Understanding Processed Food and Health Risks
Discover what processed food is, its potential health risks, and how it compares to healthy food options. Learn about the impact of processed foods on your health and make informed choices.
HEALTH
9/23/20253 min read
What is Processed Food?
Processed food is natural food that is altered during the manufacturing process. This change includes adding preservatives, salt, sugar, and fat, as well as precooking, freezing, drying, or canning. This process marked the beginning of convenience food and was a welcome aid in reducing food preparation time.
What was the food like before Processed Food?
For children growing up in the UK in the 1970s/1980s, the only fast food was chips from the chip shop, accompanied by perhaps a fish or a breast of chicken. Fathers had allotments where they grew fresh, seasonal vegetables, tending to the land after work and on their days off. Mothers shopped daily for food from local butchers and greengrocers, and for freshly prepared meals. People ate what was on the plate until the next meal. If cooking apples were in season, we would have homemade apple pies or crumbles. A chocolate bar was a once-a-week treat if lucky. And children played outside all day, only returning home at the set meal times. Most were healthy, not overweight, and rarely had colds or were ill!
Life was hard work for parents preparing meals!
Fast and Convenient Food
In 1984, a McDonald's opened in many towns across the UK. The local children would spend their money on delicious burgers that were ready as soon as they ordered. Amazing. From this day onwards, other well-known brands entered the local high street. Mothers were delighted as the pressure to feed their families subsided.
Prepared and cooked ready meals were available in the newly introduced supermarket freezers; all you had to do was reheat and serve.
Sweets and candy became more readily available and were cheap due to mass production techniques. People would often eat candy instead of regular meals.
Like the boiling frog story, the frog didn't realise he was cooking alive as the heat rose slowly. People were getting fat and unhealthy due to the new fast and convenient food!
Is All Fast And Processed Food Unhealthy
You will read many reports by scientists and medical professionals about food. Before reviewing the content, determine who funded the report. If the funding was from an independent source, it's more likely to be accurate; however, if an interested party paid for the information, it may need to be more objective. As it's your body that will ingest the food, do your research.
Not all processed foods, such as those picked and immediately frozen, are unhealthy. Organically produced milk should be free of added hormones and antibiotics. If the milk is pasteurised to remove harmful bacteria, it too is processed. We know that certain pesticides are unsuitable for humans and cause cancer. High amounts of sugar, salt and fat can contribute to poor human health if consumed regularly.
An example of common processed foods includes:
Breakfast cereals.
Cheese.
Tinned vegetables.
White Bread.
Snacks, crisps, sausage rolls, pies and pasties.
Bacon, sausage, ham, salami and paté.
Microwave-ready meals.
Cakes and biscuits.
Milk and soft sugary drinks.
Conclusion
We all need to take responsibility for our health, and it is now widely recognised that smoking is harmful. However, between the 1930s and the 1950s, many doctors actually promoted smoking as being suitable for health. Let's compare the population before the rise of processed foods with today's population. We can observe significant weight gain, which can lead to various health issues. Processed and convenience foods play an important role in this trend.
Reducing our consumption of processed foods and sugars and increasing our intake of foods free from added preservatives, sugars, and salts can only benefit our health. As a comparison, read about organically produced food and see which is better for your well-being. My body, my choice!
Suggested blog: What is Organic Food
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