To wonder how anyone can live on so much processed food?

[MummyMumMumMummy]

Let me start by saying I’m not by any means a health freak. I have periods where we’ll have frozen pizzas, frozen beige food and cans of beans for dinner.. but it makes me feel so so rough!

For example, in the last week we’ve eating frozen pizza, a McDonald’s, a night of cheese and biscuits, and we’ve had beans on toast, ready meals like lasagna or currys. This is just down to using what left in the house before doing a food shop and I feel awful. I feel slow, my anxiety is high, I have aches and pains and I just feel generally ‘bleurgh’

This happens every time I swap out out usual cook from scratch lots of veg type meals to these ready made quick and processed foods.

but my point is; does anyone else feel this way?

I have friends who quite consistently live on beige food and ‘hate’ veg. DH before we started dating would literally only eat beans on toast and frozen pizza. He still enjoys them from time to time but even he prefer home cooked meals with lots of veg now.

I’m not in any way judging anyone’s diet, I don’t care what you eat it doesn’t affect me. I just wonder whether other people feel such a strong physical sense of being healthier in mind and body (that sounds super green!) when they eat more organic, fresh foods?

Touchy

I've never been over the top about eating healthily, but one time I had to cross the USA by greyhound and the places where I could buy food on the way make KFC and McDonald's seem like Haute Cuisine. After three days the but stopped at a place where there was a salad bar and will never forget the rush I felt from finally getting some decent food.

Op has just explained what it 'is to her'

Organic isn't a marketing ploy, the taste difference of organic milk and for example, organic carrots is massively noticeable and even if I don't know something is organic, like in a restaurant meal, I notice it immediately and upon checking - yep, organic.

Organic milk is beautiful

I totally get what you mean. If I don't have salad or veg for a couple of days then I crave it. Whenever I go on a caravan holiday, I always come home craving salad and a proper meal with lots of veg

Yes absolutely this. Our bodies get very good at what we do regularly. My digestive system didn’t react well to pulses at one point after re-introducing them in to my diet, but I read somewhere that it’s a question of gradually letting the microbiome in your gut adjust to them again over a period of time, and now it’s not an issue.

Yes, I mostly avoid processed foods but when I don't I put on weight and start to have pain in my hip joint that makes it hard to stand up from sitting.

Too much bread is also a problem in this regard.

I’m the same but it is more due to a lack of fresh fruit and veg vs. UPF. If I have both then I feel ok, though obviously no UPF is better.

There is actually a genetic component to this. I have had DNA testing (BUPA do it as part of a health MOT) and am
missing the gene that creates antioxidants in the body or something like that. It basically means that I have to get antioxidants from fruit and veg, especially green veg, because my body isn’t going to do it for itself. That made so much sense when I read it because I have always noticed how I get sluggish on holiday etc. if there is limited fruit and veg, when everyone else is fine.

I think it changes as you get older too, in my twenties I basically ate take out pizzas, alcohol and crisp sandwiches and maintained a size 10. In my mid 30s I have to work my arse off eating well and moving to maintain 10-12. Every now and again I eat (a whole) take out pizza and I feel sick and bloated for days, digestive issues, crushing thirst ~ whether I feel it cos I’m eating less usually I don’t know, I always remember my mum quitting pasta in her 40s because of how it made her feel, but we ate that for dinner 3-4 times a week growing up!!

This zoe podcast about the link between ultra processed foods and brain health was shocking. There is research showing that the size of the hippocampus is actually smaller if you eat more upf
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Tg5DnNWj7k00LgK1T8G3F?si=rjoEKohwRSC-hI6PU6JyLw

Their research showed 60% of the shrinkage in brain volume with aging is linked to dietary quality
https://www.google.com/amp/s/zoe.com/learn/podcast-ultra-processed-foods-damage-your-brain.amp

Well duh! eat like shit, feel like shit ;)

Who cares?

I notice a few days after low nutritional food.
DS1 had multiple food allergies as a toddler, and when we went on holiday we spent the week having lunch between McDonalds and Morrisons cafe because we knew they were safe. I was also BFing a rather large and ravenous 4m old DS2. The last day, we looked at the menu at an attraction and there was something safe for DS1. My meal came with some broccolli, normally a vegetable that was somewhat low on my list of appetising vegetables, but after a week of baked beans and peas, and being sole source of nutrition to another human, I had a compulsive urge to eat it. I have maintained the habit since, but I still have to hide its hideous bobbly texture with something like potato.

I can identify artifical sweetners easily; they leave unpleasant aftertastes and give me stonking headaches. I'm better off getting dehydrated and solving that headache with some water if choices are limited. Excesses of sugar (including alcohol) will go to my digestive system. I'm also intolerant of soya which mostly affects bread, and there's little choice of loaves that I can eat.

It's easy to fall into the trap of having low energy, eating some low effort convenience food and getting stuck in that spiral. I've got a sensory autistic child who likes consistency. Unfortunately processed foods are a more reliable way of getting some nutrition into him than the variations of home cooked food with a greater range of fresh ingredients. It'a a hard balance to strike between food that makes me feel my best and food I can get in to him.

