamins A, D, K, which are rich in unrefined olive oil, are very important for the formation of tissues and organs of the fetus (bone tissue, organ of vision, regulate cell growth and development). Vitamin E has a pronounced antioxidant effect and reduces the risk of blood clots.

The maximum of useful properties in the unrefined olive oil of the so-called cold mechanical extraction, when the olive oil is heated no higher than 27 ° C. This category of oils is designated Extra Virgin, Fine virgin olive and Semi-fine virgin olive oil also have useful properties. To preserve all the beneficial properties, these types of oils must be used only in their raw form, adding to salads, and not subjected to heat treatment.

Cold pressed linseed oil. The main benefit of this oil lies in the unique combination of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols, lecithin and beta-carotene, which are rarely found together in foods from the usual human diet.

Flaxseed oil normalizes fat metabolism, prevents the development of cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the digestive system. In addition, the beneficial substances of flax oil increase the elasticity of blood vessels (which is important for the prevention of varicose veins in a pregnant woman), reduce the likelihood of stroke and heart attack, arterial hypertension.

Regular consumption of linseed oil has a positive effect on brain function and the development of the retina of the unborn child.

A nice feature of taking linseed oil is that it can be mixed with juices, yoghurts, fermented milk products. So, for constipation, it is recommended to stir 1 tsp. funds in a glass of yogurt and drink at night.

Flaxseed oil can also be added to salads, side dishes and soups, avoiding exposure to high temperatures that destroy the structure of fatty acids.

4.Cleaned (polished or polished) white rice

When grinding rice, the shells and partly the germ of the grain are removed from the surface of the grain, in which the main vitamins and microelements are concentrated. Therefore, dishes from polished cereals are less useful, despite the fact that such cereals improve the digestibility and absorption of carbohydrates.

A more refined product is polished rice, which is only the inner part of the grain (the so-called endosperm), which consists of 60% starch and contains almost no proteins and other beneficial nutrients.

Polished and especially polished rice are poor in minerals, do not contain fiber and are virtually devoid of vitamins. So, when polished rice is obtained, from 30 to 70% of vitamin B1 is lost, up to 30% - B2 and up to 50% - vitamin PP. In the production of polished groats, these losses are even greater.

What to replace?

Brown (brown) rice. The color of brown rice is due to the gentle way of peeling the shell, which is partially preserved, and with it all the vitamins and minerals that make up its composition. This bran shell of the grain contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, B vitamins (especially folic acid) and fiber. In addition, the content of potassium in brown rice is 2.5 times higher, magnesium, vitamins E and B6 are 3 times higher, vitamin B1 is 1.5 times higher, and fiber is 4.5 times higher than in the usual purified rice. white rice.

Natural fiber (dietary plant fibers), which is rich in brown rice, we need to prevent colon cancer, obesity and constipation.

The shell of unpolished brown rice also contains a complex of antioxidants (gamma-oryzanol, squalene and ferulic acid), which has a beneficial effect on the body: it lowers cholesterol levels in the blood, removes its excess and reduces its absorption from food, thus preventing the development of diseases cardiovascular system and obesity.

It must be remembered that brown rice, due to the presence of fatty acids, has a short shelf life; and because of the preserved shell and a large amount of fiber, it takes quite a long time to cook.

How to cook brown rice?
The cooking process looks something like this. Rice is soaked overnight in cold water, in the morning this water is drained, fresh cold water is poured and the rice is put on fire. 10 minutes after boiling, the water is drained, the rice is washed in cold water, fresh cold water is poured again and boiled for 15-20 minutes. After that, the pan is wrapped in a blanket and the rice is left to reach readiness. Thus, the heat treatment of brown rice is minimized, which contributes to a better preservation of the beneficial substances contained in it.

Wild (black) rice. This cereal does not belong to the family of traditional rice, but is very similar in shape, only black. Black rice is valuable in its nutritional composition: it contains a significant amount of protein (15 g per 100 g of product) and is especially valuable for pregnant women for its content of folic acid (here it is five times more than in brown rice). By the way, a glass of wild rice contains the daily requirement of folic acid. In terms of minerals, wild rice contains quite a lot of magnesium (177 mg is 50% of the daily requirement of an adult), zinc (6 mg) and manganese (1.3 mg is 2/3 of the daily requirement).

