Processed foods

cleanandlean2012

I follow James Duigan Clean and Lean - no processed foods or refined sugar. Typically lots of lean protein and veggies. His cookbook, helped as it gave me lots of ideas when I got to the boredom threshold!!

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

...protein powders are out.

Agreed. Plus they have nasty stuff like silica that your body can't digest anyway...

Just like that nasty insoluble fiber!

BeachIron

OP - no one here is going to argue that you should eat McDonald's every day or should eat nothing but canned foods. I find the convenience fact is increased many fold by keep frozen vegetables, fruit and meats in the house. When I come home late, or we have all been busy all day, it's easy enough to cook up a great meal with some key ingredients.

Too often "processed" food is given a bad rap because it all is thrown in the same box as Oreos. Canned low sodium tomatoes, for example, make a great base for puttanesca which works very well on chicken breast or fish. I keep frozen chicken breast and frozen tilapia in the house for this reason. I also will mix protein powder (clearly processed) with Greek yogurt, frozen blueberries and sliced almonds for breakfast or a snack. Eggs with tortillas (processed but I like the high fiber ones from La Tortilla Factory because they are awesome), fresh avocado and salsa (again out of a jar) makes a great breakfast.

I guess the point in all of this, is definitely learn to cook. Preparing food is enjoyable and the end result tastes great and can be custom fit for your dietary needs.

jonnythan

Anybody have any good tips as to how to cut out processed foods?

Absolutely. My tip is: "don't bother."

jofjltncb6

OP - no one here is going to argue that you should eat McDonald's every day or should eat nothing but canned foods. I find the convenience fact is increased many fold by keep frozen vegetables, fruit and meats in the house. When I come home late, or we have all been busy all day, it's easy enough to cook up a great meal with some key ingredients.

Too often "processed" food is given a bad rap because it all is thrown in the same box as Oreos. Canned low sodium tomatoes, for example, make a great base for puttanesca which works very well on chicken breast or fish.

Mmmm, Oreos.

AmyP619

home cooking! no more boxed stuff!

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

shop the outside asiles of your grocery store first. Lots of veggies. I also buy the big bag of birds eye frozen veggies from Wal mart.

And how do the veggies get frozen and bagged? Processing...

My hero.

Not my hero.
Frozen is the next best. And to be honest - most 'FRESH' produce is picked and shipped sooner than it should be meaning its not as ripe as its supposed to be when picked therefore it loses some of its nutrients. Frozen isnt 'processed' in that way such as lunch meat and such so if youre going to eat frozen veggies, dont feel bad about it.

To avoid processed foods, stay away from ground meats, packaged meats, velveeta cheese or cheese in a jar, etc.....

This is not always the case. A lot of companies are selling their frozen veggies with some preservatives, flavorings, etc. You still need to read your nutririon labels and ingredients if you live somewhere that they are required.

gogoboobzilla

.

jonnythan

Removing gmo 's has been the ONLY effective course of action.

Oh good lord.

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

Nope. I just had linguini with canned clam sauce and chicken breast that was previously frozen. I'm pretty sure it's going to kill me.

OP: You need to learn how to cook using fresh ingredients but the "cut out" processed foods idea is way over the top. I suppose you could move to Alaska and hunt and gather for the rest of your life, or you could simply learn a bit about nutrition and avoid thinking that there's a boogeyman in every can or box.

That's actually considered clean eating. (and tasty). As long as the chicken is hormone and antibiotic free and not factory farmed. Nothing wrong with that meal at all.

I'm so glad that fits your personal definition of clean eating. Enjoy your quixotic crusade.

I'm just saying honestly. I mean yeah, the seafood is in a can. If it's just seafood and water (and no preservatives) so what? The pasta could be organic and made by hand and purchased at a little Italian market and the chicken could be purchased at the farmer's market and frozen by the person that bought the chicken from the farmer.

If you dig into the definition there's ways to make this meal clean.

Even cleaner would be to make the pasta yourself at home (but getting it from a small maker or in my case the farmer's market--how is that not clean eating?).

