Are You Anti- Processed Food? If So, Why? (substance, organic, gmo)

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by elnina

We discussed processed food here numerous times.
Lets state first that it's almost impossible to avoid all processed food. However we should eat it in moderation and try our best to avoid it, if possible. Supermarket shelves are full of "foodlike" or "foodish" products. Those highly processed, nutritionally deficient products are heavily advertised and come in colorful packaging designed to lure the buyer.

Processed food is any real food that has been altered in any way in order to lower its production cost, lengthen its shelf life, make it look more appealing, or make you want to eat more of it, and that results in the reduction of its nutritional content and/or the increase of toxins.
We should avoid it for a health reason, but not only:
processed food is often nutrient-deficient, often contain excessively added salt, sugar, and fat (including trans fats) to make it more palatable, often has added flavor enhancers, additives, artificial flavors, colors etc.
Interesting fact is that once you wean yourself from processed food, you start to realize that processed food has off-flavors and strange chemical tastes that makes you realize just how adulterated such foods are.
Not to forget that it's a good idea to avoid processed foods - be good to yourself, to local farmers, and to the environment.
Easier said than done, considering that Americans spend about 90% of their food budget on processed foods
If you eat lots of processed foods, you're probably so used to them that you actually prefer them to unprocessed foods. But after a while of eating unprocessed foods, many processed foods will no longer be palatable.

This ^^^^ !

But I would disagree on one point: it is easy to avoid all processed and/or convenience foods.

We do, by cooking from scratch. For many years, it was an economic issue as well as being able to prepare foods to the recipes that we enjoyed without excess salt, sugar, fats, or chemicals. It was as much a social and gastronomic exercise; we enjoy cooking and it becomes part of our daily activities even when busy with work and other priorities. To our surprise years later, it turned out that we had many health benefits which we see decades later compared to our friends who used/consumed a diet heavy in convenience foods.

With this in mind, we've taken further steps 20 years ago to control our food intake. Almost all of our protein is free range home raised on our farm/ranch: beef, poultry, pork, and lamb. We raise most of our vegetables ourselves in gardens and two greenhouses, eating fresh when in season and canning or freezing the rest for the off-season consumption. Yes, it's a lot of work to do this and not everybody has the time or inclination to do so. But Farmer's Markets are a viable alternative for many folk, and there are chain retail stores which supply similar products in many areas.

One of the major reasons for getting off of processed foods is that so much of the stuff isn't what your body needs. Massive amounts of sugars, especially HFCS are slowly showing themselves to be a serious health concern. You can avoid the intake of such products by not buying foods that contain them or using them in your own cooking.

As well, one needs to be aware of the "convenience" foods that are in the fast food industry. For the most part, you're getting these same food products when you eat at any of the major fast food outlets ... laden with all the stuff that's wrong for your body. IMO, best to simply not patronize these places at all ... be if a burger chain, fried chicken chain, pizza chain, or any of the ethnic food chains (with such pretenders as Olive Garden, or Taco XXX, and so forth). It's all part of the convenience/prepared food experience ... unhealthy.

[mainebrokerman]

we had a substitute teacher in high school, that called himself,,,the original hippies of the '50's

he said he was a tree hugger, a vegetarian for a while, and would lecture us on what we ate, and the worlds food supply

this was his take,,, when he was young and naïve, he lived in a hippie commune, they grew what they ate,

then he went back to college, some sort of soil scientist ,
he said that's when his world changed,
from taking soil samples from the farms outside of the big cities,,,to taking soil samples in rural states..

from the industrial revolution of the late 1800's -for 100 years, we spewed trillions of pounds of pollutants in the air from smokestacks,,,,all chemicals that were being blown everywhere,,,,,so called acid rain and putting all these pollutants back in the soil, not to mention the pesticides, ddt, and all the other chemicals.

his take is that was the trillions and trillions of chemicals thru the years are in our topsoils,,, even in the cleaner states,,they are here, and everything grown or farmed, we are eating all these chemicals,,

this is where all the diseases and cancers are coming from

some in the class said they live on a farm, and eat very healthy from scratch cooking,,he said - the damage is done,,,all you kids have eaten 100's of pounds of chemicals that the body doesn't know how to process,

he always, always said
cook your food , whether its a steak or a carrot, do not eat anything raw ..... all the pollutants of the soil is in that fruit or vegetable


process foods??


