Health Destroyers

Introduction

• Your eating habits can have a significant impact on your body. In some instances, your diet can positively impact your health, the food and drinks you choose to enjoy can also have negative effects on your body.
• When choosing the items that make up your regular diet, you likely consider flavor, texture, and ease of preparation, but you should also take into account how it can affect your overall health. And sadly, there are certain eating habits that may be destroying your body without you even realizing it.
• In the following parts of the article we are going to discuss some of the common health destroyers.

Tea

• Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub (bush) native to Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world

Side effects of drinking too much tea

Reduced iron absorption

• Tea is a rich source of a class of compounds called tannins. Tannins can bind to iron in certain foods, rendering it unavailable for absorption in your digestive tract 
• Research suggests that tea tannins are more likely to hinder the absorption of iron from plant sources than from animal-based foods. Thus, if you follow a strict vegan or vegetarian diet, you may want to pay extra close attention to how much tea you consume

Increased anxiety, stress, and restlessness

• Overconsuming caffeine from tea may cause anxiety and restlessness. If you notice these symptoms, reduce your tea intake or try substituting with caffeine-free herbal teas.

Poor sleep

• Excess caffeine intake from tea may reduce melatonin production and disrupt sleep patterns.

Heartburn

• The caffeine in tea could cause heartburn or exacerbate preexisting acid reflux due to its ability to relax the lower esophageal sphincter and increase acid production in the stomach.

Pregnancy complications

• Overexposure to caffeine from tea during pregnancy may contribute to complications, such as miscarriage or low infant birth weight. Herbal teas should also be used with caution, as some ingredients may induce labor.

Dizziness

• Large doses of caffeine from tea can cause dizziness. This particular side effect is less common than others and usually only occurs if your intake exceeds 6–12 cups (1.4–2.8 liters).

Coffee

• Coffee is a popular drink made from the roasted beans of Coffea fruits (Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora). It contains caffeine and chlorogenic acid.
• Drinking too much coffee can result in some very unpleasant adverse effects. According to a study by researchers at the University of Oklahoma, “caffeine can cause anxiety symptoms in normal individuals

• Anxiety: Low-to-moderate doses of caffeine can increase alertness, larger amounts may lead to anxiety.
• Insomnia: help you stay awake during the day, but it may negatively impact your sleep quality and quantity.
• Digestive Issues: to moderate amounts of coffee can improve gut motility, larger dosages may lead to loose stools or GERD.
• Women who plan on becoming pregnant should be cautious. Researchers from the University of Nevada School of Medicine reported in the British Journal of Pharmacology that regular coffee may reduce a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant.
• Caffeine and other plant-based compounds stimulate the stomach cells to release more hydrochloric acid, which can, at times, aid digestion and worsens the condition of acidity.

Eating too much animal fat/non-vegetarian food

• Plant-based fats, like those found in nuts, seeds, and oil actually possess many health benefits. On the other hand, the fat you may be consuming from animal sources could be destroying your body if consumed in excess. Saturated fat is a type most often found in animal-based foods like red meat, dairy, and eggs, and it may have a negative impact on your cardiovascular system.

• Eating animal flesh contributes to a long list of diseases — heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, among others. This is partly due to the fat in animal flesh as well as the fact that our bodies generally find it difficult to digest meat.

• To make things worse, commercially-farmed animals today are bred in terrible living conditions (e.g. they are not able to roam around freely or get any sunshine), injected with hormones to make them grow faster, fed dubious food (e.g. diseased animal parts), injected with and fed drugs and steroids when they fall ill, and their flesh is chemically processed in order to keep longer.

Not eating enough fiber

• If you are skipping out on whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, you may not be getting enough fiber. This nutrient is found only in plant-based foods, and has a long list of benefits. Fiber “feeds” the healthy bacteria in your gut, and may aid in weight loss and lower blood cholesterol.

