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?

Do they not have salad or fruit in America?

Of course they do, in great abundance. However they are legally prevented from selling them to aholes from the UK in order to discourage them from making return visits😂

You'd think that was the case the way some people on here are carrying on!

There's way more healthy options in the US than there are over here.

I tend to feel fine whatever I eat!! Love it.

My diet is about 2 thirds home cooked and a third processed. I can’t say I notice much difference in how I feel if I eat processed food.

I think your digestive system works best when given food it’s used to. Any change in diet can flummox it a bit irrespective of whether the food is more or less healthy.
Or maybe it’s psychological. If you’ve eaten food you believe is bad for you then you’re going to feel a bit rubbish.

I agree. I accept that there are benefits, but I don't think they're immediately obvious.

I have a big mix of food but never felt unwell or bleurgh from eating processed foods

The people who eat loads of processed foods and feed it to their kids will have loads of health issues as will their kids and their risk of obesity is much higher. That's for them to live with and deal with, some people are just stupid and lazy and deserve what they get.

A couple of years ago when I turned 60 I was diagnosed with high BP so I switched my diet from processed foods to lots of fruit, veg, pulses, nuts etc with small amounts of protein at every meal (mostly dairy and eggs with small portions of meat/fish 3/4 times a week). I rarely eat carbs now and if I do it's tiny amounts so one roast potato not 4 or one chocolate not a handful.

My BP dropped to normal very quickly. I lost 18kgs in weight and my energy levels are sky high.

I've found it easy to continue eating this way and I definitely notice the difference in my mood and motivation on days when circumstances mean I eat more processed foods and less of the healthy stuff.

To be fair though, on social media, there are so many ideas on how to put minimal ingredients together to make a decent meal. Especially if you have something like an airfryer which halves cooking time versus the oven. I do understand that some people feel a lot of pressure on them about cooking, but the more you do it the better you get at it. Trouble I think in a lot of families is that kids are growing up on beige freezer foods more often than not, and it really adjusts their taste buds and expectations if it is not a crispy unrecognisable "chicken" nugget but roast chicken for example.