what isn't processed or has been manipulated by humans???
except for rhubarb , honey, wild fruits and wild game and wild seafood?

it is worse eating a peppereridge farm cake than a carrot grown in chemical soils??
it should be,,,but not according to that old teacher/soil scientist,,,he said everything grown in soils has been "tainted"


yeah he was one person and probly a nut ,,,,but I thought he made a lot of sense

[Woof]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

.......his take is that was the trillions and trillions of chemicals thru the years are in our topsoils,,, even in the cleaner states,,they are here, and everything grown or farmed, we are eating all these chemicals,,

this is where all the diseases and cancers are coming from........

Huh! People before the 20th century must not have had any diseases or cancer, because that's when chemical pollutants began to be used! And here I'd been thinking they led shorter, less healthy lives.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a prick, but it is an important point.

[underated9]

That cr4p causes cancer and other diseases.

Eating nothing but it.... back to back every year of your life will probably shorten it

[TabulaRasa]

I'm not virulently anti, but if time is no constraint, I prefer to go as minimally processed as I can. I'm not hard core crazy about the evils of preservatives/added chemicals, but I do enjoy when I know how much salt, sugar, etc. is added, because I put it in myself. I also tend to be sparing with highly processed items, but it's more just a taste preference thing than a major philosophical issue.

[underated9]

Originally Posted by Woof

Huh! People before the 20th century must not have had any diseases or cancer, because that's when chemical pollutants began to be used! And here I'd been thinking they led shorter, less healthy lives.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a prick, but it is an important point.

Living past 30 has to do with evolution and the way of living not just food and air.


Thousands of years ago diets were no where near as advanced as they are now (vitamins.. minerals... and more). Body had to survive in harsher enviorments. No doctors to help you live longer when you got sick or preventive medicine. Killed by predators. List goes on. Called evolution.

There's people living in 3rd world countries today who still live like that and don't live as long as people in first world countries do.


.

[apexgds]

I avoid processed foods not because I'm concerned about cancer (hell, everything causes cancer these days), but because they don't offer much in the way of proper nutrients.

[TabulaRasa]

That's the other thing...they often represent a lot of empty calories...little nutrient bang for your buck. If I'm gonna eat, it might as well be worth my while.

[gentlearts]

I generally avoid them because they are a bad value, and they don't taste as good. I make some exceptions, like I buy frozen biscuits, and an occasional cake mix, but as a rule, hardly ever.

Let's take Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes, $2.59. I think you add butter and milk. This costs about as much as 5# of potatoes. I can make it with 3 large potatoes, butter, milk and a few tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper, and it will taste much better, so why would I waste the money?

[TexasHorseLady]

On the "ingredients with names I can't even pronounce" side of things, one thing to remember is that a lot of those chemicals have "normal" names that wouldn't scare you at all, but for some reason the manufacturers use the chemical names. Could be for any number of reasons: government regulation, same ingredient's "normal" name is copyrighted, who knows. But when you look up the ingredient (yes, I've been known to do it) you find out that it's something that's innocuous, that you consume on purpose for other reasons, or it's something that you can't avoid because your body produces it naturally. Not every ingredient, but a lot of them.

It's sort of like the scare about dihydrogen monoxide. That stuff will kill you! But not consuming it WILL kill you!

The point is, you can't just say "I can't pronounce it so it must be bad". If you're really going to take this stuff seriously rather than as a bandwagon, you have to educate yourself.

And, yes, they're coming closer and closer to discovering the genetic causes of many cancers.

One of my theories is the saber-toothed tiger theory. We're hardwired (especially mothers) to worry about things like saber toothed tigers, polio, smallpox, all the natural dangers to our children and ourselves. As those are wiped out, we're still hardwired to worry as a survival characteristic, so we have to think up things to worry about even though we're healthier and live longer than any generation to date.