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Are Processed Foods "Bad"?
Replies
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My view in it is as long as my diet is overall well balanced, I get my micronutrients and fiber...then having a processed food here and there isn't the end of the world. I won't lose sleep over it that's for sure.5
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Almost everyone I've seen going on about quitting processed foods has a weird definition of processed (if they think a food is healthy or not that bad they don't consider it processed even if it obviously is -- the funniest example is usually protein powder or maybe McD's). Also most seem to use "I eat no processed food" to mean "I cut down on the amount of junk food I eat," which always puzzles me in that those are obviously very different things and not eating any processed food is not particularly something to aspire to, IMO, whereas improving ones diet and eating a more nutrient-focused one is great without setting up a pointless standard you aren't actually meeting. I do think it's something of a snob thing, or a way to contrast how they are eating to some imagined way that others are.
I think many (not all) people planning to lose probably could stand to cut down on junk food (another controversial term, I mean high cal, non nutrient dense foods, often used as snacks or desserts), but not all processed foods are within the usual meaning of junk food (and you can make high cal, not very nutrient dense foods starting with whole ingredients if you want). So the "processed food" thing just seems like a not well thought out buzzword to me.16 -
The Diet industry needed a new catchphrase and “processed foods” appeals to food snobs whilst being too ambiguous to ever prove or disprove scientifically.15
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I clicked on this thread looking for inspired trollery and extreme butthurt. Needless to say, I am very disappointed.19
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It’s not that there’s anything inherently ‘bad’ about processed foods assuming portions are controlled, but junk food manufacturers very carefully create their products to be extremely palatable. There’s evidence your brain responds to foods that are high in salt, fat, and sugar by increasing your appetite so you want to eat way more than you need. You can avoid this response more easily with home cooked food. So yes, you can eat processed foods and still lose weight, you just need to be aware.
The book ‘outsmarting the hungry brain’ is written by an obesity researcher and describes this phenomenon in more detail.12 -
But again processed foods and "junk foods" are not the same.
You can make junk foods at home (usually using processed ingredients, but you could do everything from whole foods), and plenty of processed foods aren't normally considered junk foods (dried pasta, canned tomatoes, cottage cheese or plain greek yogurt, plain old coffee).11 -
When someone says "processed foods" my mind immediately goes to Cheetos Puffs and Velveeta. Both of those items have a (limited) spot in my diet.9
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That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home cooked unhealthy food is also way less convenient, when's the last time someone you know stopped at the grocery store to get everything they needed to make homemade burgers and fries and then went home and spent an hour making it instead of stopping at McDonald's? So yes, it's possible, but you really need the convenience of fast/packaged foods to make impulsive bad food decisions.
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happytree923 wrote: »That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home cooked unhealthy food is also way less convenient, when's the last time someone you know stopped at the grocery store to get everything they needed to make homemade burgers and fries and then went home and spent an hour making it instead of stopping at McDonald's? So yes, it's possible, but you really need the convenience of fast/packaged foods to make impulsive bad food decisions.
I am a researcher of one plus my test subjects( hubster and kiddo) in which I am forever tweaking recipes to make them more palatable. I make hamburgers with fries at home all the time.19 -
happytree923 wrote: »That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home cooked unhealthy food is also way less convenient, when's the last time someone you know stopped at the grocery store to get everything they needed to make homemade burgers and fries and then went home and spent an hour making it instead of stopping at McDonald's? So yes, it's possible, but you really need the convenience of fast/packaged foods to make impulsive bad food decisions.
Chefs also don't just sit down and go "eh, good enough.".
And really, an hour to make a burger at home? Ground beef, spices, egg white, bred crumbs. Mix well, form patties, fry. Boom, done. Put on a bun with some sliced vegetables of your choice and sauce.11 -
I noticed processed foods, factory not home made foods have a tendency to include sweeteners when there is no real reason for them too. Who expects sweeteners in savoury meals? Its usually in there! Also processed foods sold as low fat have to conceal the lack of fat with the addition of sweeteners. Also processed foods are often high in artificial flavourings. In the past months people who consume high volumes of processed foods are being shown to be at greater risk of our 21st century health issues. Home preparation gives you control of the different substances/chemicals you introduce into your body. Its each to their own.
Most foods marketed as low fat that have the added sugar weren't a fatty food in the first place. I find very few low fat foods that are typically full fat that have a bunch of added sugar.
As to the OP, IMO not all processed foods are created equal. I eat a lot of whole foods and use a lot of minimally processed foods as well. I'd say my use of heavily processed food good is pretty low. I think there are a lot of processed foods that have a lot of calories and little in the way of actual nutrition...and other processed foods that are perfectly good from a nutritional standpoint and reasonable calorie wise.
My wife and I started buying this quinoa and brown rice mix that you just throw in the microwave in a bag...it doesn't really have much in the way of additives other than what I'd do myself. Same for this Indian lentil package we found. It has nothing in it besides what I'd put in it if I made it myself. We don't use them all of the time because they're quite a bit more expensive than just making it ourselves...but they're damn convenient when we don't have time or forget to prep such things in advance.
