What is "Processed Food"?

I guess I use the term processed incorrectly. To me healthy "unprocesed" means limited ingredients, nothing I can't pronounce, and if it was an item available to mankind before the industrial revolution, it is worth considering. No corn syrup or modified anything. If it came from a tree, plant or the ground, and still has the skin or stem, even better. Happy, uncaged animals taste better and don't need hormones or antibiotics.

Whole, clean foods, organic if possible, and if it was grown or made in my state thats a bonus. Artificial is not a flavor. Neither is sodium. Genetically modified scares the heck out of me. I prefer things modified by Mother Earth. Naive? Maybe, but I'm hopeful I can make conscious choices. And make the best choices I have available to me.

^true. The body breaks nutrients down into individual components, so it "sees" the food as the same, whether you eat an apple or ingest its components from a laboratory slushie.

Exactly.

You can make the claim that the apple or broccoli spear or whatever has some compounds in it not found in another food of similar macronutrient content and therefore the apple or broccoli spear is better.

However, you cannot pretend that it makes any difference whether an individual amino acid molecule was placed into a food by a factory or a tree.

it actually does make a difference in how quickly/easily food is absorbed. an apple "slushie" will get absorbed faster and more easily than an apple. same reason we chew our food before swallowing.

But it's still an apple whether you chew or swallow. And the body cannot physically absorb it from your small intestine until it's broken down into individual molecules so that's kind of irrelevant anyway.

truth, but not all food gets broken all the way down to the point that it's absorbable. more so, the more quickly and easily food is absorbed makes it more likely that you'll get all the nutrients out of it. apple mush assimilates much faster than... say... peanut pieces, that need to stay in the stomach for a long period of time for the hcl/enzymes to break it down.

anyway, we're splitting hairs. no biggie.

I stick to single ingredient foods (there are exceptions) when I am at the grocery store, and if I want something I make it myself.

I feel better, I stay full longer, I make better choices, I'm a better cook, and I rarely overeat.
It's awesome!

I guess I use the term processed incorrectly. To me healthy "unprocesed" means limited ingredients, nothing I can't pronounce, and if it was an item available to mankind before the industrial revolution, it is worth considering. No corn syrup or modified anything. If it came from a tree, plant or the ground, and still has the skin or stem, even better. Happy, uncaged animals taste better and don't need hormones or antibiotics.

Whole, clean foods, organic if possible, and if it was grown or made in my state thats a bonus. Artificial is not a flavor. Neither is sodium. Genetically modified scares the heck out of me. I prefer things modified by Mother Earth. Naive? Maybe, but I'm hopeful I can make conscious choices. And make the best choices I have available to me.

That is, frankly, a nonsensical definition of unprocessed. None of the things you mentioned have anything to do with the act of processing. You're talking about whole foods, "clean" foods, or "organic" foods. Not "unprocessed" foods.

Heck, we all know what a "food processor" is. It's not a device that puts chemicals you've never heard of into food. It's a device that chops food into little tiny bits.

whole, clean, organic foods are also unprocessed smartypants.

dude, you've got your opinions and others have theirs. neither are invalid, sad to say. stop trying to convince people they're wrong.

(before you throw it back at me, you're the only person who I will straight up say is "wrong" about their diet/choices/opinions, because you're the only person I've run into on here who just doesn't give a **** about their health and doesn't believe that whole foods are better for you than processed foods)

I processed the rosemary from my garden....I picked it.:bigsmile:

This is a term I've struggled with recently. I've modified my thoughts on what processed means, but it is still hard to define. I tend to think of unprocessed foods as things that haven't had anything AT ALL done to them. I think of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, and whole wheat flour, ground beef and tea and things like that as "minimally processed". I consider bread, pasta, and cocoa as slightly more processed. By the time it gets to things I would have a hard time making in my own kitchen, I start to avoid those things: things like soybean oil, breakfast cereals, and "cream of...." soups. Then there are things like poptarts and pringles that are highly processed.

The thing is that "processed" doesn't always translate into "empty calories". Every single 20g protein bar on the market is very highly processed, but it is still pretty nutrient dense. I'm leery of them because of the weird ingredients and all, and I'm pretty sure they aren't as healthy as it would appear that they are based on their macro nutrients. But I've been known to resort to them, at times, just to get me to where I want to be.

But when someone asks me how many times a week I eat processed foods, I have no idea what to say! I eat olive oil almost every day! I eat bread, and corn chips several times a week. But I'm not sure I typically eat any foods that many people would define as processed. Or at least not when I eat what I think I should. I eat crap that I know I shouldn't at least 5 days a week.

The term processed really has no meaningful definition, nor does the term organic. This is an excellent site for consumer protection explaining the issue
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/organic.html

I processed the rosemary from my garden....I picked it.:bigsmile:

:huh:

Technically all food is processed, even from my garden. Not to be confused with cinnamon roll Captain Crunch with rosemary.

This is a term I've struggled with recently. I've modified my thoughts on what processed means, but it is still hard to define. I tend to think of unprocessed foods as things that haven't had anything AT ALL done to them. I think of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, and whole wheat flour, ground beef and tea and things like that as "minimally processed". I consider bread, pasta, and cocoa as slightly more processed. By the time it gets to things I would have a hard time making in my own kitchen, I start to avoid those things: things like soybean oil, breakfast cereals, and "cream of...." soups. Then there are things like poptarts and pringles that are highly processed.

The thing is that "processed" doesn't always translate into "empty calories". Every single 20g protein bar on the market is very highly processed, but it is still pretty nutrient dense. I'm leery of them because of the weird ingredients and all, and I'm pretty sure they aren't as healthy as it would appear that they are based on their macro nutrients. But I've been known to resort to them, at times, just to get me to where I want to be.

But when someone asks me how many times a week I eat processed foods, I have no idea what to say! I eat olive oil almost every day! I eat bread, and corn chips several times a week. But I'm not sure I typically eat any foods that many people would define as processed. Or at least not when I eat what I think I should. I eat crap that I know I shouldn't at least 5 days a week.

this highlights the problem with the term. which is the SAME problem that "clean" or "IIFYM" or "paleo" or "primal" or - wait for it - ANY term used to define large groups of foods or styles of eating.

there are differing definitions for every single one of these words depending on who you talk to. are ALL processed foods "bad"? of course not. are you going to inevitably eat some processed foods daily? of course you are. Is that a bad thing? No, obviously not.

The point is this. Trying to eat MORE "clean" foods and FEWER "processed" foods is the name of the game. No one needs to be perfect, and no one SHOULD be perfect.

generally speaking, I consider the word processed to mean anything made in a factory with added ingredients that aren't present in the foods natural state. if it's got more than one ingredient, it's processed. however, as I said, that doesn't inherently make it bad. what makes certain processed foods "bad" is certain added ingredients that were created by people in a lab, such as enriched/bleached/fortified flours, preservatives, flavorings, HFCS, etc, etc.

IMO

I processed the rosemary from my garden....I picked it.:bigsmile:

:huh:

Technically all food is processed, even from my garden. Not to be confused with cinnamon roll Captain Crunch with rosemary.

picking =/= processing

processing = adding of ingredients or denaturing the natural state of the food. picking and apple does not denature the apple.