Choosing healthy foods in the face of an enormous range of convenient, delicious and ready-to-eat food is a daily battle. And to make things harder, the term ‘processed food’ is widely mis-used and mis-understood. Which is why we’re here – to inform. To share with you how to recognise the foods that could very well be compromising your health. Once you have that information, making healthy choices becomes so much easier
An Explainer
The meal I ate last night was processed food. Yes, I cooked it from scratch. Yes, I started with whole food ingredients. But by the time I sat down to eat, my meal had been through the ‘process’ of me cooking it. Hence it was processed food
A whole mango is unprocessed whole food. A pre-sliced mango is processed food because it has been through the ‘process’ of being sliced
It really is that straight forward!
Therefore, clearly not all processed food is unhealthy, hence the confusion. Thankfully there is a new term in use, one that helps us recognise foods for what they are ...
Ultra-Processed Food
The term ‘ultra-processed’ has come into our vocabulary and this is the food that we’re talking about here, the food that causes or contributes to so many modern-day dietary related ailments. Type 2 Diabetes, IBS, High Blood Pressure, Osteoarthritis, the list is long.
One really good guide to recognising ultra-processed food is to understand whether good nutrients have been taken away or bad ingredients added during the processes the food has gone through. This is almost unique to food pre-prepared by manufacturers. Home cooking, not so much…
What’s Been Added
Added ingredients (I’m not going to label them nutrients) are commonly there to enhance flavour and give food a long shelf life. Ultra-refined sugary syrups (like corn syrup) and salt (in large doses) are used for flavour. Highly processed trans and saturated fats (oils) are used primarily to preserve the food, to create that shelf life
These additives are so bad for our health. The excessive calories alone account for so much of todays ill health and obesity.
What’s Been Taken Away
To create delicious food that we keep coming back to, manufacturers will commonly take away fiber. Think of your everyday bread. Refined white flour bread has had most of the fiber removed, while wholemeal is bursting with it
Soba noodles are unrefined wholemeal noodles, while Udon noodles are refined and therefore lack fiber
Fiber is such an important nutrient! It is a slow release form of energy that keeps us fuller for longer. It also helps keeps the digestive tract healthy, which is vital to good health
Manufacturers also often produce food that lack vitamins. Vitamins are destroyed by very high cooking temperatures, which is a disaster! We need a broad spectrum of vitamins to function and stay healthy
What To Avoid
Fast food like burgers and french fries, etc, are riddled with unhealthy ingredients but so are most breakfast cereals, muesli bars and microwave meals, shop bought quiche, ready-made falafel and ready to eat coleslaw
All of this ultra-processed stuff is convenient, tasty, addictive and unhealthy
So, we face a decision:
"To choose our hard"
Do we go with the addictive and tasty convenience food that satisfies our cravings but compromises our health?
Or do we carve out a little time in our schedule to create a new and healthy habit; cooking and creating our own food, food that fuels our bodies healthily
Seems a no-brainer to me
For more information and maybe even a little help with meal planning, please get in touch
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