Things We Wish We Knew About Our Food, Dr. Shah’s Perspective

Here are some things we wish we knew before. Check out the article we found over at Food Babe.

Written by Dr. Amy Shah 

Before becoming a doctor, I had NO IDEA the impact that processed food could have on our health.

What I mean is – we learned a lot about the differences between carbohydrates, protein, and fat – the biochemistry and the metabolism. But we practically never talked about additives, fillers, or artificial colors/flavors. In fact, I had no idea that there is a world of a difference between the “coffee drinks” I was getting from the medical resident lounge and real coffee.

1. Subway Sandwiches (which we got for free once a week during my training years)

Subway has always seemed like a healthy fast food alternative, right? The ads show sandwiches with veggies spilling out of them and we considered it our “healthy lunch”. In fact, it was given out free during our medical resident meetings at the hospital. Turns out the bread I was eating all those years had a chemical called azodicarbonamide in it. As you probably know Vani led a successful campaign to get azodicarbonamide out of Subway sandwiches. Now, she has a petition to get them to stop the use of routine antibiotics in their meat. I wish I knew all this about Subway and I am glad you won’t make the same mistakes I did! I can’t believe that doctors, students, and hospital administrators’ were all fooled by these big companies.

2. Coffee Drinks 

So, we had one of those machines in our physician training lounges that dispensed things like a white mocha, or cappuccino – all of which were FILLED with disgusting ingredients. I remember having one of those every morning and sometimes up to 3 times a day when I was on call. It’s just coffee you’re getting out of that vending machine, right? Maybe a little flavoring like white mocha is added, but it’s harmless, right?

Wrong.

Like almost every other artificial ingredient on this list, coffee drinks are hugely inflammatory to the body and have a long list of potentially harmful ingredients.

• Propylene glycol
• Caramel color (4-methylimidazole – potentially cancer-causing, also in those chocolate bars I loved!)
• High fructose corn syrup – so much sugar! Artificial, inflammatory, disease-causing sugar!
• Artificial colors
• Artificial flavors

So, that’s my round up of toxic, gross, processed things I used to eat and drink ALL THE TIME! I think it’s so important to spread the word on how harmful these foods really are because of the misinformation out there.

Next Article: The Top Immune Boosting Foods For Recovering Cancer Victims

Read full article: Five Things I Wish I Knew About Food Before Becoming a Doctor (by Amy Shah, M.D.)

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