Processed food is pretty much any food that contains more than one relatively pure ingredient. In fact, some of these foods aren’t really food in the sense that they provide any nutrition. In addition, they can contain harmful additives that were never meant to be consumed.
Why is food processed?
Food processing is done for a number of reasons:
- To make foods less expensive by substituting flavors and chemicals for real food materials
- To make them last longer
- To appeal to consumers who have been influenced by marketing
- To intensify flavors
- Convenience
Is all food processing bad?
Actually, no. Some processing is necessary to make foods such as olives edible, and many foods need to be cooked. Seeds are pressed to obtain oil. Freezing, canning, and drying help to preserve food, nutrients, and safety. Cutting up or combining healthy ingredients for convenience is a kind of processing, but doesn’t detract from nutrition. In fact, any home cooking or other food preparation is, strictly speaking, processing the food, and of course this doesn’t make the food unhealthy.
Intensity and overeating
Much processed food is simply more intense than its natural counterpart. It tends to be sweeter, saltier, spicier, fattier, creamier, more highly flavored and with brighter colors than would be found in nature. MSG, a neurotoxin, intensifies flavors in general. People get used to this increased intensity and come to prefer it, which is what food manufacturers count on.
Food processing and additives make use of our built-in survival mechanisms. Back when our food came from the wild, we knew that sweetness, color, flavor, and texture were clues that food was at its nutritional peak. Food manufacturers take advantage of this hardwired drive by adding these qualities artificially via sweeteners, flavor enhancers, and food colors.
Because of these chemicals, such foods are hyper-rewarding. This constant overstimulation of the brain’s reward centers combined with little or no actual nutrition keeps us eating well beyond our calorie needs, fueling the obesity epidemic. Allergy is common when ingredients are not recognized by the body, and allergic addiction can keep you munching. In addition, processed foods contain little fiber and are quickly digested so you’re hungry again sooner.
Convenience
Much food processing is designed for consumer convenience. Many of us don’t have the time, skills, or patience to make food from scratch nowadays, and this is where processed food comes in. Brown rice with a 45-minute cooking time is processed into 15-minute but less nutritious white rice.
But the news isn’t all bad. Mixes of all sorts saves you the trouble of cutting up, measuring, and mixing the ingredients yourself.
Microwave popcorn with its fake butter flavor, or for that matter microwave anything, is usually highly processed and full of artificial ingredients.
Longevity
Food that spoils before it can be sold or used is money wasted. Much of food processing is geared towards having it last longer. Grains that attract bugs are refined, such as whole grain to refined white flour. But think about it: if a food has so little nutrition that it no longer appeals to bugs, it won’t appeal to our cells either.
In the interest of making food last longer, many preservatives, mostly harmful, are added to processed foods. Again, anything that makes food less appealing to bacteria and mold also makes it less appealing to our cells. In addition, the chemicals used for preserving don’t belong in our bodies and can cause problems ranging from cancer to allergies.
These preservatives include nitrates and nitrites in processed meats such as hot dogs and bacon, BHA/BHT, parabens, benzoates, sulfites, and sorbates.
Economy
Artificial ingredients replace real ingredients to save money. Soon consumers can’t tell the difference, or come to prefer the artificial forms, or the lower price of the processed food is the new normal and real food seems too expensive by comparison. Vanilla and maple flavors are much less expensive than real vanilla extract and tapped-from-trees maple syrup. Margarine has replaced butter. A clue to these imitation foods is creative spelling to get around legal standards of identity. Beware of krab rather than crab, creme rather than cream, cheez rather than cheese.
Taken to the extreme, some “foods” such as instant ramen might cost 25 cents per serving, but there is no food in there at all, just calories, flavor, and lots of salt.
Fat-free fad
The recent but long-running fad of making things fat-free, low-fat, and “lite” has led to the removal of fat from a large number of products. Since these products probably didn’t taste like much to begin with, and removing the fat makes the taste worse, other chemicals are added to fill the flavor and texture void. Sugar and corn syrup are usually added in greater amounts, as are artificial flavors and flavor enhancers such as MSG. Other chemicals mimic the creaminess of fat.
Fast foods
Some fast foods are so highly processed that they are, for all practical purposes, not even food any more. You might have heard about experiments in which a fast food burger or equivalent was left out on the counter for years without spoiling or attracting flies or even changing in appearance. Don’t count on these foods containing any nutrition.
Nutrient depletion
Most food processing removes nutrients from whatever actual food is in the food product, or there is little or no nutrition in the first place. Many foods add in synthetic vitamins, but these are usually not easily absorbed and utilized. Most processed food contains little or no fiber. Although many processed foods contain a lot of fat, most of this isn’t the beneficial fats but rather harmful hydrogenated and trans fats.
Simplicity…but don’t be fooled
In general, the fewer ingredients on the label, and the more recognizable, the better. But some of these ingredients are sugar, wheat, corn, milk, and soy, not good things. Don’t be fooled by advertising and labeling; “contains whole grains” or “contains organic ingredients” might mean just a few percent of these things.
Even a food that in theory contains only one ingredient might be highly processed. Milk can be pasteurized, homogenized, and contain hormones and antibiotics, which is hardly the pure food implied by the single word.
Natural is better
In summary, the less processed a food is other than cutting, mixing, and cooking, the better it is for you. A corollary is that the fewer and simpler ingredients, the better. Become an avid label reader, and learn what to look for and what to avoid. To summarize this summary, eat real food.