Thus, I would like to recommend that a pregnant woman, choosing products on the shelves of the store, give preference to those that will be most useful for her and her baby. And these are by no means refined products. Look for a healthy food alternative!

Every person consumes refined foods every day: first of all, it is vegetable oil, granulated sugar, high-quality flour, and many others. But none of us thinks about the harm to health caused by these seemingly safe products.

What is refining and why is it needed?

Refining is used to purify or improve the quality of many products. After such processing, granulated sugar becomes instant, and the flour takes on a better look. Naturally, we will pay attention to a beautiful rich bun baked from high-quality processed flour rather than bread made from unpeeled grains. Rice also cannot do without this process - the inner core and shell of the grains are removed from it, although, by the way, they are very useful for humans, as they contain many vitamins and microelements. The refining process allows you to significantly increase the shelf life of products, gives them a more appetizing look and improves taste, so it can be safely called an economic move.

What is the danger of such products?

Many people dislike unrefined oil because of a certain smell. Yes, and cooking on it is not very pleasant, as it often foams when heated and has a not very attractive brown color. In addition, this oil can be stored not as long as refined oil.

That's it in order to increase the duration of storage, and the refining procedure was invented. The oil that has undergone this procedure loses all its beneficial substances. If the raw oil contains vitamins A, E and many useful trace elements that reduce its shelf life, then they cannot be in the processed oil.

Many manufacturers make butter with the addition of synthesized substances to increase shelf life and supplement it with vitamins. But this also has its downside. Not every organism is able to take such "vitamins" and an allergic reaction may occur, since the synthesized substances are absorbed by the body much worse than the natural vitamins that the raw product is saturated with.

In addition to oil, cereal products also undergo refining. As you know, in the husk of cereals there is vitamin B, which takes part in hematopoiesis. There is also a lot of vitamin E in cereals, which affects hormonal balance. When processing rice and wheat, the husk is removed, which contains fiber, which is important for the normal functioning of the intestines. But, unfortunately, after processing, it is replaced by starch. Starch contains harmful carbohydrates that promote the development of malignant bacteria. Bacteria contained in starch enhance the process of putrefaction and fermentation in the intestines. People who take antibiotics, have diabetes and people with metabolic disorders are especially affected. In addition, the lack of fiber leads to a weakening of intestinal motility and the formation of a diverticulum, therefore, the number of patients with diverticulosis increases.

Rice and wheat contain vegetable protein, which provides us with amino acids and albumins. These two substances are very important for the body as a building material, and by eating refined foods, we cause serious harm to it, depriving it of useful substances. Breakfast with a sandwich of white bread and tea with refined sugar, we voluntarily contribute to the violation of carbohydrate metabolism. Not to mention the increase in blood sugar and, accordingly, the risk of diabetes. Yes, and using such products, you can easily gain extra pounds.

Can refined foods be substituted?

If you want to stay healthy, choose unrefined foods that can be found in any grocery store. After all, since ancient times, a person has accustomed his body to natural products that exist in nature and do not harm our health.

It is difficult to imagine your life without bread, but it is better to eat delicious buns and muffins no more than twice a week, and replace them with bread, which is made from wholemeal flour and contains whole grains.

When choosing an oil, look for olive, corn and other cold-pressed oils. Of course, not everyone is ready to buy unrefined oil for cooking, but try to use them at least for seasoning dishes. They are no worse than refined oils, and on the contrary, they improve the taste of food.

Now many people talk about rice diets, but this only applies to brown rice. Even nutritionists recommend this rice as a weight loss product. The use of any other rice will certainly affect your figure negatively.

It is impossible to pass over in silence such a question: - Where did the flour from whole grains, from which our ancestors baked bread, disappear? Only whole grain flour contains B vitamins, micro and macro elements and the germ, which has fantastic healing properties. Refined flour is devoid of both germ and shell. Instead of these healing parts of the grain created by nature, all kinds of food additives are added to the flour, chemically created substitutes that can never fulfill what nature itself created.

