Processed Foods

ninerbuff

Wow. The armchair scientist that confuses minerals for chemicals is not very enlightening; and the fitness guru who promotes processed junk foods doesn't seem very impressive.

I certainly hope those new in the health and fitness realm take some of these comments/opinions with a grain of salt and conduct their own research. NIH is a great website for resources. Anything wiki, not so much.

Everyone is different. There are some people who love to eat processed/junk food, but must work harder to keep off the pounds if they are watching their weight. If there are those out there who want to simply eat healthier, then processed/junk foods are not advisable for daily intake.

Also know that unless a person presents specific certifications, certified personal trainers may not be registered dietitians, and registered dietitians may not be certified personal trainers.

Funny you speak of NIH since I provide much of what I back from there and medical journals. And I don't PROMOTE processed foods, I DEBUNK some BS stated about processed foods just like I do with diets, pills, supplements, workouts, eating times, etc. There's a difference. Isn't nice to know that some of us in fitness DON'T conform to just hearsay.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

wgn4166

Check the sugar in them a/lso. I had a "Healthy Choice" meal and I couldnt believe how much sugar it had in it

sissysparkles

There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating processed food. I am currently seeing a nutrionist and had the same question. She told me a calorie is a calorie no matter where you get it from. Many foods that we think are "healty" foods are processed, such as morningstar (vegetarian foods) meals. As long as you are taking in the appropriate amount of calories and exercising you should not fear processed foods! Hope this helps you out!

Stacy

Lozze

You're right, people have been eating them for decades - approximately five decades - and in that time you could fill a phone book with the list of chronic health conditions that have surfaced.

Nothing to do with the fact we now have longer lives, therefore more chronic conditions. We also have ways to find out diseases that never exisisted before. My great-grandfather had a heart attack in the late 80s. As he was at home they had to do an autopsy. He was found to be riddled with cancer. Not something that could be tested for as easily as now. And that's just one disease.

I know eating Jenny Craig and their processed food I've not lost any weight. It's been incredibly frustrating trying to figure out what is holding me back...........

For the record beside my excess weight I'm in perfect health. My heart check the ONLY reason I was in danger of anything was purely based on my weight. My resting heart rate was in the athlete range, all my blood tests were perfect, everything. (well except for diabetes and family history. Can't control that!)

BlessedEight

bump

kristi5224

There are many books on this. Michael Pollan's "In Defense of food" is mentioned ealier. "an Omnivore's Dilema" is another.Yes a calorie is a calorie plain and simple but these books look at food as something else:.Our relationship with food is examined. They are great reads even if you don't change o about how you eat. Clean eating is really about cleaner eating. If nothing broose a quickie book he wrote about food rules/
Never eat in the car.
Never eat something with ingredients you can't pronounce. Only eat food your great grandmother will recognize (no Go-gurt or luchables)

dayone987

What's really wrong with them? People have been eating them for decades. I understand that the salt content may be high, but i you drink enough water, shouldn't it be ok? What happens if you have a busy lifestyle, and all you can grab are the processed frozen dinners / snacks? Just confused.

And we've also had increasing cases of all sorts of cancers (especially cancers in children), infertility, autism spectrum disorders, ADD and AD/HD, etc. While we have been good about identifying harmful chemicals in a lot of environmental situations, food has not been addressed nearly enough. The one thing that has been increasing right along with diagnoses for these diseases/disorders is the amount of processed food we eat.

Let's be fair here though. My parents are both in the medical field and information they got was directly from patients records and not the media. We hear more now than we did before. Like when the only way we heard of a missing child was on a milk carton, now you can just google it and thousands come up. "Hyperactivity" before is now more likely diagnosed as ADD and AD/HD. Infertility also has a lot to do with overall health and not just chemicals.
Correlation isn't causation, but I won't discount that there is A LOT more processed foods than there used to be.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Just wanted to add that that I think you have a reasonable approach to food; most of us will eat food that isn't always the best nutritionally but we can still enjoy at times and still be healthy.

JustJennie1

There's just too much added "stuff" to processed foods like HFCS, regular corn syrup, sugar, etc. If you have to add back vitamins and minerals in your food then IMO it's not good that they had to take them out in the first place or that the processing destroyed the nutrients that were in there already.

