Processed food
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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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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Telling people to avoid everything they can't pronounce is also silly....14 -
How can I tell if a food has been processed? I determine if it has undergone processing (checking the internet if I'm unsure).
This has absolutely nothing to do with how I can tell whether or not a food is part of a healthful diet. There are many processed foods that I eat regularly because they're great ways to meet my goals and there is no good evidence that they are harmful.
Some I ate today or will eat later today: protein powder, freeze-dried strawberries, oats, coconut milk, dried dates, canned tomatoes (crushed and paste), dried spices, canned jackfruit, vinegar, soy sauce, and frozen corn.5 -
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.
how are you still alive?6 -
singingflutelady wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Telling people to avoid everything they can't pronounce is also silly....
Agree. But 2 sillies don't make a non-silly.7 -
Oh how I long for the days pre-internet when everyone understood what processed foods were and didn't get trivial, nit picky and pedantic about such things.8
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Oh how I long for the days pre-internet when everyone understood what processed foods were and didn't get trivial, nit picky and pedantic about such things.
I grew up pre-internet, and we knew cheese and yogurt and bread were processed foods. We didn't go on about it, since who cares. We also used other (more specific) terms for what people now seem to think are the only processed foods, like "fast food," or "restaurant food," or "TV dinners," or "frozen meals," or "convenience items."
Oddly enough, during my childhood we both ate plenty of processed foods (pretty similar to the kinds of processed foods I eat regularly now, plus some other things I don't really eat), and didn't have some bizarre idea that being "processed" meant something was inherently bad for you or "processed" meant anything more than that it was, you know, processed in some way. Natural peanut butter is processed as is smoked salmon or bacon or a Hungry Man TV dinner or some frozen egg rolls. Are they all the same? No, they are quite different.6 -
Also, I actually did think, pre MFP, that everyone knew what a processed food is, since it seems obvious to me. That was before I saw people with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and protein powder and pasta with a jarred sauce and sausages in their diaries proclaiming proudly that they NEVER ate processed foods, unlike the rest of us slobs, and also before I was aware that worriedly asking if canned beans are processed was a thing or if protein powder is processed or, as with the very thread we are talking about, asking how you know if something is processed.
The reason these discussions are so tiresome is because some people don't seem to know what processed means and think it means bad for you for some reason that they can't entirely explain but they must be, because processed.8 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Oh how I long for the days pre-internet when everyone understood what processed foods were and didn't get trivial, nit picky and pedantic about such things.
I grew up pre-internet, and we knew cheese and yogurt and bread were processed foods. We didn't go on about it, since who cares. We also used other (more specific) terms for what people now seem to think are the only processed foods, like "fast food," or "restaurant food," or "TV dinners," or "frozen meals," or "convenience items."
Oddly enough, during my childhood we both ate plenty of processed foods (pretty similar to the kinds of processed foods I eat regularly now, plus some other things I don't really eat), and didn't have some bizarre idea that being "processed" meant something was inherently bad for you or "processed" meant anything more than that it was, you know, processed in some way. Natural peanut butter is processed as is smoked salmon or bacon or a Hungry Man TV dinner or some frozen egg rolls. Are they all the same? No, they are quite different.
This may just be my personal experience, but I only heard "processed" being used as a synonym for "unhealthy," "bad," "fast food," or "convenience foods" once "clean eating" became a commonly used phrase. When I was younger, I never heard it used that way -- it seemed that most people understood, without dwelling on it too much, that cheese and canned beans and bread were processed.3 -
janejellyroll wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »Oh how I long for the days pre-internet when everyone understood what processed foods were and didn't get trivial, nit picky and pedantic about such things.
I grew up pre-internet, and we knew cheese and yogurt and bread were processed foods. We didn't go on about it, since who cares. We also used other (more specific) terms for what people now seem to think are the only processed foods, like "fast food," or "restaurant food," or "TV dinners," or "frozen meals," or "convenience items."
Oddly enough, during my childhood we both ate plenty of processed foods (pretty similar to the kinds of processed foods I eat regularly now, plus some other things I don't really eat), and didn't have some bizarre idea that being "processed" meant something was inherently bad for you or "processed" meant anything more than that it was, you know, processed in some way. Natural peanut butter is processed as is smoked salmon or bacon or a Hungry Man TV dinner or some frozen egg rolls. Are they all the same? No, they are quite different.
This may just be my personal experience, but I only heard "processed" being used as a synonym for "unhealthy," "bad," "fast food," or "convenience foods" once "clean eating" became a commonly used phrase. When I was younger, I never heard it used that way -- it seemed that most people understood, without dwelling on it too much, that cheese and canned beans and bread were processed.
When I was young (60's - 70's) clean eating was commonly used and everyone seemed to know it meant natural whole foods. Processed foods was the opposite and generally thought of as not as healthy by those who touted clean eating (which weren't many that I knew other than my older sister and her hippie friends).4
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