The whole complex process of grinding wheat grain in a modern high-quality mill is aimed at separating the endosperm as best as possible (from which flour is now obtained) from the germ, shield, aleurone (enzyme) layer, shells (bran). That is, the most valuable and extremely important components of grain in human nutrition are seized and sent to waste for animal feed. Shells (bran), and this is fiber, remove organic dirt - excess enzymes of gastric juice, bile acids, bilirubin, cholesterol. Bran helps to normalize the intestinal flora - adsorb pathogenic microorganisms, leaving E. coli alone, normalize intestinal motility. In addition, bran is polysaccharides, the best food for our bifidobacteria: there are about 10 million bifidobacteria in 1 cm³ of gastric juice. Therefore, it is quite natural that when we unconsciously deprive bifidobacteria, food that produces, for example, vitamin B12, the mechanism of diabetes is triggered.

Refined flour becomes a mucus-forming product, which lies in a lump on the bottom of the stomach and slagging our body. Refining is an expensive, costly process, at the same time killing the living power of grain. And it is needed only in order to keep the flour from spoilage for as long as possible. Whole flour cannot be stored for a long time, and this is again someone's business that needs to be as cheap as possible and make maximum profit, and most importantly, make people dependent (like a drug) on ​​their taste reflexes, because we were taught that a white loaf with butter is very tasty, but about the benefits - "harm", is silent.

Previously, the process of grinding grain consisted in simply grinding the latter in stone millstones. Bread rich in vitamins B and E was baked from the obtained brown flour. But at the beginning of the 19th century, one Frenchman considered that this was terribly unprofitable. Therefore, he invented steel millstones. Their main difference was the possibility of separating the germ, endosperm and shell. It was from this time that the general persecution of people with white flour began.

The barbaric separation of the most valuable components from the starchy endosperm does not end the production of white flour (not too white). Like everything living and natural, the germ and shell interfere with the long-term storage of flour. All that remains of whole grains is starch. It has no nutritional value. In order to somehow make this product valuable, synthetic vitamins are added to it, which should replace the remote natural B vitamins. There seems to be no difference - the same chemical formula, but they are produced artificially. Synthetic vitamins cannot be absorbed by the body, because they have a completely different nature.

At the very beginning, nitrogen trichloride and some poisonous substance were used to bleach flour, which negatively affects the central nervous system. But this is all in the past, since 1949, chlorine dioxide, benzoyl peroxide, potassium bromate, ammonium persulfate, and even alloxan have been used to bleach flour. Some of the names are creepy...

This is precisely the harm of white bread, about which they prefer to remain silent. Oddly enough, such production of white flour allowed for huge profits.

If you constantly consume an excessive amount of bread from premium flour, then the risk of earning overweight and gastrointestinal diseases increases.

There is excess weight - do not eat white bread! - says the wisdom of nutritionists. This product is too high in calories. And besides, there is no benefit from premium flour for the body. But the harm of bread made from premium flour has been proven.

How is flour bleached?

It would seem that there is nothing easier, ground the grain, here is flour for you. But, such flour is poorly stored. Therefore, manufacturers purify it from the most useful substances for humans. A huge amount of vitamins, trace elements, and the fiber we need so much, all this goes to waste. It remains almost one starch. But that is not all. To make the flour white enough, it is bleached with substances, which we will talk about in more detail. So:
POTASSIUM BROMATE is an inorganic compound, potassium salt, highly soluble in water. In the classification of food additives, it is designated as E924.
CHLORINE DIOXIDE is a gaseous substance with a characteristic odor, an inorganic compound of chlorine and oxygen, and a powerful antimicrobial substance. Explosive. In the classification of food additives, it is designated as E926.
BENZOYL PEROXIDE is an organic compound of the aromatic series, a white powdery substance. In the classification of food additives, it is designated as E928.
AMMONIUM PERSULFATE is an organically active compound, ammonium salt. In the classification of food additives, it is designated as E923.
ALLOXAN is a compound that is obtained as a result of the oxidation of uric acid.

We present you our new project - the author's column by Dasha Ustinova, a specialist in healthy nutrition. We will regularly publish articles on healthy nutrition on the website. And the first material is about refined and unrefined products: what is their difference, harm and benefit.

Dasha Ustinova is a nutritionist, author of the Easy Cooking blog, in which she talks about the culture of healthy eating, the relationship between nutrition and health, nutrition and beauty.

In addition, Dasha conducts lectures and online lessons for everyone on healthy eating topics. And recently, she has been leading meetings dedicated to proper nutrition, as part of our project “ Green Wednesday in the cafe "Ukrop".

Interest in this topic, personal experience, constant study of this area are the main components of her activities.

