Overview:
This topic revolves around understanding processed foods, from their definition to their potential health impact. Processed foods, falling between whole and ultra-processed foods and vary greatly in their nutritional value
This topic emphasizes the importance of label reading for new items, careful product selection, and maintaining a healthy skepticism about modern food industry practices.
It is important to have a plan when eating out or ordering in as restaurants do not have health as their priority.
Topic Summary:
- Processed foods are anything that is not whole food or minimally processed foods. Not all processed foods are unhealthy.
- Traditional food processing would focus on combining whole foods with whole food (processed culinary) ingredients, but modern methods often add coloring, extracts, emulsifiers, and high levels of sugar, fat, salt, and other chemicals.
- Processed foods like bread, cereal products, and dairy can vary significantly from their traditional counterparts in terms of nutritional value.
- We emphasize the need to be cautious when selecting processed foods. Be sure to read labels, especially for new products, and understand what you’re consuming.
- Despite the potential pitfalls, there are increasingly more options for high-quality, healthy processed foods available on the market.
