Buzz
Imagine a nourishing meal: an abundance of vegetables, possibly some grass-fed meat or eggs from free-range hens, all carefully prepared at home from scratch. Take a moment to reflect—how many of your meals from the past week resembled this? Not many? You’re certainly not the only one.
Our world is flooded with processed foods, for better or worse. It’s easy for me to sit here and advise you to avoid them and choose foods in their most natural form—like apples instead of apple pie. However, just because something is labeled as 'processed' (whatever that term truly means) doesn’t mean it’s automatically harmful. It’s time to stop feeling guilty about occasionally indulging in processed foods—and maybe we’ll find that it’s not as harmful as it seems.
Stop Worrying About How Much Processing Is Involved with Your Food
Here’s where it gets tricky: what does ‘processed’ even mean? Doritos? Definitely processed. No question there. A raw potato, still covered in dirt? That’s unprocessed. Seems simple enough.
But if we wash that potato, cook it, maybe peel it too, and then mix it with butter and garlic (and add even more butter and garlic)—uh-oh. That’s starting to count as processed, right? But you might argue that it’s not *very* processed. There's a spectrum here, and if you dig a potato from the earth and boil it in your own kitchen, that’s still within the acceptable range.
The challenge arises when you attempt to draw a clear line between what counts as processed and what doesn’t. How do you categorize a cow that's been butchered into steaks? Frozen vegetables? Canned beans? Bread baked by a local artisan? Bread baked by a factory?
To better understand why this question is so complicated, take a look at how Megan Kimble describes her year of avoiding processed foods:
For my year without processed foods, I considered something unprocessed if I could feasibly make it in my own kitchen... For example, making table sugar at home would require a centrifuge, bleach, and a few de-clumping additives; honey, on the other hand, just required figuring out how to gather the nectar from plants that bees regurgitate onto honeycombs. I didn’t brew beer, but I theoretically could have; I gave up soda and bought myself a SodaStream for my bubbly fix.
Yes, it’s much more complicated and requires more machinery to process sugar than it does to harvest honey from a honeycomb, but that’s not really the point when deciding which one is healthier. There’s *no significant nutritional difference* between the two. And if her SodaStream drinks were healthier, it would be more about the ingredients in the syrup than the fact that they were homemade. SodaStream offers everything from zero-calorie seltzer to *DIY Pepsi*.
When taken to extremes, the idea that processed foods are inherently bad would eliminate many things that actually have their benefits. Frozen vegetables can be just as nutritious as fresh ones, and sometimes even more so. Milk that’s been pasteurized is still processed, but it’s safer because of it. There’s no real nutritional argument against jarred pasta sauce, egg whites in a carton, or pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.
But wait, you might argue. Those are healthy examples of processed foods. What about Twinkies? Doritos? McDonald's? Hungry Man dinners?
Figure Out What Matters to You, and Let Go of the Rest
If the mention of some of these foods raises concerns for you, you likely have a reason: high sugar content, artificial chemicals (which we’ll discuss), excessive calories, or too much fat. Before you decide to avoid all processed foods, take a moment to reflect on what truly matters to your personal health goals.
Here are the most common criticisms of processed foods, along with tips on how to avoid each one:
They’re packed with sugar, which is definitely not good for you. Sugar can be found not just in candy and baked goods, but also in more unsuspecting foods like bread and pasta sauce. It’s easy to spot, though—labels must include it. Right now, you’ll find it listed under “Sugars” on the label. However, if the FDA has its way, “Added sugars” will soon have its own line.
They have a lot of sodium. This is true for many processed foods: they contribute more sodium to our diets than we add while cooking or seasoning with a salt shaker. Deli meats and restaurant meals are big culprits. (For some reason, people mistakenly believe soda contains a lot of sodium. It doesn't.) You can easily check sodium content on the Nutrition Facts label. However, unless you're sensitive to salt or have high blood pressure, it's probably not harmful for most people.
They’re high in fat. This is the case with greasy snacks like chips and many restaurant meals. Fat isn’t necessarily harmful: it helps you feel full and may not be as bad as sugar. The Nutrition Facts label will show the total fat content, including subcategories like saturated fat (which may not be as harmful as you think) and trans fat. Trans fat is universally disliked, but it’s disappearing quickly from processed foods.
They can put you into a carb coma. This happens with sugary foods (refined carbs) or other refined carbs like white flour. Twizzlers and pretzels, for instance, fall into this category. On the other hand, snacks that are heavy on fat, like potato chips, are less likely to cause a carb coma because fat slows down digestion.
They can be addictive. Unfortunately, there’s no label for this. Food companies aim to make products irresistible, so they combine fat, sugar, and sometimes salt in a way that keeps you coming back. Some ready-to-eat snacks, like chips and candy bars, are deviously engineered. The combination of high-fat and high-sugar is a signature move, often with added salt. These are the foods that tend to leave you with empty wrappers at home.
They’re full of “chemicals.” Technically, everything is made of chemicals—including a banana! Sure, some processed foods have long ingredient lists, and some ingredients may be hard to pronounce. However, just because something is hard to read doesn’t mean it’s dangerous. For example, ascorbic acid and tocopherols are used as preservatives, but they’re just the technical names for vitamin C and vitamin E, both of which are antioxidants. Colorings, flavorings, and preservatives aren’t automatically harmful. Even controversial ones are generally safe. If you’re looking for actual red flags, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has a list here.
They’re bad for the environment and/or economy. This is a case of “vote with your fork” (or, you know, orange-stained fingers). If you prefer supporting local businesses, like the bakery down the street, instead of big corporations like Mrs Fields, that’s your choice. You might also object to excessive plastic packaging or the carbon footprint created by all the trucks transporting ingredients. Just keep in mind: food isn’t unhealthy just because its producer is wasteful or profit-driven.
Now that you understand these factors, you can head down the grocery store aisles (or calculate the stats for your favorite fast-food meal) with a clearer sense of what you want to avoid. For example, if you're cutting out sugar, you might need to ditch that seemingly healthy agave-sweetened fruit drink, but feel free to enjoy all the pork rinds you want... if that’s your thing.
Get Ready for Tough Choices
Now that you’ve mapped out a strategy, it's time to implement it. If you find yourself starving at work with only the contents of a vending machine to choose from, you’ll have a way to evaluate what’s available, instead of dismissing it all as unhealthy and then feeling guilty after grabbing a Snickers in a moment of weakness.
For instance, a pack of trail mix might be a good choice from the vending machine if you're avoiding sugar, though it’ll be high in fat. At a gas station, a Lunchable may be highly processed, but it offers protein and won’t cause a carb coma, unlike a pack of Pop-Tarts.
Ideally, the best solution is to avoid processed foods altogether. But how many of us have the time or skill to cook every meal from scratch? This is where those processed-but-still-healthy options we mentioned earlier come in handy: like rotisserie chicken. Or frozen meatballs and jarred sauce, which can be turned into a quick spaghetti dinner and even serve as lunch for the next day. You get the point.
It would be wonderful to prepare every meal from scratch, using carefully foraged, free-range lentils, but not all of us have the time for that. Sure, some people did it in past centuries—but that was their job as a housewife or farmer. Today, cooking every single meal from scratch is more of a hobby. A lovely hobby, to be sure, but not a requirement for everyone. We live in a world full of processed food, and it’s perfectly fine to thoughtfully take advantage of it.
Illustration by Kevin Whipple.
Contact the author at [email protected].
