5 White Foods That Are Harmful To Health

White sugar contains no nutrients, it is just empty calories that cause weight gain. You can replace this with brown sugar, honey, or stevia.

White foods : salt, sugar, cow’s milk, refined flour, and margarine. All are white foods, all are harmful to health.

In this post, you will learn why these white foods are  not recommended and what other products they can be replaced with.

5 white foods that are harmful to health

Table salt

Table salt, table salt or table salt are usually simply referred to as salt in everyday life, but here too – as with sugar – it is important to distinguish between refined and wholesome salt.

The normal table salt  simply consists of processed sodium chloride without any further nutrients, mostly it contains further additives to improve the properties (eg pourability).

Table salt is unhealthy and can cause various diseases in the long term. However, whole salt contains vitamins and minerals that are important for the body.

The best known and cheapest is sea salt, but there are also many other options (Himalayan salt, Celtic salt …). No matter which salt you use, you should always use it sparingly.

White sugar

White foods, like white sugar, do not provide nutrients and are considered by many nutritionists to be toxic to the body. It consists only of empty calories, which lead to obesity and are a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and dental health.

In addition, white sugar is acidic and demineralised – it deprives the body of calcium, which is so important for teeth and bones.

There are many alternatives for white sugar: brown sugar, honey, panela, cereal molasses, or natural fruit syrup.

Cow’s milk

Many nutritionists advise against consuming cow’s milk after the first few months of life, as the body’s enzyme lactase – which is necessary for breaking down milk sugar – is no longer available and milk can therefore no longer be digested properly.

Others assume that our organism can only tolerate breast milk and not animal milk. 

According to this theory, a large part of the population would suffer from lactose intolerance without knowing it, because the continuous consumption of milk means that no apparent signs of intolerance are felt.

Even if cow’s milk contains valuable nutrients, it has no fiber, iron or vitamin C. Cow’s milk is often associated with heartburn, inflammation, anemia, cardiovascular diseases and obesity.

There are also various studies showing that  milk increases the risk of prostate and ovarian cancer, as well as lymphoma. 

The most natural and healthiest alternative to cow’s milk is plant-based milk, which can be made from, for example, oats, rice, spelled, almonds, etc. Lactose-free cow’s milk or other types of animal milk, which are easier to digest and healthier, are also commercially available.

Refined flour

Other white foods, such as refined grains that have the fiber removed, also lose most of the valuable nutrients.

Refined flour, unlike whole wheat flour, can  worsen constipation, promote fluid retention and obesity, and also increase the risk of colon cancer.

The intestines need enough fiber to stay healthy. When talking about refined flour, one must not forget about the products made with it: pasta, bread, pastries, cakes, etc.

margarine

Butter is a natural food that is made from cow’s milk, but does not contain any other substances.

However, margarine is artificially made, mostly from vegetable fats of dubious quality, which go through several processing steps in order to achieve the desired consistency, color and taste. If vitamins are present, they have been added artificially.

Margarine is no less caloric than butter, but it  contains trans fats, which are harmful to the organism. It has been confirmed that these increase  the risk of heart disease.

Even if margarine should not contain cholesterol because it is a herbal product, the trans fats it contains  lead to increased cholesterol levels. 

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