7 effects of consuming ready meals

Here are 7 ways in which consuming ready to eat meals affect our body.

Ready to eat meals have gained popularity over the years and there are various health effects that are associated with consuming these food preparations. While ready meals are certainly a convenient choice for many but there are certain concerns regarding the consumption of these meal of convenience that we must be cautious about. Read on to know about 7 effects of consuming ready to eat meals.

Low nutrient content

While these quick meals may ease our lifestyle and fill our belly but they are certainly not as good as the freshly prepared food items. This is because the food prepared at home with fresh ingredients is more nutritionally dense compared to these meals. It is quite normal for ready to eat food packs to lack in the antioxidant and B vitamin content.

Use of preservatives

To give a decent shelf life to these ready meals, most of the food manufacturers have to add a large number of food preservatives, salt, sugar, and fat that will contraindicate with an otherwise healthy meal.

Unappealing

Nothing can match the taste and texture of a freshly cooked meal. It is quite common to find a ‘purpled’ beetroot and some weirdly colored food preparation in most of the ready to eat food packs.

Cooking processes used

At home, we prefer to cook meals to retain the maximum amount of nutrition from the food products used so that the end meal is healthy and palatable at the same time. However, food industries focus on preparing these meals to cater to a large population with varied taste preferences and to give these food products long shelf life. This is the sole reason why most of these ready to eat meals are nutritionally depleted.

Restricted labeling

Most of the makers of these ready to eat meal do not bother to share details of all the nutrients and inform about the presence of cancer-causing compounds, for obvious reasons.

Quality of ingredients

The quality of ingredients used to prepare these meals may be varied as the manufacturer usually uses a cheaper version of ingredients to prepare these food products which otherwise would have been prepared with carefully chosen and much nutritious food ingredient.

Presence of harmful substances

Various food products present in these ready to eat meal may be harmful to our health. For example, it is known that cooking meats at a high temperature may lead to the formation of carcinogens (heterocyclic amines). Various chicken nuggets and kebabs have a high level of AGEs (advanced glycation end products) that can increase the risk of dementia and diabetes.