I limit my intake of processed foods because of all the crap that's in it. I read labels and make sure that what I buy doesn't have HFCS, corn syrup, sugar (if there's sugar I make sure that for the serving size it's not a lot). I personally just don't feel all that good when I eat junk.

Yes you can lose weight eating junk food and crap but you're not going to be healthy in the long run.

JeSuisPrest

And here's another thing -- the FDA establishes a "safe" limit on these chemicals, but there's no mechanism to account for the cumulative effect of getting the maximum dose in 12 different products a day.

The FDA also establishes a "safe" limit on insect parts and rodent droppings.....doesn't mean we should eat them.

Just sayin'........

If you only knew what you breathed...................

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Sadly, we can't control that. But we can control what we eat.

lmustoe

You're right, people have been eating them for decades - approximately five decades - and in that time you could fill a phone book with the list of chronic health conditions that have surfaced.

I completley agree with you, sure you can eat them and won't notice a change right away. In fact your doctor will probably tell you its your genetics or your yo yo dieting causing your achs and pains and diabeties and so on and so forth but the fact is its what we eat. Yes if you just want to lose weight its basically calories in vs calories out (except someone like me with pcos). BUT if you want to live healty, feel more energiezed, and have a longer life with less illenss, make processed foods a last resort or an occasional treat. Easier said then done but the longer you make yourself cut them out the easier it gets. GL!

kayemme

What's really wrong with them? People have been eating them for decades. I understand that the salt content may be high, but i you drink enough water, shouldn't it be ok? What happens if you have a busy lifestyle, and all you can grab are the processed frozen dinners / snacks? Just confused.

it's true that people have been eating them for decades, but that's like a moment in comparison to all of humankind. there's nothing inherently wrong with having a processed thing now and again; hell, i even process a fair amount of our food, like my great grandmother would have.

the problem is the commercialization / cheap work-arounds / additives for shelf-stabilization. i want living food, so i don't eat processed food because it's not only dead, it's prevented from decaying.

kayemme

There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating processed food. I am currently seeing a nutrionist and had the same question. She told me a calorie is a calorie no matter where you get it from. Many foods that we think are "healty" foods are processed, such as morningstar (vegetarian foods) meals. As long as you are taking in the appropriate amount of calories and exercising you should not fear processed foods! Hope this helps you out!

Stacy

there's nothing wrong with eating them occasionally; and yes, a calorie is a calorie, but a shelf-stabilizer is not a nutrient.

000WhiteRose000

Best advice I can give you is get some proper books about nutrition and learn.

kayemme

my rule of thumb is just so simple that i learned it when i was five: "you are what you eat."

MrsBully4

A calorie is a calorie etc etc but these are calories often laden down with gross crap that makes you feel like gross crap. In my case the added chemicals frequently trigger migraines.

I suggest trying to cut out/significantly lower processed foods for a couple of weeks to see if it makes a difference in how you feel overall. Do whatever works for you.

ninerbuff

And here's another thing -- the FDA establishes a "safe" limit on these chemicals, but there's no mechanism to account for the cumulative effect of getting the maximum dose in 12 different products a day.

The FDA also establishes a "safe" limit on insect parts and rodent droppings.....doesn't mean we should eat them.

Just sayin'........

If you only knew what you breathed...................

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Sadly, we can't control that. But we can control what we eat.

Well apparently not because of the rising level of obese/overweight people. When I went down to Missouri to visit my cousin, I noticed that people there didn't eat a lot of processed foods. But there were a lot of HIGH CALORIE foods that were homemade.
Like I mentioned in previous posts, indulging in a little processed foods per day (as long as your macro/micro nutrients are met and you stay within calorie range) isn't going to be an issue if you're smart about it.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff

my rule of thumb is just so simple that i learned it when i was five: "you are what you eat."

I so wanna say something "sexual" here.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

BeantownSooner

Take a look at the list of ingredients from the strawberry flavoring of a milkshake served at your average fast-food restaurant:

Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamylvalerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl Nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerbate, heliotropin, hydroxphrenyl-2butanone(10% solution to alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbone, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl slicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobulyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, sore rum ether, g-undecalctone, vanillin, and solvent

There are over 6,000 different chemicals used to process, preserves, color these types of foods. Want that in your body? I say if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it!!

kayemme

my rule of thumb is just so simple that i learned it when i was five: "you are what you eat."

I so wanna say something "sexual" here.

makes you think about all those a-holes in the world...