Just think about what you are saying.

Every meal can be transformed to a clean meal if you just source local, small, and organic for the ingredients. The canned fish can be adjusted by visiting the local fisherman at the farmer's market (mine is really awesome by the way and I'm 1/2 hour from the ocean).

You just gotta get creative.

Clams + pasta + chicken = really good clean eating if you think for a minute where the ingredients are coming from. If I dig the clams out of the sand 1/2 hour from my house, get the pasta and chicken from the farmer's market I'd have to say that's pretty gosh darn clean eating.

Unless the clams you dug were dug from an area where there was a seep from an oil rig, and the clams have been accumulating PAHs from that seep.

gogoboobzilla

Losing weight does not equal thin. Being buff doesn't mean that conventional/gmo food isn't harming you.
Yeah, I'm fat. But personal attacks are way low, and I think you're definitely angry and not at me.
I'm fat because I eat too much and exercise too little. But y'know what? I've had IBS since I was 12, and cutting all gmo/non organic/in general awful, complicated, processed ingredients makes my symptoms completely vanish. You and your friends with PHD's can't tell me that my body is wrong for rejecting that kind of garbage, along with plenty of other people in the world.

I was responding to your unbelievable arrogance in calling me ignorant while sitting in a rather large glass house. Funny how people like you scream "personal attack" while dishing it out.

You've obviously read some book or website and bought into some pseudoscientific studies. Your IBS has nothing to do with GMO foods but it often is treatable by removing foods from your diet. You've taken the additional, and unfounded leap, of blaming it on GMO. That said, I'm sure you will keep believing what you want to believe no matter how little evidence you have to support your beliefs.

Calling out ignorance in a post isn't a personal attack. You're not necessarily a generally ignorant person because I believe you to be ignorant on a particular subject. However, what you said to me really can't be described in any way but as a personal attack.
You're making bold assumptions on my specific case.
Removing foods from my diet? I spent years going to multiple pediatric gastroenterologists who did all kinds of allergy testings and elimination diets. Removing gmo 's has been the ONLY effective course of action. I don't understand how you say I need evidence to support my beliefs! The complete alleviation of my symptoms is total proof. But like someone said, this is off topic, so I'll leave it at that.

UrnAsh

Seriously, is it that hard to make a suggestion and then MOVE ON? Just watch at how easy it is. I guess your post count wont climb if you don't sit and argue and be an @$$ hat. I'm assuming OP was just talking about boxed dinners and such. I make a lot of stuff from scratch.
Unless you're raising and killing your own meat and growing your own veggies it will be a tad hard to stay away from "processed" foods.

whierd

Because I'm.in a good mood, I will explain what processing means.

Processing occurs whenever a food is altered from it's original food. Cutting, portioning, cooking, freezing, etc, are all examples of processing. Seasoning food is also processing.

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

Cows are slaughtered, field dressed, skinned, refrigerated, cut, and portioned. Again each levels of processing. Ground beef is further processed by grinding it. Again, no evil involved.

jonnythan

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I always wonder why McDonald's Quarter Pounders taste better than homemade ones. Now I know.

I wonder if they will sell me a jar of Evil at the drive-through.

BeccaBollons

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I always wonder why McDonald's Quarter Pounders taste better than homemade ones. Now I know.

I wonder if they will sell me a jar of Evil at the drive-through.

Its easy to add your own Evil. Its salt and sugar. Very addictive don'tcha know. And very processed and chemical-y.

whierd

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I always wonder why McDonald's Quarter Pounders taste better than homemade ones. Now I know.

I wonder if they will sell me a jar of Evil at the drive-through.

Concentrated evil will kill you.

Avoid the evil people!!

whierd

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I always wonder why McDonald's Quarter Pounders taste better than homemade ones. Now I know.

I wonder if they will sell me a jar of Evil at the drive-through.

Its easy to add your own Evil. Its salt and sugar. Very addictive don'tcha know. And very processed and chemical-y.