Your food and drink choices are too acidic

• Your dental health may be at risk based on your food and drink choices. Items that are too acidic, like soda and coffee, could contribute to poor dental health and increase tooth erosion. This is true even for diet soda, but soda and coffee that contains sugar is especially damaging for teeth, as it can also increase your risk of cavities.
• Even acidic fruit can lead to an acidic environment in your mouth, leading to oral issues. To lessen your risk, avoid eating and drinking these acidic items throughout the day, and try to brush your teeth shortly after consuming them.
• These types of foods have the potential to become more problematic when they make up a large portion of your diet on a regular basis, and aren’t in conjunctions with nutrient-dense foods. Additionally, the timing of when you eat and how much you eat could also be negatively impacting your body.
• When choosing foods to support your body, focus on a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, minimally processed whole grains, lean proteins, and plant-based fats. To further allow your eating habits to have a positive impact in your body, also practice portion control, try not to lay down immediately after eating, and ensure each meal and snack contains more than one macronutrient.

Tobacco

Smokeless tobacco is associated with many health problems. Using smokeless tobacco:

• Can lead to nicotine addiction
• Causes cancer of the mouth, esophagus (the passage that connects the throat to the stomach), and pancreas (a gland that helps with digestion and maintaining proper blood sugar levels)
• Is associated with diseases of the mouth
• Can increase risks for early delivery and stillbirth when used during pregnancy
• Can cause nicotine poisoning in children
• May increase the risk for death from heart disease and stroke

Smoking

• Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly the substance is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant which have been rolled into a small square of rice paper to create a small, round cylinder called a “cigarette”.
• Smoking generally has negative health effects, because smoke inhalation inherently poses challenges to various physiologic processes such as respiration. 
• Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. It is also responsible for many other cancers and health problems. These include lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, stroke and cataracts.
• Women who smoke have a greater chance of certain pregnancy problems or having a baby die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Your smoke is also bad for other people – they breathe in your smoke second hand and can get many of the same problems as smokers do.

Alcohol

• Alcohol has a variety of short-term and long-term adverse effects. Short-term adverse effects include generalized impairment of neuro cognitive function, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and hangover-like symptoms. Alcohol can be addictive to humans.
• It can have a variety of long-term adverse effects on health, for instance liver damage, brain damage, and increased risk of cancer.
• The adverse effects of alcohol on health are most important when it is used in excessive quantities or with heavy frequency. However, some of them, such as increased risk of certain cancers, may occur even with light or moderate alcohol consumption. In high doses or overdose, alcohol may cause loss of consciousness or, in severe cases, death.

The Five white poisons

• For any food substance to become refined, it has to undergo number of chemical refining Processes which not only make them nutrition-less but hazardous to human health causing wide range of disorders in today’s lifestyle. Refined foods are devoid of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, Fibers, micro-nutrients.

The so called five white poisons are as follows:

1. Milk
2. White rice
3. Refined sugar
4. Refined salt or common salt
5. Refined flour

Pasteurized milk: Commercial milk contains hard to digest proteins and fats. The milk that we get is pasteurized because they want to keep it fresh for longer. However, the process of pasteurization kills all the good bacteria in the milk. And not just, it also removes the beneficial nutrients like vitamin A, B 12 and C from it. Also, natural enzymes and phosphatase, which is essential for calcium absorption, are also removed and hence the Calcium benefit that we derive out of drinking milk is also taken away. It is also said that antibiotics and hormones are transferred into the milk as part of this process, and hence, it is better to avoid pasteurized milk.

Refined rice: White rice which is only starch cause’s sudden increase in glucose level which is the risk for diabetes mellitus. Refining process washes out essential amino acids as well as good range of vitamin B-12 complex in rice which are essential for the healthy nervous system.

Refined sugar-: t contains almost no nutrients and lots of calories. It develops insulin resistance leads to metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, obesity etc. It’s bad for teeth forming cavities/decays, overload to liver, and withdraws calcium from the bones. Chemical sweeteners are also harmful.eg. aspartame/saccharine/cyclamate (in diet soda) increases risk for cancer.

• Sugar is used in prepared foods (e.g., cookies and cakes) and is added to some foods and beverages (e.g., coffee and tea).
• Research studies showed that overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages increases body weight and body fat.
• The 2003 WHO report stated that “Sugars are undoubtedly the most important dietary factor in the development of dental caries.