The REAL reason behind sickness.

If it's boxed, bagged, canned, jarred and has a list of ingredients on the label, it's processed!  Food is good the way it is, why process it?

Processed foods are more convenient - that's what it comes down to.  It's so much easier to bake a cake by opening up a box, pouring out a dry mix, and adding an egg and some oil than starting from scratch.

Having Jambalaya in five minutes after pouring hot water into a carton makes your prep time for lunch a breeze.

But convenience isn't the only thing you get when you eat processed foods.  There's a whole list of ingredients that manufacturers add:

Color - it gives your orange soda that neon glow

Stabilize - so your gravy isn't watery

Emulsify - who says oil and water can't mix

Bleach - let's disenfect and deodorize

Texturize - nothing's worse than soggy cereal...

Soften - it's as if the ice cream was churned twice

Preserve - what if you want to eat the cupcake six months from now?

Sweeten - sugar is sweet but saccharin and aspartame is sweeter

Hide Odors - do you really want to smell the fish paste in your instant Pad Thai?

Flavor - nothing like having the sweet taste of watermelon all year round, how kind of them!

If you can't pronounce it, do you really want to eat it?  The problem is, most processed foods have a laundry list of ingredients similar to that of a can of paint.  It's not as simple as adding a little sugar to canned bisque or lemon juice to a scone mix.  Take a look at the list of ingredients from the strawberry flavoring of a milkshake served at a zip-through restaurant:

Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamylvalerate, cognac essertial oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl Nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerbate, heliotropin, hydroxphrenyl-2butanone (10% solution to alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methly benzoate, methly cinnamate, methyl heptine carbone, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl silcylate, mint essential oil, neroil essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobulyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, sor run either, g-undecalctone, vanillin, and solvent.

Looks delicious, doesn't it?  And this is just a small sampling of the SIX THOUSAND chemicals used to process foods!!