Processed Foods >:-[

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Topher1978
Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So, there are so many people here that decry processed foods. You realinze the moment you take a knofe to food for prep, you are processing the food. Homemade salsa is a processed food. Stew is a processed food, beef roast is a processed food. Why all the hate on processed food? There are a lot of processed food available now that have all wholesome, good ingredients. They are processed. So, why the hate for porcessed food? Do you have any REAL reason for hating "processed food" other than being a trendy individual in the cool crowd?
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Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Primary reason for me is sodium. I have hypertension and have to watch my sodium intake. Canned goods, frozen and other prepared (processed) entress have loads of sodium...restaurant foods have tons of sodium. Some of it is unavoidable for me...sorry, not going to make a homemade batch of beans to put in a stew...so I do have some, but I limit them and look for the least amount of sodium possible. Proessing most of my meals from primarily whole foods gives me far greater control over my sodium intake as well as potassium intake (which I'm supposed to up).

    Edit: if it wasn't for the sodium issue I personally wouldn't care at all.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Would it help if we said over processed foods?

    I was just wondering this morning where my cheeses and peanut butter would fall.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
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    I hate processed foods, that's why I live on a farm and when I'm hungry I'll just walk up to a cow or a chicken and take a bite. We're all happier that way, it's natural!

    Oh wait, the digestive process... that's processing too!!! aaaarggghhh!!! Well back to McD's I go.

    Anyone wanna buy a farm?
  • Bobby__Clerici
    Bobby__Clerici Posts: 741 Member
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    If man makes it, be suspicious.
    The big 3 sins in processed foods are salt, sugar and fat.
    Further, the food industry demineralizes their products, because it's cheaper to manage.
    Just be smart, and know what you are eating. Let's not pretend the food industry cares anything for people's health.
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
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    I try to avoid too many chemicals and preservatives. I also try to avoid the middle of the grocery store because the chips, crackers, soda, etc. give me a lot less caloric bang for my buck - they cost more, they're high-cal, they're loaded with all sorts of things scientists think will give us cancer or depression or a genetic mutation to grow seven heads, and they don't fill me up. "Whole" foods or "clean" foods tend to be more nutrient-rich and satiating.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Would it help if we said over processed foods?

    I was just wondering this morning where my cheeses and peanut butter would fall.

    While cheese is "processed", the ingredients are minimal. Personally I would consider it a whole food. I don't know that I'm technically correct but if there's a laundry list of ingredients I think of it as pretty well processed. Like I said...I wouldn't personally care if I didn't have hypertension and had to watch my sodium intake so closely.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    Pedantry is hot.
  • ki4yxo
    ki4yxo Posts: 709 Member
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    Primary reason for me is sodium. I have hypertension and have to watch my sodium intake. Canned goods, frozen and other prepared (processed) entress have loads of sodium...restaurant foods have tons of sodium. Some of it is unavoidable for me...sorry, not going to make a homemade batch of beans to put in a stew...so I do have some, but I limit them and look for the least amount of sodium possible. Proessing most of my meals from primarily whole foods gives me far greater control over my sodium intake as well as potassium intake (which I'm supposed to up).

    Edit: if it wasn't for the sodium issue I personally wouldn't care at all.


    I'm in the same boat as you with sodium.
    That being said, I've recently started cooking
    dry beans in the pressure cooker. I'm going
    to have to go back and change my chili recipe
    because I used to use canned beans!
  • LennyInFlorida
    LennyInFlorida Posts: 202
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    There is nothing wrong with the processed food you speak of. What people mostly are speaking of are processed foods with ingredients you can't pronounce.
  • Topher1978
    Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
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    Oh, I avoid a lot of ingredients now. But damn near everything I eat is processed. Even the smoothies I make. Heck, I processed my tangelos and my peaches last night so I could freeze them for smoothies.
  • Topher1978
    Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
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    Pedantry is hot.
    Thank you.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    Okay, Mr. Literal.....
  • Topher1978
    Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
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    This was a humorous post. But I did it to show that words mean things. Like, does the anti-processed food person just mean TV dinners? Or are they a raw foodist, or whatever such nim wits call themselves? Does my menu equate to their processed foods? Semantics, semantics.
  • _SusieQ_
    _SusieQ_ Posts: 2,964 Member
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    You realinze the moment you take a knofe to food for prep, you are processing the food.

    Since we are being picky here, what's a knofe?
  • Crayvn
    Crayvn Posts: 390 Member
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    food for thought is...processed
  • stormtruck2
    stormtruck2 Posts: 118 Member
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    Processing food is one thing. Chopping them up in your kitchen or cooking them is not processing but preparing. Proccessing takes something from what it is into something it is not. Putting a grass fed no antibiotics or BGH beef roast into a cooker is preparing it to eat. Putting solutions, chemicals and by products into the same said roast is processing it. It is no longer a natural healthy prepared food, but a franken food. Cheese is the natural curdling of milk into a solid state, until they start adding benzotes and the like, then it is not what it was. Preparing food is changing it state, ie raw to cooked. Processiing is changing the chemical make up of the food. And yes I do enjoy a franken weiner from time to time with onions, cheap yellow mustard and kraut.
  • shanolap
    shanolap Posts: 1,204 Member
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    food for thought is...processed

    BRAVO BRAVO!!!!

    :drinker:
  • Thomasm198
    Thomasm198 Posts: 3,189 Member
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    You realinze the moment you take a knofe to food for prep, you are processing the food.

    Since we are being picky here, what's a knofe?
    A knofe is the thing that you use along with a firk to eat food. Duh! :wink: :laugh:
  • Topher1978
    Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
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    You realinze the moment you take a knofe to food for prep, you are processing the food.

    Since we are being picky here, what's a knofe?
    A knofe is the thing that you use along with a firk to eat food. Duh! :wink: :laugh:
    Precisely!!
  • ecka723
    ecka723 Posts: 148 Member
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    Primary reason for me is sodium. I have hypertension and have to watch my sodium intake. Canned goods, frozen and other prepared (processed) entress have loads of sodium...restaurant foods have tons of sodium. Some of it is unavoidable for me...sorry, not going to make a homemade batch of beans to put in a stew...so I do have some, but I limit them and look for the least amount of sodium possible. Proessing most of my meals from primarily whole foods gives me far greater control over my sodium intake as well as potassium intake (which I'm supposed to up).

    Edit: if it wasn't for the sodium issue I personally wouldn't care at all.


    I'm in the same boat as you with sodium.
    That being said, I've recently started cooking
    dry beans in the pressure cooker. I'm going
    to have to go back and change my chili recipe
    because I used to use canned beans!

    I have this same issue! I just cook a big batch of beans in my slow cooker. I also freeze them, in "can measurements", which is 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans or 1/2 cup of dried beans. It makes life so easy and doesn't make the beans super mushy!

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