what does "processed" food mean to you?

[bossykate]

hello everyone

have let diet/nutrition go to pot a bit the last few months, as have been pregnant, sick, tired etc. have had plenty of fruit, veg, fibre - but have also resorted to a lot more convenience, ready meal type food, and now want to cut it down again.

keep reading "processed" food is bad for you, but what exactly do you think that means? to me it means anything that has been subject to a manufacturing process, e.g. a ready meal. but surely "good" foods have also been "processed" e.g. porridge oats, orange juice, bread, cheese.

just wondering what the consensus on MN is about what constitutes "processed" food in the unhealthy sense.

thanks in advance for your comments

i think they mean stuff like ready made meals but cant say much if im in a hurry i use them

It mostly applies to ready meals as they contain loads more salt/sugar/fat/preservatives than would be in a home-made version. Even the low-fat stuff bulks up in other ways (e.g. more salt/sugar) so they're not brilliant for a balanced diet. I spose it also applies to the white flour products which have gone through bleaching and cereals that have been sweetened. The more wholegrain/organic stuff you can substitute for these the better. Porridge oats are excellent, though, as long as they're the real thing.
As far as cooking in a hurry goes it's better to do a bulk cook of stuff when you're having a relatively good day and freeze it for when you feel too knackered to cook.
Alternatively, you try more simple stuff like baked potatoes or beans/egg on toast.
Hope I don't sound too preachy - not meant to be at all

Agree with your def bk. dont really use them as hate the taste.

Yes, things like ready meal, but there are other obv ones like processed cheese and meat ie ham that is not cut straight from the bone but has been chopped and re-formed with water, cheese that is not proper cheese IYKWIM

It means everything to me, I love it

Bring on the cheese strings

I'd class all ready meals, as CD says processed ham & cheese(I don't allow cheese strings, kids moan like hell),all kids type stuff, whale shapes, chicken nuggets,smiley faces etc.
I supose I count any thing thats not homemade from scratch, or any food that doesn't look like it is supposed to IYKWIM.

Yeh, I'd forgotten about all the 're-constituted' meats and stuff like that. In other words, minced arse-ends of the stuff that's one-up from cat food, shaped into a dinosaur and labelled as food for our children!

Agree with jac34's definition I think. Although there is some stuff that isn't made from scratch so maybe is technically processed that I'd still consider not bad, like those organic pizzas from the little big pizza co (or whatever they're called, something like that). The ingredients are flour, tomatoes, chese, water, salt, sunflower and ev olive oils,yeast, basil/oregano infused oils and pepper so nothing terrible there and organic and no additives etc. Baked beans are processed I suppose in that they're covered in tomato sauce and have added salt/sugar but they're still good for you, although I'm with Nigella on not getting worked up about the salt in them.

Almost all the food that is marketed as 'kids food' is utter crap, I agree moomin.

And peanut butter is processed but is still nutritious.

I think if you hunch is that it is crap, it probably is.

I tend to think of anything as "bad" processed if it has added hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or sweeteners, extra sugar and salt etc. All of which has been said before in this thread and more succinctly...my particular bugbear is those ultra-low-cal yogurts which have been stuffed full of thickeners and heavily sweetened to make them more "satisfying". I'd sooner have a slightly more calorific, less adulterated version personally.
Bk, I think you've been entitled, frankly. We all eat a certain amount of pleasurable crap! Ahem, have you sampled the Krispy Kreme donut yet or is that the wrong thing to ask

www - I do like Nigella, she has a fairly healthy attitude to food I love the comment she made about the studies which compared the californian group who ate very carefully only healthy stuff and still died younger than the group in France who ate well and enjoyed life!

bk: for easy only "part" processed meals, I'm a big fan of the Campbell Soup Recipe site - okay, so the soup is processed, but not horribly bad, and all other ingredients added fresh, so a fair compromise when you want a hassle free meal. Also, things like salads where you just empty your fridge and throw everything on a plate are quick, easy and fairly healthy. We eat a fair amount of junk too though.