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happytree923 wrote: »That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home cooked unhealthy food is also way less convenient, when's the last time someone you know stopped at the grocery store to get everything they needed to make homemade burgers and fries and then went home and spent an hour making it instead of stopping at McDonald's? So yes, it's possible, but you really need the convenience of fast/packaged foods to make impulsive bad food decisions.
I'm a pretty dang good cook...I go out of my way to make my meals as palatable as possible. I also make burgers and home fries pretty much once per week in grilling season...I find them more palatable than anything I'd ever get at McDonalds. It doesn't take me an hour to grill burgers either...I can have home fries and a burger ready in about 20 minutes.
One thing I don't understand about the "palatable" argument is that anything I make from scratch at home is way more palatable and delicious than anything I could get processed. I do eat some processed foods out of convenience...but my home cooked Madras Lentils are way better than the Tasty Bite packaged and ready to heat lentils are...the package is just more convenient in a pinch.
ETA: I'm also always confused as to how a burger is an unhealthy food...it's just ground beef on a grill.16 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I noticed processed foods, factory not home made foods have a tendency to include sweeteners when there is no real reason for them too. Who expects sweeteners in savoury meals? Its usually in there! Also processed foods sold as low fat have to conceal the lack of fat with the addition of sweeteners. Also processed foods are often high in artificial flavourings. In the past months people who consume high volumes of processed foods are being shown to be at greater risk of our 21st century health issues. Home preparation gives you control of the different substances/chemicals you introduce into your body. Its each to their own.
Most foods marketed as low fat that have the added sugar weren't a fatty food in the first place. I find very few low fat foods that are typically full fat that have a bunch of added sugar.
As to the OP, IMO not all processed foods are created equal. I eat a lot of whole foods and use a lot of minimally processed foods as well. I'd say my use of heavily processed food good is pretty low. I think there are a lot of processed foods that have a lot of calories and little in the way of actual nutrition...and other processed foods that are perfectly good from a nutritional standpoint and reasonable calorie wise.
My wife and I started buying this quinoa and brown rice mix that you just throw in the microwave in a bag...it doesn't really have much in the way of additives other than what I'd do myself. Same for this Indian lentil package we found. It has nothing in it besides what I'd put in it if I made it myself. We don't use them all of the time because they're quite a bit more expensive than just making it ourselves...but they're damn convenient when we don't have time or forget to prep such things in advance.
I've been eating a lot of microwave meals, and I'm glad to hear that the tasty bite lentils are as good as my green giant and birdseye frozen veggies.
It's a bit of a chore to microwave 2-3 things and piece together a meal, but fully processed microwave meals are either too small, or too big, or just not satisfying.
Unfortunately partially precooked microwavable chicken is just nasty in general so I've been eating almost exclusively frozen precooked beef. I try to be moderately picky about it, but there's just not a great deal of options.
I've lost the weight so obviously something is working. Just about to hit phase 1 maintenance and get back to serious strength training. Still not entirely sure whether I'll be doing KBells or bar this phase.5 -
happytree923 wrote: »That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home kitchens don't need that. Ultra processed foods must make foods that taste good with an extensive shelf life and made for very cheap. Home cooks can easily make MUCH better food just using tried and true methods and ingredients (like butter!). There is NO packaged sweet that to my taste comes anywhere close to a really interesting fine dining dessert or even my own apple or strawberry-rhubarb pie or the many different kinds of homemade Christmas cookies some of us exchange at my office during Christmas season. My assistant has a catering business on the side, and she makes some delicious desserts too -- WAY better than anything you can buy at the grocery store or some fast food place or whatever.
But that aside, that wasn't really my point. You seemed to be equating "processed food" and "junk food" and not all junk food is especially processed and CERTAINLY not all processed food is junk food.Home cooked unhealthy food is also way less convenient, when's the last time someone you know stopped at the grocery store to get everything they needed to make homemade burgers and fries and then went home and spent an hour making it instead of stopping at McDonald's?
Are you kidding? A burger is like the most easy thing in the world to make. I have a personal rule about not having more than a serving of starchy carbs at a meal (unless it's unusual), but (before Lent, since I am currently meat free) I'd make burgers at home reasonably often, and it's one of the easiest things to do.