Depends on your own body, really. I know what you mean - I don’t feel healthy unless I eat veg and I miss it if I don’t. My preferred diet is lots of salad, fruit, lean meat.
However, six months ago I had a bowel surgery that’s caused a stricture (narrowing) and now I have to eat stuff that’s easy to digest - any more than a little fibre causes me pain and is dangerous. It’s made me sympathise much more with my dad, who also has (different) digestive problems and avoids anything leafy/cruciferous/wholegrain.

Did you actually read thr OP properly. She makes it clear that her interest is just in whether such food affects others like it does her, NOT judging others diets! 🙄

For the past two months I've made a real effort to eat better - lots of fruit and veg, fresh food, less sugar etc.

I am so disappointed about the results. I used to have loads of energy when I ate badly. Now I feel tired all the time and have just had an absolutely awful cold. I haven't had a cold for about 15 years. I will continue eating well but I don't think it's the panacea it's made out to be.

Yes me! I always feel sluggish when I’ve had a period where I’ve eaten a lot of processed food and also sugar! I generally feel terrible coming out of Christmas and NY and find it really hard to get back to eating a healthier diet again. I honestly think that if you’ve only really eaten a processed food diet your body gets used to it and you probably can’t tell how it’s affecting you. It’s only when you have tried and compared the two ways of eating that you can tell the difference! I’m by no means perfect, and let’s face it who doesn’t like some take out or McD occasionally. But test I always feel bloated and rubbish after eating it!

No, they don't make me feel different either way. I'll have times when I eat takeaway pizza, McDonald's etc and times when I eat homecooked organic stir fries and homemade soups, and it doesn't make me feel different either way. Maybe you have an intolerance to something.

And yet you have time to comment on one 🤔

I agree OP, I feel much better when I eat a better diet. I do love a bit of processed crap from time to time, but as soon as it tips into too much I start to feel really sluggish, a bit more anxious and crave even more rubbish. If I don't eat enough fruits, veg, good fats and protein I just don't feel good. Too much grease also gives me stomach pains.

I try to really focus on getting as much goodness into my diet rather than restricting anything in particular. I try to keep in minimally processed quick and easy things so that if I'm in a hurry I still have something healthy to eat- bags of cooked lentils or tins of plain cooked beans that I can quickly turn into a meal with a bit of oil, vinegar and herbs. And I try to regularly chop up some veg and fruits so that it's easy to grab when I'm feeling peckish.

When I was young I lived on burgers/omelettes and chips from the staff restaurant, cheese and biscuits and wine in the wine bar most nights and peanut butter and marmite sandwiches at home. Learned in my late 20s that I felt much better with fruit and veg thrown in and chips replaced with baked spuds.
I think most younger people are the same and probably perfectly healthy but it does catch up with you.

Carbs make a difference for me.
If I'm eating high protein low carb home cooked meals I feel great ....... If I start adding in bread, pasta etc then I feel sluggish and have higher aches and pains....... But I have a couple autoimmune disorders

I have a child with ARFID who's only meal is Quorn nuggets and chips and some days I can't be bothered to make a meal just for me so I eat with him and regret it later

I totally agree with you OP, I feel awful if I eat too much processed foods. DH have discussed this and wonder if people with bad diets feel awful all the time or do they just get used to that feeling.

UPF give me terrible IBS pain, I get bloating, indigestion, pains in my shoulders, wind, feel sluggish and tired and generally like I cant be bothered. I also feel like my arthritis flares up.
I noticed lots more pains lately and I realized my diet has been slowly getting worse so starting yesterday I am making a huge effort to cut out as much processed foods as possible. I know when I cut sugar out its a tough few days as I crave it so much and get headaches but after a while I dont actually want it anymore.

@Diorama1

As an aside, a 92-year-old friend of mine cured her arthritis in her forties mostly by diet. She went to a naturopath.

I eat loads of processed food during part of the year (basically when it’s cold: during summer I’m happy with smoothies, salads, stir fries etc but as soon as the autumn chill hits I crave beige carbs). A typical autumn /winter day for me would be a breakfast of either white toast with real butter, a bagel or porridge with jam; for lunch soup or a cheese toast (fish fingers and peas if I’m feeling fancy) for dinner, either some sort of breaded chicken with chips or jacket potato, a takeaway (I have about 3 takeaways a week), pizza or pasta. I would eat a couple of pieces of fruit throughout the day, maybe yoghurt, occasionally crisps, ice cream or biscuits (mostly when I’m about to get my period, which is also when I eat vast amounts of chocolate).

There have been times in my life when I have eaten nothing but fresh, homemade, healthy meals meals. I had to cook everything from scratch for a few years as one of my kids has numerous tricky allergies - which they have now outgrown- and I remember feeling quite tired and listless during that period, despite eating tons more fruits and vegetables and plenty of protein. My iron and vit d levels and also my blood pressure sucked during this time period.

My body just seems to cope better with heavy, high carb diet. I’m fatter, no doubt but I had a Nuffield wellness check recently and my blood pressure, hba1c, stress tolerance, mobility and cholesterol were great. So objectively, it doesn’t seem to have done me any harm.