Funnily enough, ds' favourite foods are of the non-junk variety. He loves peas and broccoli, roast dinners, etc... chips, pizza, icecream, tomato ketchup he's completely disinterested in. Odd child

Agree with Marina that more fat/calories are much better for you than some of the crap that is put in the "healthier" low-fat alternatives.

I WANT A KRISPY KREME DONUT!!!

I'd steer off the ready meals if you can - but life is short and a pregnant person should not be expected to make any more than a minimal effort in any area if you ask me.

Am big stuffed pasta fan, myself.

I like the Campbells recipes too!

Probably most of the food that most of us eat is processed in some way. The only food that's not would be food that's in it's natural state. The further away a food gets from it's natural state, the more ingredients get added to it and the more processed it is.

Which reminds me, I was looking at a product which claimed to have "no added sugar" the other day but it included maltodextrin to its list of ingredients. I thought maltodextrin was sugar??

Oh definitely, pregnancy is NOT a time to start worrying about intricate recipes. I remember reading the Best Odds Diet and laughing the first time around

I do find it's amazing how your body tells you what you need (especially in pregnancy) if you're prepared to listen to it. I don't "ban" myself from junk food if I fancy it, but left to my own devices I'll soon want loads of fresh stuff if I overdo the rubbish.

I take multivitamins and drink a pro-biotic drink every day which I think probably irons out the worst of any excesses I do enjoy my food, as does ds and baby no. 2 is growing very well (gulp ... every doctor and midwife keeps commenting "oh, it's a good size isn't it, you're feeding it well!" at the moment) - so I can't be doing too badly!

I think of processed food as stuff that has been transformed or manufactured out of it's natural state by chemicals or processes that affect the chemicals in the food. SO, processed cheese, any foods with lots of ingredients that you don't recognise or can't buy. I wouldn't think of food that has merely been 'assembled' as processed. Some ready meals and pizzas, made from basic natural ingredients are fine, except that the vitamin content may have been depleted due to storage and re-heating.

In my moments of guilt I classify just about anything that's packaged as processed food, in which case I guess milk and weetabix are processed! But in more sane times, I agree with the general definitions here. I do think of ready-made meals as processed, with the additives, high fat and and I wonder what bits of cow constitute the 'beef' in, say, a r-m lasagne. Any meat product such as pies, sausages and so-called ham (probably made of floor sweepings!) is definitely processed, in my book. I go off ready-made food anyway. We've been living on it for the last week while I had a strep throat and now I'm wanting plain spuds or rice, meat I can recognise as such and decent fresh veg.

If you're not feeling up to cooking much, BK, what about food that you can just shove straight into the oven, such as M&S chicken breast in a marinade, and their bags of ready to cook veg or salads? I think that would be a good compromise, as you're avoiding some of the nasty things but cutting out the tedious preparation.

Maltodextrin is what makes lickable stamps stickable - euurgh..

If easy and healthy is what your after, why not just put veg, meat and a bit of seasoning in an oven proof dish and just leave it for a couple of hours. Not very quick I agree, but you can get on with other things or play with the kids while your waiting. Even better if you have a slow cooker, you can time it to be ready when you come in.

thank you very much, everyone, for these comments and ideas

i agree with most of the definitions here.

marina, agree with you about low-fat yoghurt - we get a delicious whole milk organic one usually.

also agree with wholemeal bread better than white - but couldn't face life without baguette, bloomer, focaccia...

thanks again

I'd just have a quick read of some of the labels, you'd be surprised what is in some things!

Also some jars can be really nice and quick to use, and surprisingly nothing really bad in them. Good to stir into some pasta or chuck some cooked chicken in. Nice and simple!

I think I would ignore the idea of "processed" and just focus on "unhealthy". Lots sugar, salt or ingredients you don't really know what that is ... (E-numbers, etc.!), probably counts as "unhealthy". And high fat, too, if you have a weight problem. Whereas fresh or simply cooked veg or fruit are "healthy".
DH's contribution, "If it's boring, it's probably healthy". He's rather disappointed to hear he has to kick his stamp-licking habit, too.