The most harmful meals you should avoid on the beach
Coke, chips, crisps, crepes, hot dog … Just to mention some of the meals that beach kiosks offer. Have you already started drooling like Pavlov’s dog and you are already munching these delicious snacks – at least in theory? If your answer is yes, keep reading – you might lose your appetite by the end of the article.
If you are among the – fortunately growing – group of people who take good care of themselves and pay attention to living consciously and healthily, then you must be pretty fed up with the different bans. Yet, all of the above-mentioned foods have a giant “Stop” sign on them.
Alright, we know that we shouldn’t eat them, but we don’t talk about the why – apart from the fact that they contain too many calories – so they are much more difficult to give up. If you only consider the energy content of the meals you can buy in the kiosks on the beach, you might be right to ask whether it is OK to take the “cheating” into consideration in terms of your daily carbohydrate and fat intake. Now, we would like to tell you why you shouldn’t eat such meals nonetheless…
It’s not sugar that is your greatest enemy…
One of the most common and often misunderstood myths nowadays is “sugar phobia”. Misunderstood, because there is truly a connection between the consumption of sugary foods and obesity (duh!), but beet sugar and fructose are not harmful. To the contrary, they are good for athletes as they provide fast energy replenishment, e.g. during tournaments. The emphasis is on sports and moderation.
However, it’s unnecessary or even bad for your body to eat the oil used to prepare the the French fries. When sunflower oil is heated beyond a certain temperature and it is reused again and again, trans fats appear that are very harmful to. They most frequently occur in ready-made meals as a result of hydrogenation, a procedure used by the food industry. These fatty acids have a changed structure that contribute to cardiovascular diseases, cholesterol problems and cancerous conditions. Our bodies cannot use them or break them down, therefore they are stored as body fat… in the form of love handles. Such trans fat can be found in the bun of your hot dog and even in the frankfurter. It also applies to the hazelnut cream used in your crepe, the deep-frozen hamburger patties, Oreos[G1] , popcorn, deep frozen French fries and bakery goods.
Decades ago salt was declared to be “white death”, just like sugar was. However, it is not true in itself as some sodium and chloride intake (i.e. salt) is essential to the maintenance of the fluid and mineral balance of the human body (appr. 1 teaspoon per day). What is even more harmful are flavour enhancers.
They are usually identified with the most popular flavour enhancer, monosodium glutamate, which doesn’t only provide a new character to the taste, but it also makes it more accented. This is why waffles or chocolate cream taste so good, this is why you are never satisfied after eating them, they only propel you to overconsume… and yes, there is a huge fuzz, maybe even too big about monosodium glutamate. The opponents of glutamate claim that when consumed regularly and in large quantities, it causes nausea, diabetes, brain tumour or brain damage, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease and arrhythmia, yet neither of these have been scientifically proven. (It’s already bad enough if such serious charges are raised against something, so there must be some grounds for it… All in all, it is better to avoid meals full of flavour enhancers.) It most often occurs in meat products, crisps, sauces, custards, soups, canned food and of course meals prepared in Chinese restaurants.
Therefore, we recommend that you should set out to the nearest lake or beach with meals prepared at home, in advance. Put vegetables, fruit, oily seeds, puffed rice and water abundantly into your bag.
Panna Plézer
Trainer