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Since the birth of human beings, fruits have been one of the important foods for human beings, on the one hand, because fruits are better obtained than animal foods, and on the other hand, because fruits contain a large number of essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.
However, fruit also has a very big disadvantage, that is, it is difficult to preserve.
In this case, humans have found that making fruits into dried fruits can effectively prolong the preservation time of fruits, and it is easier to carry, and the taste is also unique, which is sought after by many people. Even though fruit preservation technology has improved significantly, there are still many people who are addicted to the unique taste of dried fruits and eat them as a daily snack.
There are also some people who think that dried fruits are very healthy snacks, and even use dried fruits to replace eating fruits, is dried fruits really so healthy? Can it also be used as an alternative to fruit?
Unfortunately, one study shattered our "good fantasies" about dried fruit.
Eating such a fruit, the risk of "dementia" is 4 times higher?
In January this year, a team of researchers published a study in the journal "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Prevention", which used Mendelian randomization statistical methods to study the effect of dried fruit and fresh fruit on Alzheimer's disease.
Ultimately, the researchers found that long-term intake of dried fruit boosted Alzheimer's disease, with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease in people who consumed less dried fruit.
However, fresh fruit has not been shown to be associated with Alzheimer's disease in the study, so why is dried fruit associated with Alzheimer's disease?
The researchers speculate that this may be due to a large drop in the amount of polyphenols in dried fruits.
At present, although we do not fully understand the specific cause of Alzheimer's disease, free radicals have always been considered to be a very critical factor, and the decline of polyphenols in dried fruits will lead to excessive production of free radicals, which in turn will increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, we have also found that in addition to increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease, dried fruits may also cause some potential health hazards. For example, when making dried fruits, additional sugar and additives are often added, a large intake of sugar may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity and other risks, and too many additives may bring some negative effects to the liver, nervous system and other aspects.
Therefore, we recommend that you eat less or no dried fruits on weekdays, it is best to replace dried fruits with fresh fruits, if you really want to eat dried fruits, try to control the daily intake below 30g, children, the elderly, diabetics and other special groups to reduce the dosage.
Of course, in the process of snacking, we should not only eat less dried fruits, but also eat less snacks with these 3 logos on the packaging!
Snacks with 3 logos on the package, it is better to eat less!
1. "Trans fats"
Many creamy and fried snacks are often labeled as "trans fat", which itself is an unsaturated fatty acid, both natural and artificial. Although natural trans fats are harmless to the human body when consumed in moderation, most of the trans fats in snacks are artificial and may be harmful to human health if consumed for a long time.
At present, the harm of trans fatty acids to the human body is known to induce obesity, increase the burden on the liver, increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cause cancer, etc., and the harm to the human body is still very great.
In addition, I would like to remind you that when the mainland stipulates that the trans fat content is ≤ 0.3g/100g, the trans fat content can be marked as 0 in the ingredient list, that is, even if there is no trans fat in the ingredient list, there may be a small amount of trans fat in the snack, which requires everyone to learn to read the ingredient list.
Generally speaking, if there are ingredients such as hydrogenated edible oil, cocoa butter substitute, and non-dairy creamer in the ingredient list, it is more likely to contain trans fatty acids, and puff pastry is also the "hardest hit area" of trans fat, so I hope you can pay more attention.
2. "Seasoning" or "Flavoring"
Attentive friends may find the words "flavoring" or "flavor" on the snacks when buying snacks, and if you find these words, you must be careful.
Because these words often mean that the taste of the snack is achieved by adding additives such as flavor and sugar, and the snack itself does not have these tastes.
These additives may increase the digestive burden on the gastrointestinal tract, and may also increase the risk of obesity and high blood sugar due to high sugar content, causing damage to our health.
3. "High sugar"
Although the word "high sugar" will not be directly marked on the snacks, the state stipulates that the sugar content of food needs to be clearly marked on the outer packaging, and when the sugar content is higher than 11.5g/100g, it can be regarded as a high-sugar snack.
Long-term consumption of high-sugar snacks will cause us to consume too many calories, and the probability of obesity will increase significantly, which will not only affect a person's appearance, but also increase the chance of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and joint diseases.
In addition, too much sugar can also increase the likelihood of tooth decay, because sugar can provide energy to cariogenic microorganisms, increase the production of acids, and cause damage to teeth.
Seeing this, some friends may feel puzzled, this can't be eaten, that can't be eaten, can't health and snacks be both?
Can health and snacks be both?
In fact, it is possible to have both health and snacks, but you need to pay attention to strategy, and the most important point is to choose healthy snacks.
Not all snacks are unhealthy, such as nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate, etc. are healthy snacks, these foods can provide us with some essential nutrients for the human body, and at the same time, the fat and sugar content are relatively low, which will not bring too much burden to the body.
However, it is not enough to choose healthy snacks, no matter how healthy snacks are, eating too much will have a negative impact on health, so we should also learn to control the intake of snacks, usually we recommend that everyone's daily snack intake should be controlled between 100-200kcal.
Also, a reminder is to be attentive when snaking. Because we snack while having fun, we will consume too many snacks because of distraction, which is very detrimental to our snack intake.
At the same time, it is also recommended that everyone can pay attention to the time of eating when eating snacks, and try to avoid the two special time periods before meals and before bedtime, so as not to affect the quality of eating and sleeping at the main meal and damage your health.
Write at the end
With the improvement of living conditions, many people have developed the habit of snacking, but many people do not know which snacks are good for health and which snacks are not good for health.
For example, dried fruit is a snack that is not very good for health, and studies have confirmed that dried fruit is related to Alzheimer's disease, and it will also increase the risk of a variety of diseases, and it is not suitable for large quantities, if you really want to eat, it is best not to exceed 30g per day.
In addition, if the snack packaging has the label of "trans fat", "flavor" or "taste", and "high sugar", it is not recommended for everyone to eat it, and this kind of snack will also affect our health to a greater or lesser extent. If you really want to have both health and snacking, you should learn to identify healthy snacks, control your snack intake, and choose the right time to eat snacks.
Bibliography:
[1] Guo Xiujuan, Zhang Han. Leisure snacks low-price racing and health have become a new trend[N].China Food Safety News,2024-01-04(B01).
[2] Ding Ying, An Empirical Study on Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Snacks from the Perspective of Big Health Industry. Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Province,2021-11-02.
[3] Xie Fengzhu, Xiong Jingfan, Xie Wei. Evaluation of the intervention effect of snack nutrition and health education for school-age children in Shenzhen[J].Chinese Journal of School Health,2020,41(05):772-774+782.)