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?

Yh I feel gross. Definitely notice it after takeaways. If I have frozen pizza/ nuggets at home etc I typically have a bit of veg/ salad on the side so maybe that softens the blow.

Fruit and veg isn't expensive in this country though, people don't prioritise fresh foods in their shopping though or they favour the imported more expensive stuff like berries.

I feel a lot worse physically and mentally when I eat junk food. If I don't eat a few servings of veggies every day I feel sluggish. I bought doritos recently and ate the bag in a week and noticed that they are so salty they're addicting as I eat them, and that the next day I felt-idk how to describe it, just felt not great and that was every day after I had some the night prior.

Preparing fresh veggies is tough though so I can see how lots of people don't bother esp if family refuses to eat them, its expensive to throw away food and time consuming to buy, prep, cook etc.

I'm getting to the point in my life where if I'm out and hungry I often prefer to just come home and have a sandwich and some raw veggies than to eat out esp fast food which here in America is basically crap anyway so I'm saving money and calories (and salt, my god the salt) by eating home cooking.

Its not noticeable while one is eating that way though so I can understand people who eat mostly processed foods resenting the implication that they're not doing the best thing they could. It's tasty, quick food that requires no effort and younger people may not even notice the negative effects it has until the habit of eating it is so ingrained its hard to break out of and make the effort to eat home cooked food.

Any change in diet can cause those symptoms, doesn't really matter what food.

I always find during Christmas when there's lots of novelty picky food in I don't eat properly for a week or so and I feel like DEATH after it. I know when I get to the stage that I'm craving broccoli that it's time to knock the crackers and spring rolls on the head. So yea OP I know what you mean. I've always assumed it's salt related? Like a Chinese takeaway makes me feel like I'm going to die. But does it stop me?! Not a bit.

I used to heavily rely on quick and easy meals which consisted of loads of frozen pizza, takeaway, etc. But since need to lose weight and actually joining the gym for weight training, I actually prefer to cook at home where I can control what I have. One the odd occasion where I actually eat out more than once a week, I find it makes me sluggish, affects my sleep and also my workouts.

So yes, I know what you mean and try to avoid loads of social events close together.

I think it's all about how difficult the food is to digest and process for the body. It may simply have to redirect energy

I know what you mean OP. I feel bad if I eat rubbish food very often - I’m not particularly slim or into fitness but I mostly eat homemade decent food with lots of veg.

Processed food is very salty and I hate to have too much salt. I can taste it for days!

We eat the odd ‘beige’ meal but don’t eat enough processed food to really say. But I do recall that after a holiday in Florida I actually began to crave vegetables of which very little were served with meals. We ate too much junk food and it made us feel sluggish and yuk.

I also agree that seasonal British fruit and veg is not expensive. This past weekend I purchased good amounts of carrots, sprouts, Savoy cabbage, apples, pears, swede and cauliflower. Plus bananas. This haul cost under £10.00 to feed three people for a week, £3.33 per person.

Yes.

I have fruit at lunch or breakfast (greek yoghurt and strawberries usually) and a big fruit bowl after dinner (Mango, Melon, Raspberries, Orange and whatever else is seasonal). TBH there is usually more calories in my fruit than my dinner!

If I go one day without it I get fatigued and sick.

I don't notice any difference in how healthy I feel when eating healthily or unhealthily. I understand in an abstract way that eating healthily is good for me, but I can't 'see' or 'feel' it and have trouble really believing it.

I wonder if some of the people who say they feel so bad with beige food actually have a mild gluten intolerance.

Same when I've done dry January - I don't feel any better, but that's probably due to being a moderate rather than a heavy drinker.

Totally agree OP. If I have a run of crap food then I definitely feel different. The lack of awareness around UPF really saddens me. I work in an office where the most people are much younger than me. The majority of them are overweight and suffer from lethargy or gut issues. They complain about this but they don't associate any of these issues with the absolute junk they eat all day. Literally, their entire diet is UPF.

Yes I really notice the difference in my overall sense of health and well-being when I put effort into eating well op. I love a dirty take away as much as the next person but the older I've got and the more I've paid attention to what I (already) know is good for me, the more I notice it.

Good nutrition (or lack of it) can really help to undo a lot of the damage the reliance caused by 40 years on processed food op. You're not alone

I also think people don't always truly understand what 'processed food' means, and lots of people inadvertently think they're eating healthily when they're not because of clever marketing.

@Gwenhwyfar i am gluten intolerant so even junk food for me is GF. And I assure you I feel the difference.

the seed oils, chemicals, high sugar content. It’s your body screaming at you to stop giving it junk kibbles and give it real food and nutrients. What you eat affects you at a molecular level, it affects every single cell. Either fuel it or don’t.

I used to live on junk food no problem at all in my 20’s. Now in my 30’s I just can’t.

If I eat 1 or more take aways, and/or 1 or more ready meals or other types of processed foods, I get a feeling like a hard rock in my stomach. I don’t get constipated, but have this rock-like feeling and nausea, as well as a huge craving for home cooked food - usually something very hearty with a variety of vegetables.

I call it a food hangover: too much sugar, salt and refined carbs.

Before I got married I ate a lot of macdonalds and other junk food in a short space of time and felt awful

Then how come some of us are much older than you and our bodies don't "scream"?

No, because some of the healthiest food can be difficult to digest because of the high fibre content.

I cut out all upf food (other than when I eat out every couple of weeks) from my diet in January. I made no other changes and eat until I am full. Consequences were:

1. Loss of 14 kg and all belly fat (now have completely flat tummy. This was without any calorie counting (I actually increased my intake of healthy fats)
2. Zero cravings for unhealthy foods. I no longer crave upf and feel full between meals. Often I have to remind myself to eat.
3. More energy - I sleep better and wake at 5am wanting to exercise. Before I would find it hard to get out of bed
4. Better immunity - this year all 3 others in my household have had multiple bad colds. I didn't catch any of them.
5. Vegetables now taste great. I was never that keen on vegetables in the past and saw them as an accompaniment to eat becuase I should. I now actively crave them.

I would not go back to eating upf and when I rarely do (e.g at a social occasion) I find that it tastes overly salty, artifical or greasy.

I think if you eat crap all the time you dont actually realise how crap you feel. Eating well doesnt make me feel good, but eating badly makes me feel bad. Ill

Sometimes I'll be really tired, grumpy and irritable and I'll realise I've been eating badly for a few weeks.

If I dont eat junk, I dont crave junk. It's so easy to slide into bad habits again and again.

I feel generally crappy if I each too much junk. Also my skin will flare up with spots and I get heartburn.

I think you probably build up a tolerance to stuff - so if you eat lots of processed food, that's what your body expects and adjust to.
If you eat mostly super healthy food with lots of fruit, veg and fibre, a weeks descent into junk food has a more marked effect than if you ate it all the time.

I don't really notice a difference in how I feel with type of food. Just amount. If I eat too little I feel foggy, jittery and snappy. If I eat too much I feel lethargic and blegh. But, as long as the number of calories is ok, the nutritional content of the food doesn't seem to affect me, positively or negatively.