Things in your kitchen that may be killing you slowly

Kitchen is a place where food is prepared and cooked. This implies that ingredients used in the preparation of food are mostly kept there.

Although it is advisable feed more on home cooked food than junks, there are still ingredients found in the kitchen that can be injurious to health.

Confiance News has put together four ingredients culled from Fakaza News.

A jar full of white, crystals of sugar is found in almost every kitchen. This sweet sugar sneaks in spoonfuls into tea, coffee, milkshakes, and other recipes. However, consuming too much added sugar can lead to higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. Further, all of these conditions increase your risk of stroke and heart disease.

Refined flour can be present in your kitchen in its powdery form, along with being present in the cookies, cakes, cereal, bread, and pasta in your kitchen. Excessive refined flour consumption can be linked to weight gain, metabolic problems, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. What’s more, the refining process also leads to a substantial loss of dietary fiber, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and vitamin E.

Too much salt increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. According to the World Health Organisation, most people consume too much salt—on average 9–12 grams per day, or around twice the recommended maximum level of intake. Decreasing sodium intake could prevent many deaths.

 Oil

Is your cooking pan full of oil always or every other day on your gas stove? Do people in your house love eating pakoras, fried onion rings, French fries, frozen foods etc.? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you and your family are increasing their risks of heart attack, stroke, breast/ovarian cancer, diabetes, hypertension, unhealthy weight gain, and joint pain, among others.

Confiance News gathered that although it may be near impossible to avoid the above mentioned food items, consuming them in small amounts and supplementing them with healthier alternatives is key to staying healthy.