However, this seemingly easy, breezy lifestyle choice comes with a long-term cost. Overeating, obesity, heart disease, multiple cancers, chronic systemic inflammation, systemic diseases, mental health disorders, and premature death are all strongly correlated with highly processed food consumption.

While it's sometimes an "act of convenience" to buy these highly processed foods, letting them form the basis of your diet can really only end in eventual disease. Many of these ingredients are known to cause cancer, mess with brain chemistry and hormones, kill nerve cells, and initiate brain cell death.

It's shocking to see just how much of the American and Western diets rely on these types of processed foods as the bulk of their dietary intake.