I mostly ate food I cooked at home when gaining weight, and it's perfectly easy to overeat home cooked food, even not so-called junk food. I never went to McD's when gaining, since I don't like McD's (or any of that type of fast food). (I also never ate the frozen meals that are reasonably healthy and calorie appropriate that many do use when losing weight or maintaining, since I like to cook.) But again that's not the point, the point is that "processed" does not mean high cal or junk food or necessarily have any particular ingredients -- people use "processed" as if it meant something it does not.10 -
As others have stated, the moment that you harvest any food source, it becomes 'Processed'. It's just the latest cudgel that people with a need to signal their virtue/social status/superiority use to beat down on the uneducated, low status, troglodytes (i.e. the rest of us) who base their nutritional choices on macros and calories as opposed to something being harvested by left-handed, albino monks, on the night of the second blue moon while facing South-South-East, on a Tuesday.18
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lemurcat12 wrote: »happytree923 wrote: »That's true, but I'd bet most home kitchens don't have a team of researchers tweaking recipes to make them as palatable as humanly possible. Large-scale food manufacturers do.
Home kitchens don't need that. Ultra processed foods must make foods that taste good with an extensive shelf life and made for very cheap. Home cooks can easily make MUCH better food just using tried and true methods and ingredients (like butter!). There is NO packaged sweet that to my taste comes anywhere close to a really interesting fine dining dessert or even my own apple or strawberry-rhubarb pie or the many different kinds of homemade Christmas cookies some of us exchange at my office during Christmas season. My assistant has a catering business on the side, and she makes some delicious desserts too -- WAY better than anything you can buy at the grocery store or some fast food place or whatever.
Fresh pound cake MMMMM5 -
Everyone can provide their own personal stories and preferences as much as they want. It does not change the fact that on average, high fat, salt, and sugar foods are highly rewarding and make you want to eat more of them. This, combined with the convienence of processed/junk/fast/whatever food, makes it easy to overeat. If you are trying to lose weight this is a good thing to be aware of.
If you think your home cooking tastes better (I am in this category too btw!), you may be under less stress, not missing meals, and have more time to cook than people with different preferences.
Honestly I’m not sure why this is so controversial? What people usually mean when they say ‘processed food’ is junk food and I thought it was pretty commonly known that it’s way easier to gain weight on junk than chicken and broccoli.25 -
I think it all depends on the processing. Processed food that has a lot of unnecessary sugar and preservatives might end up having a negative impact on a person's health if it is consumed too often. Conversely, canning is a "process" that preserves most of the nutrients in the food without adding *too many* preservatives (some sugar and salt, usually) while making it shelf-stable, and I don't think that there are too many people out there who would think of "processed" canned green beans the same way they would think of "processed" hot pockets.3
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happytree923 wrote: »Everyone can provide their own personal stories and preferences as much as they want. It does not change the fact that on average, high fat, salt, and sugar foods are highly rewarding and make you want to eat more of them. This, combined with the convienence of processed/junk/fast/whatever food, makes it easy to overeat. If you are trying to lose weight this is a good thing to be aware of.
Again, though, the topic here is "processed" food, not "junk food."
Processed food is VERY varied and need not be the kinds of foods you are describing as high fat, salt, and sugar food (whereas, again, plenty of homecooked foods could be).
Processed foods include things like an Amy's frozen meal, instant oats with NOTHING but oats added, dried pasta, canned tomatoes, canned tuna, quick cook rice and beans, the kinds of Indian foods pictured above, smoked salmon, kimchi, pickles, boneless skinless chicken breast, pretty low cal chicken sausages, a canned soup (low sodium), and so on.
That it is preserved (the original reason for it) or intended to make things more convenient does not say anything about the ingredients involved or whether it's high or low cal, nutritious or not, so on.Honestly I’m not sure why this is so controversial? What people usually mean when they say ‘processed food’ is junk food and I thought it was pretty commonly known that it’s way easier to gain weight on junk than chicken and broccoli.
No, I would disagree that what people usually mean by "processed food" is junk food. If someone asks if I eat processed food I think about what I happen to eat and the answer is yes, I do -- I eat tofu, tempeh, soy milk, smoked salmon, peanut powder, occasional protein powder, dried pasta, canned tomatoes, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, coffee and tea, lots of imported cheeses, and sure, occasional dark chocolate and ice cream. I don't consider the latter two more processed or different than the others, even though I wouldn't consider any of the others "junk food." That's my problem with the generalization about "processed food."10 -
JMcGee2018 wrote: »I think it all depends on the processing. Processed food that has a lot of unnecessary sugar and preservatives might end up having a negative impact on a person's health if it is consumed too often. Conversely, canning is a "process" that preserves most of the nutrients in the food without adding *too many* preservatives (some sugar and salt, usually) while making it shelf-stable, and I don't think that there are too many people out there who would think of "processed" canned green beans the same way they would think of "processed" hot pockets.
I think considering whether food is processed or not is kind of useless.
I don't think of canned green beans (which I hate -- I grew up on them and realized I love green beans only when I finally had them fresh) the same as dried pasta the same as canned soup the same as frozen mangos the same as a hot pocket, as they are all very different foods. But they are all processed, and if someone asked me if I gave up processed foods when I continue to eat, say, smoked salmon and dried pasta and canned tomatoes, I'd say "obviously not, why would I." (And I say this even though it has never even crossed my mind to have a hot pocket.)9
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