It is also aspertame, carbs, fats, and Poptarts. Concentrated evil, right there.

BeccaBollons

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I always wonder why McDonald's Quarter Pounders taste better than homemade ones. Now I know.

I wonder if they will sell me a jar of Evil at the drive-through.

Its easy to add your own Evil. Its salt and sugar. Very addictive don'tcha know. And very processed and chemical-y.

It is also aspertame, carbs, fats, and Poptarts. Concentrated evil, right there.

Don't forget bacon

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

Is this guy working for Monsanto? I can't believe the ignorance. GMO produce has caused tumors in rats. The backbone of conventional agriculture is from the company who invented Agent Orange. And even if you don't buy into any of that, conventional produce literally has less nutrients than organic/heirloom. The new hybrid Salmon thats about to get released? Totally pales in comparison nutritionally to normal, wild caught salmon.

The rat tumours are not a hard fact. There was no causality proven, and the single study that came up with that result has been controverted heavily. Every one of the French academies of science have waved the BS flag on the research there. So.., the jury is still out on GMO corn. There is still no proof of harm.

I fail to see the logic in finding offense in a company becasue they produced a harmful substance at on epoint in time. Would you avoid buying Mitsubishi products because they buit the Japanese Zero in World War 2? Do you avoid buying Mercedes-Benz because they built armored infantry vehicles?

Agent Orange is not solely the product of Monsanto. It also was produced by 9 other companies including Dow Chemical. Do you avoid using batteries? Dow Chemical is a leader in the development in energy stotrage. CVan you believe the people who gave us Agent Orange also are the backbone of the energy storage industry?

GadgetGuy2

look up Allrecipes.com! have a look at many different recipes according to your taste and you will see how you can cook using many different types of food,for example how to make a pizza from base to sauce to finish.I never thought I could do it and now I wouldnt think of buying one,thats just one example!best of luck!

How long does it take to mill your flour for your pizza?

I would guess 7.5 minutes as it takes me about 15 minutes to mill a complete flour container from kernels using an electric mill.

Mrshotwing

Exactly! i would much rather eat frozen veggies than a box of hamburger helper.

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

look up Allrecipes.com! have a look at many different recipes according to your taste and you will see how you can cook using many different types of food,for example how to make a pizza from base to sauce to finish.I never thought I could do it and now I wouldnt think of buying one,thats just one example!best of luck!

How long does it take to mill your flour for your pizza?

I would guess 7.5 minutes as it takes me about 15 minutes to mill a complete flour container from kernels using an electric mill.

I have a hand crank mill. It would take me a bit longer. Especially to grind it to a fine flour texture.

servalan

Processed food is a spectrum, but is used as an industry term as shorthand for things like Doritos, hamburger helper, and all of those "convenience foods" that are prepared and available at the store.

As others have mentioned, I suggest being a label reader. If you're trying to lower your consumption of salt, sugar, or fat, it's very difficult, even if you buy "good brands" or "healthy food". If you're not careful, that can of beans has a lot of sugar and salt in it. Read those labels carefully so you know what you're getting into.

Unless you're a homesteader, you probably won't be able to remove every single processed item from your diet. The farmer's market was mentioned, and that is definitely a good option. I'd say whenever you can buy fresh meat, so much the better, but I do supplement with frozen when needed. I try to use fresh veg and avoid pesticides, but I do have frozen veg in the freezer just in case. We have brown rice and dry beans in the cupboards, and I usually make up a bunch or rice and veg at once to last for several meals. I plan out my meals on the weekend and make/buy for the week, so I'm not faced with "what's for dinner".. it's hard to make good choices when you don't have the ingredients or time.

I also make a dinner for 2 or 3 nights at once, and I make breakfast for the whole week on the weekend.