We are told about odorless vegetable oil, but you should not consume such a product, because they clean and refine it chemically, killing everything valuable and introducing harmful elements.

Rice is the same story. White rice of any variety is of little use. But in unpolished and wild rice, the content of nutrients is ten times higher.

Today, such rice can be bought in almost any store. Yes, it costs more than the usual white, but it pays for itself many times over when it comes to health effects.

Salt and sugar should be, if not excluded, then at least significantly limited in your diet. And there are also them in their original, unrefined form.

Switch to real sea salt and unrefined cane sugar. Let the following information be the stimulus: salt and sugar bleach and purify with chlorine and burnt animal bones.

And, of course, flour and muffins. Depriving the grain of the shell, we remove the most valuable thing from it: fiber, vitamins and trace elements, leaving starch and some vegetable protein.

As a result, starch forms mucus in the body, which clogs the gastrointestinal tract. So if you really like sweet pastries and bread, eat these foods in moderation, but only from whole grain flour.

It is the flour that should be whole grain (that is, each grain is ground together with the shell), and not the so-called cereal bread, when a handful of seeds were added to refined flour. These are different things.

Refined foods are the result of an overdeveloped food industry. It got to the point that real, natural products sometimes seem tasteless to us - we ourselves have accustomed our taste buds to certain foods. But everything can change right now.

Tomorrow go to the store or buy online wild rice and raw sea salt, virgin vegetable oil (raw pressed), whole grain flour (wheat, rye, rice - whatever) - and enjoy cooking homemade cakes and desserts. Believe me, such food is tastier and most importantly - healthier!

Read the article by Dasha Ustinova "". The first steps to a healthy diet and a slim figure.

It sounds very strange, but there are products for which the fame of dietary has been strengthened, but nutritionists themselves would never recommend them as diet food.

What are these products and where do such statements come from?

rice cakes

They are highly touted as a healthy alternative to white bread. But let's not kid ourselves, their glycemic index often exceeds 91. While pure glucose has a level of 100. This fact makes rice cakes one of the types of carbohydrates that can raise blood sugar levels literally instantly. This is not very good for weight loss, and for health in general.

Fat-free mayonnaise and other salad dressings

Using low-fat mayonnaise is a great way to turn good food into spoiled food. An ideal salad dressing is vinegar (which helps control blood sugar) and vegetable oil (full of essential fatty acids and antioxidants). In fact, fat-free dressings are much more harmful than regular fat mayonnaise. They are made with sugar, corn syrup (which contains a lot of fructose), emulsifiers and other not-so-healthy substances that are designed to make unnatural products look more natural.

Seitan or wheat meat

Native to Asia, seitan is a recognized meat substitute for vegetarian dishes. Unlike many meat substitutes, seitan is not made from soy. It consists entirely of wheat gluten. Wheat gluten is a highly allergenic protein found naturally in wheat-based foods. So far, there are no studies that prove an increase in gluten allergy due to the use of seitan, but it is still worth being wary.

shark meat

Some time ago, shark meat was at the peak of popularity among those who were passionate about losing weight. The ratio of benefits and harms from eating such meat is approximately the same. Yes, shark meat contains healthy omega-3 fats, but it's also high in mercury! There are safest products, for example, the same salmon. Taking risks in this case is not very wise.

Refined cereals

Refined cereals contain much less vitamins and other nutrients. They also increase blood sugar levels. Today, on the shelves of supermarkets, it is increasingly rare to find natural, unprocessed products. Grains are processed in such a way that they are deprived of their natural components - oils, fibers, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, the consumption of refined carbohydrates leads to vitamin deficiencies and overweight.

Diet sodas

The word "diet" in the names of such drinks does not support itself, because they, like other sodas, contribute to weight gain. Studies have shown that diet sodas increase hunger, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, and this is not the whole list. It's all about artificial sugar substitutes - they are much more harmful than natural ones, these potent substances are designed to "deceive" brain cells, disguising themselves as natural sugar. It is much healthier and cheaper to drink ordinary water without gas.

Fine grains

They are made from small residues of grains of corn, wheat and other cereals. They are easy to prepare, but contain very little fiber and vitamins. Often, cereals from such products lack taste, and we generously season them with vegetable fats, which, paired with simple carbohydrates, are slow killers of our blood vessels.