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Processed foods are typically loaded with excess sugar, salt, unhealthful fats, preservatives and other additives.

But you probably know this already. What you may not know about processed foods is the extent of the havoc they can wreak on your body, a closely guarded secret that the processed food industry doesn’t want you to know.

In short, though they may taste good and be easy to prepare, when you eat processed foods you’re exchanging convenience for your health.

10 Processed-Food Secrets the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

In the featured article,1 Donna Gates, author of The Body Ecology Diet, explains 10 reasons why you might want to think twice the next time you’re tempted to eat processed foods.

1. They’re Addictive and May Cause You to Overeat

Processing modifies or removes important components of food, like fiber, water and nutrients, changing the way they are digested and assimilated in your body.

Unlike whole foods, which contain a mix of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fiber and water to help you feel satisfied, processed foods stimulate dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter, making you feel good even though the food lacks nutrients and fiber. This artificial dopamine stimulation can lead to excessive food cravings and, ultimately, food addiction.

2. They’re Linked to Obesity

Processed foods are virtually guaranteed to contain additives that are linked to obesity. This includes monosodium glutamate (MSG), high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and more. Plus, refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar.,

This increases your insulin  and leptin levels, and contribute to insulin resistance, which is the primary underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

3. They Break Principles of Food Combining

Some nutrition and health experts, such as Wayne Pickering, believe that eating foods in certain combinations helps your body’s digestive processes to work more efficiently and absorb more nutrients. Wayne actually constructed a very useful food combining chart that can be obtained on his website.  According to one such premise, eating proteins and starches together, which is common in processed foods (such as a pepperoni pizza), inhibits digestion leading to putrification of your food, acidic conditions in your blood and supports disease-causing pathogens in your gut.