Health Risks of Individually Quick Frozen Foods

Keep aware of the potential side affects in your individual quick-frozen dinners. Though frozen dinners are easy and convenient to make, processed frozen foods are loaded with additives, refined carbohydrates, starch, high-fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy ingredients to ensure their freshness and preservation. While frozen foods may affect everyone differently, according to The World Health Organization consumption may propose certain health risks.

Diabetes

According to the National Starch Food Innovation, starches provide a freeze-thaw stability in frozen foods, that give them their fresh taste and texture. However, starch is 100 percent glucose, meaning that your body instantly digests it into sugar. While a diet void of glucose is extremely unhealthy, a diet containing too much glucose increases your risk of diabetes by damaging your body tissues. Starch is broken down into pure sugar in your body; if you have diabetes or a history of diabetes in your family you should be wary of quick frozen foods.

Heart Disease

Processed frozen foods that contain trans-fatty acids could put you at a higher risk for heart disease. The American Heart Association maintains that trans-fatty acids can raise your bad cholesterol while lowering your good cholesterol and increasing your risk of heart disease. Salt, as a preservative, is used in excess in quick frozen food meals. A diet high in salt raises your cholesterol levels and also puts you at risk for heart disease. When choosing frozen meals, pay attention to the daily recommended percentage of sodium per serving to keep your salt levels down.

Cancer

Processed meats, such as hot dogs or sausage, may cause a 2/3 increase of pancreatic cancer compared with people who eat little or no meat, according to a seven-year study at the University of Hawaii. Substances commonly found in processed foods, like high fructose corn syrup, were also found to be linked to cancer in a study found in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention Journal. A professor at Clark University proposed that acrylamide, a substance formed on foods that are heated at high temperatures, has caused several thousand cancer cases per year.

Food Additive Dangers

Processed frozen foods are filled with chemicals, known as additives, which keep the food preserved over time. However, many of these additives have not been tested for safety by the Food and Drug Administration and require no government approval. Additive side effects may vary. Reported side affects for the common additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) include numbness, tingling, chest pain, headaches, nausea, rapid heartbeat, weakness or drowsiness, burning sensation and possible breathing difficulties.