Content Approved by Dr. Anthony Marotta, Ph.D.

With the start of a new year, we all want to start an exercise regime, reduce our stress, sleep more, and eat healthier to improve our well being. We have all heard the phrase, “You Are What You Eat; we think it should center on “You Are What You Ate” as dietary sensitivities may take days, weeks or years to manifest into a symptom or issue we can sense. What’s the connection between what we eat and disease?

According to a 2019 article in the Lancet Commissions entitled “Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems”, poor quality diets are deemed to have a greater impact on our well-being than unsafe sex, alcohol, drugs, and tobacco used combined.

A recent article entitled: “Health Effects of Dietary Risks in 195 countries, 1990 – 2017: A Systematic Analysis for Global Disease Burden of Disease Study 2017” reinforces the fact that there is a need to improve nutrition on a global scale. The authors reported that in 2017 there were 11 million deaths and 255 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) attributable to dietary risk factors. Non-optimal intake of three dietary factors, specifically 1) consuming enough whole grains, 2) fruits and 3) reducing sodium intake, were responsible for more than 50% of the deaths and 66% of the DALYs.

The fact that poor diets are responsible for more deaths than any of the other risk factors including tobacco smoking, highlights that we not only need to improve diets across the globe, but that greater attention is required at all levels to address this societal imperative. As a starting point, and consistent with the study collaborators viewpoints, our attention should center on eating more balanced meals, taking into account the recommended daily intake of the leading dietary risk factors including for example vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts & seeds, legumes, processed meats, red meat, healthy fats, sodium and sugar. Somewhat surprisingly, this study revealed that high-income North Americans had the highest intake of processed meats globally next to high-income Asia Pacific and western Europe residents.    

The table below cites the recommended daily consumption of the different dietary factors:  

To add to the complexity of unhealthy eating, we need to be mindful of how our food is prepared for us and whether it is assembled using processed and/or ultra-processed ingredients. It is very easy for food retailers, restaurants, grab’n’go and quick service establishments to operate under the umbrella of made fresh daily, and to claim that they are healthy but its not easy to claim that you limit or avoid the use of processed and ultra-processed ingredients in your food offerings.

Why do you want to avoid consuming processed and ultra-processed ingredients and foods?

It is well established that these products and the food additives introduced into these items to enhance appearance, smell, texture and taste or to extend shelf life are likely impacting wellness of society negatively. There are over 2500 permitted additives classified into 26 different functional classes. Consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods and the overuse of the myriad of chemicals, additives, stabilizers, coloring agents, emulsifiers, gums, preservatives and other factors in our food supply are known to be associated with poor health outcomes.

How does Peqish make it easier for you to adopt healthier lifestyle choices while you are on the go?

Firstly, we don’t like food additives, so as much as possible we exclude these from our offerings. We rely on pasteurization and freezing to help create safe, convenient and better-for-you ingredients and ready to eat foods.

We avoid or limit the use of processed deli meats and red meat in our offerings. Salmon is our go to for fish offerings as it is known to be a good source of Omega-3.

We also try to ensure that our food items are nutritionally balanced and are a good source of the recommend dietary ingredients.