If you have concerns over processed foods, you should read "Salt, Sugar, and Fat". The book is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Moss, who interviewed food scientists and CEOs in those industries, as well as use of FOIA requests, to see the growth of the industry and their approaches through time of adding Salt, Sugar, and Fat. There is a "perfect amount" of these components for each food, called the "bliss point", which makes your body crave more and increase consumption of those foods (so they sell more). This bliss point affects people differently as far as strength of craving, and this even cuts along demographic lines by age group and ethnicity. It's extremely interesting, and it explains the biology, chemistry, and causes of the body's reactions, as well as the "safe levels" of having these things, according to independent studies. (Even red meat, processed meat, etc., as well as what conditions someone might have an increased risk of developing due to these items.)

ahamm002

I do love sour patch kids, just pointing out how unhelpful people are, the OP asked for non processed foods. Making your own pizza dough from a recipe still requires use of processed ingredients.

Likewise, if I grow organic broccoli in my backyard and then pick it, there was still a "process" to picking it. Therefore it's "processed" and I might as well just eat twinkies and pop tarts instead b/c all food is processed. Great point . . . not.

FYI, when people talk about processed foods they're not using it as an all or nothing term. They're looking for less processed foods that typically have less unhealthy additives and more nutrients then their more processed counterparts.

DatMurse

Processed food is a spectrum, but is used as an industry term as shorthand for things like Doritos, hamburger helper, and all of those "convenience foods" that are prepared and available at the store.

As others have mentioned, I suggest being a label reader. If you're trying to lower your consumption of salt, sugar, or fat, it's very difficult, even if you buy "good brands" or "healthy food". If you're not careful, that can of beans has a lot of sugar and salt in it. Read those labels carefully so you know what you're getting into.

Unless you're a homesteader, you probably won't be able to remove every single processed item from your diet. The farmer's market was mentioned, and that is definitely a good option. I'd say whenever you can buy fresh meat, so much the better, but I do supplement with frozen when needed. I try to use fresh veg and avoid pesticides, but I do have frozen veg in the freezer just in case. We have brown rice and dry beans in the cupboards, and I usually make up a bunch or rice and veg at once to last for several meals. I plan out my meals on the weekend and make/buy for the week, so I'm not faced with "what's for dinner".. it's hard to make good choices when you don't have the ingredients or time.

I also make a dinner for 2 or 3 nights at once, and I make breakfast for the whole week on the weekend.

If you have concerns over processed foods, you should read "Salt, Sugar, and Fat". The book is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Moss, who interviewed food scientists and CEOs in those industries, as well as use of FOIA requests, to see the growth of the industry and their approaches through time of adding Salt, Sugar, and Fat. There is a "perfect amount" of these components for each food, called the "bliss point", which makes your body crave more and increase consumption of those foods (so they sell more). This bliss point affects people differently as far as strength of craving, and this even cuts along demographic lines by age group and ethnicity. It's extremely interesting, and it explains the biology, chemistry, and causes of the body's reactions, as well as the "safe levels" of having these things, according to independent studies. (Even red meat, processed meat, etc., as well as what conditions someone might have an increased risk of developing due to these items.)

you are focused on the wrong things when it comes to food. what does sugar and salt have to do with it...
you really do not know what you are talking about.

EmmaKarney

Anybody have any good tips as to how to cut out processed foods?

Stop buying them and eating them.

EmmaKarney

Let's take pasta sauce, which I can at home. It is given a water bath, the skins and seeds removed, put in a pot with other ingredients, cooked, poured into Mason jars, then boiled. Each of these steps is a level or processing. Notice I did not add in evil.

I'm totally cool with processing if it just means chopping, peeling etc...

If super market tomato sauces just contained tomatoes and maybe some seasoning and herbs that would be cool.

The "processing" isn't the issue - it's the added sugar, completely unnecessary preservatives, colours and texture enhancers - why do we need them in our diet? Sugar makes us fat and it is addictive.

I buy fresh organic pasta sauces with no artificial ingrediants from time to time for convenience.

magerum

eric_sg61

Sugar makes us fat and it is addictive.

I know I am sooo fat from snorting lines of sugar

lisamarie447

There are lots and lots of websites devoted to clean eating recipes and such... that's the best way I've found!