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My brain shutdowns when I read “processed food”. That is a made up term that means nothing and everything. Washing vegetables is a process. “Cooking” is a proc

• peteforde 3y ago
  Processed food refers to items that have been altered from their natural state for safety reasons or convenience. This can range from simple processes like freezing or drying to preserve nutrients and prevent spoilage, to more complex changes such as adding preservatives, flavors, and other additives to enhance taste, texture, and shelf life. Canning, baking, and pasteurizing are also common methods of processing. While processing can make food more accessible and longer-lasting, some argue it can also reduce nutritional value and introduce less healthy elements like added sugar and sodium.
  • itake 3y ago
    No rice, no flour, no fish, no meat. Basically everything in a grocery store has been processed to prevent spoilage.
• sfjailbird 3y ago
  Industrial processing. Not the kind you do in your kitchen.
  • itake 3y ago
    What is the difference between me making bread in my kitchen vs in a bakery?
    • snapcaster 3y ago
      Look at the ingredients list. This is such a weird hill engineers always want to die on. "Processed" is very clear on what it means to anyone that isn't being pedantic
      • itake 3y ago
        What makes something industrial processed? The geolocation of where the food was made? The amount of food created together? Making 1 pizza dough at home is fine, but creating 10,000 in a geolocation that isn’t in the same building where you sleep is not fine? It’s not just engineers. Scientists are also confused what processed means.
        • snapcaster 3y ago
          >Making 1 pizza dough at home is fine, but creating 10,000 in a geolocation that isn’t in the same building where you sleep is not fine? Right, because it's not just 10000x my home experience. At that scale, entirely new methodologies, ingredients, industrial chemicals, etc. all start to be used. This is very simple stuff, I have trouble believing you truly don't see a distinction
• RadixDLT 3y ago
  it means food that was produced in a factory
  • itake 3y ago
    I can produce factory food in my home. I can produce unhealthy food in my home too. Factories can produce food I can make in my home. I don’t understand why the location of the food matters.
    • BizarroLand 3y ago
      You will never produce factory food in your home. Not unless you can prepare 10,000 servings an hour of something for far cheaper than you can buy it for in a grocery store and ensure that it has a 3-12 month shelf life in the process. You're stuck on the word "processed" as if it means anything that has been changed from its natural form, whereas it is meant to relay that a food has been industrially bulk processed and then packaged. By your definition, cutting an apple is processing it, which is (hopefully) obvious that we're not talking about that. The idea is to make your own food from as close to scratch as you can, to not eat pre-packaged "processed" foods like frozen pizzas and hot pockets and hamburger helper all the time.
      • itake 3y ago
        We should name specific processes (like frying in cooking oil) and ingredients (like corn syrup) and not leave it to the consumer to define their own definitions of words. Should we drink raw milk or should we drink pasteurized milk?
• tuyiown 3y ago
  The way I see it, it's processing that you wouldn't or cannot do (in a daily basis) at home, is generally likely to either introduce stuff or break down / transform nutriments unneeded for your body that is likely to have undesirable effects. My rule when I buy stuff all things that count as raw ingredient is ok, then to quickly imagine is there any reason that adding things or altering the most basic way to produce it can give economical advantage, all this with a quick ingredient check. Given that, as examples flour is ok, rice and pasta, even pre-cooked is mostly ok, basic canned food is not a no-go anymore.
• debok 3y ago
  My friend who is really into these things describe "processed food" as anything that has the ingredients printed on the label when you buy it from a grocery store. Veggies, fruits, meats, and "natural" starches (like potatoes and rice) don't have ingredient labels, so they count as "unprocessed" or "natural."
  • itake 3y ago
    How are ingredient labels defined? Just bc you buy the raw ingredients and process them at home doesn’t make it much different than them processing it in a factory or bakery for you. Per that definition, items like white vinegar and corn syrup are not processed foods?
    • debok 3y ago
      > it much different than them processing it in a factory or bakery for you. The difference is that bakeries etc. tend to add a lot of sugars and preservatives. > Per that definition, items like white vinegar and corn syrup are not processed foods? Yeah, so not a perfect definition, but a good rule of thumb. The general idea is that you don't want some big corporate to prepare the food for you, it is better to prepare it yourself. If you prepare the food yourself, you have more control over how healthy it is. This approach serves my friend quite well, he reports that he feels more energetic when he avoids "processed" foods as per his definition.
      • itake 3y ago
        > The general idea is that you don't want some big corporate to prepare the food for you, it is better to prepare it yourself I understand that. But my body doesn’t care who prepared the food. If a big corp prepares the food the same way I prepare it at home (or vice versa), then this advice is useless. I am sure that he placebo could improve his energy. Also, I’m sure there are ingredients that “big corp” uses that we wouldn’t normally use in the kitchen that could hurt our health. So then instead of saying avoid “processed foods” (which means nothing and everything), name the ingredients and the processes that are bad.
• alpaca128 3y ago
  > What the heck do they mean by “processed food”? Meals that you only need to heat in a pot/oven and that are stuffed with preservatives and other stuff. Some people include more in that "processed food" category, some less, but practically everyone agrees that preparing meals yourself using raw ingredients is a good idea.
  • itake 3y ago
    That definition is so arbitrary. You can’t define what is unhealthy by claiming “other stuff” So fried chicken is ok? No soups b/c they contain salt (a preservative).
    • alpaca128 3y ago
      The point is salting that soup and frying the chicken yourself, which avoids a lot of substances with often still uncertain long-term effects or potentially harmful effects on the environment. Of course it's more a rule of thumb, I thought that goes without saying.