Processed food
cnjg420
Posts: 405 Member
How can you tell
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Replies
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Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical35
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Different people mean different things by "processed." Some people say "nothing out of a can, box, or bag." I use the term "real food" - I do buy canned and frozen fruits and veggies (as well as fresh, of course), just without added salt & sugar. I also buy protein powder, unsweetened but it was still processed to turn into a powder in a bag. I also buy healthy bread. I mostly buy *ingredients* instead of pre-made meals so I don't get additives I don't need. Hey, some frozen meals are pretty healthy but I find I like preparing my own food and it helps me control and track my calories and macros.
If someone says they eat no processed food it could mean different things to different people. Technically, coffee, tea, breakfast cereal, bread, pasteurized milk, anything that doesn't look the way it looked when it was harvested has been processed.9 -
On the weekend, someone told me firstly that meat was a processed food (for reasons other than being butchered, that they couldn't explain
) then later told me that the definition of processed was having fibre removed. They then couldn't explain how that definition fit their previous statement about meat (which has no fibre), or dairy (again, fibre less), or that many processed foods have fibre added during processing.
Most things we eat are processed to some degree. Some are minimally processed, others are highly processed. This has no real correlation to the healthiness of a product. Determine what you think healthy is, then when you're determining what to eat, decide if this fits your definition of healthy. Healthy isn't just what you eat imo.16 -
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Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical
People are giving this poster a hard time, but there are a lot of people who consider added sweeteners, salt, preservatives, softeners, coloring, etc. as the red flag for "processed" and many of them are chemicals we don't need. Those are often the "hard" words. There's debate about whether those things are neutral or harmful, but they aren't beneficial with the possible exception of vitamin/mineral fortifications (& there's debate about some of them, like folic acid). I avoid additives but I don't claim to eat zero processed foods.21 -
Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical
People are giving this poster a hard time, but there are a lot of people who consider added sweeteners, salt, preservatives, softeners, coloring, etc. as the red flag for "processed" and many of them are chemicals we don't need. Those are often the "hard" words. There's debate about whether those things are neutral or harmful, but they aren't beneficial with the possible exception of vitamin/mineral fortifications (& there's debate about some of them, like folic acid). I avoid additives but I don't claim to eat zero processed foods.
People are giving the concept a hard time. It's simplified to the point of uselessness to advise that if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. It is utterly unhelpful, and things that are utterly unhelpful need to be called out or they continue to perpetuate.20 -
I think many people read "processed food" as "possessed food". It sounds so scary! Education is key, being able to pronounce things, lets you eat more foods!9
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kommodevaran wrote: »I think many people read "processed food" as "possessed food". It sounds so scary!
Woooooooooo! (In the ghostly sense only
)
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Haha right?5 -
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How can you tell
A processed food is anything not in its whole form.
For example, plain greek yogurt is cultured, cheese is processed (all cheese, not just processed cheese product). Anything cured or already cooked is processed. Dried or canned foods are processed. Premade (as in dried or packaged) pasta is processed.
I don't understand why people think "processed" means bad for you or anything other than it's obvious on its face meaning.
Personally, I eat some processed foods that I consider quite helpful or tasty. In the morning I add feta cheese to my omelet, might have smoked salmon on the side (processed), might have cottage cheese or plain greek yogurt.
Any bread is processed (even if you make it yourself, since flour is, unless you grind your own). If you use butter or olive oil or any other oil, that's processed. So on. Buy a rotissarie chicken, processed.
Buy ice cream, processed. Make it myself with cream, berries, honey instead of sugar, perhaps it's arguably not processed, but is it lower calorie or better for me? Probably not.
So I join those asking why it matters.
Personally, I eat better when I focus on eating lots of whole foods, especially lots of vegetables, and do a lot of cooking at home, but obsessing about whether or not some of my foods are processed (because obviously they are and I think most who claim not to eat processed foods are lying to themselves), is not helpful.10 -
Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical
Nope. If it has a label with ingredients on it, it's generally processed, period.
I suppose some stores might sell whole foods with ingredients (there would be only one), but where I shop vegetables and fruits and the like, won't have an ingredient list.7 -
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Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical
People are giving this poster a hard time, but there are a lot of people who consider added sweeteners, salt, preservatives, softeners, coloring, etc. as the red flag for "processed" and many of them are chemicals we don't need. Those are often the "hard" words. There's debate about whether those things are neutral or harmful, but they aren't beneficial with the possible exception of vitamin/mineral fortifications (& there's debate about some of them, like folic acid). I avoid additives but I don't claim to eat zero processed foods.
Those people are using the term "processed" incorrectly.6 -
It is a matter of what definition you are working with.
If a human took a plant or animal and ground, skinned, cut, shredded, mixed, seasoned, cooked the food has been processed. So if you did not kill or pick the food item yourself it was processed by someone else. Everything in your local market has technically been processed. Processed does not necessarily mean a food has more calories or less nutrition.
Some people say processed whenever the food has been is in packaging and is ready to eat with minimal to no additional preparation. Cheese, bread, pasta, yogurt, canned vegetables, packaged granola bars, frozen meals would be processed. A hunk of raw meat, raw whole milk, whole fruits or vegetables, eggs would probably not be considered processed by these people. They want to use things as close to the natural state as possible. They might say things like eat whole foods or raw foods.
Some people say processed when the food has a certain type of preservatives, flavorings and dyes added. They mainly mean avoid factory processed foods. They might buy fresh baked bread at a local bakery or jam at a Farmer's market or eat home canned vegetables but not factory made Wonder bread at the grocery store. They prefer freshly made foods, home processed foods or raw ingredients to make foods from scratch. They might say things like if you look at the label and you can't pronounce the ingredients then you should not eat it.
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As most have already stated opinions may vary on what is processed and what is not. In my opinion if you didn't pick it, grow it, raise it or it comes with a label it probably processed in some way. Depending on where you live it is getting harder and harder to find true unprocessed or chemically treated food.3
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Look at the ingredients. Generally if you can't pronounce it then it's a processed chemical
This morning I wanted 2 unprocessed eggs but I decided they didn't really taste good so I processed them myself. First I fried them in oleic acid, myristic acid palmitic acid, searic acid, and other stuff I can't pronounce. For flavoring I added sodium chloride and piper nigrum. They were much tastier after this and I learned a bunch of new words in the process.28 -
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gearhead426hemi wrote: »As most have already stated opinions may vary on what is processed and what is not. In my opinion if you didn't pick it, grow it, raise it or it comes with a label it probably processed in some way. Depending on where you live it is getting harder and harder to find true unprocessed or chemically treated food.
I kind of prefer my food treated with dihydrogen monoxide.
(I'm not afraid of many other chemicals either. )9 -
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Our bodies need a certain amount of food processing to access nutrients: fermentation, boiling, baking, cracking nuts, separating wheat from chaff... these are all technically processing. The important thing is to be aware of what processing does to food; often when people say it's "bad" they refer to the tendency of companies to add sugar, salt, and/or oil to stuff which throws off our innate sense of when to stop eating (presumably by, as I understand it, decreasing micronutrient density of the food even as it increases the availability of macronutrients). Presence of artificial ingredients and scary-sounding chemicals isn't a problem in and of itself, but there's some concern about consuming them in large quantities/consistently/at all. So logging is extra important when eating processed foodstuffs; and while nobody will die from eating a cheezit, it's probably best not to eat highly processed food for every meal.6
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