Processed Food: Are Foods with Health Claims Really Healthy?

Eating has got complicated! For the fat loss and fitness enthusiast who is listening to the so-called expert even a trip to the supermarket can cause a headache. Antioxidants, omega 3 fatty acids, polyphenols, folic acid, probiotics. It has got to the point where many people don’t see food anymore, just calories.

Inspired by Michael Pollan, whose dictum ‘eat food’ is, amongst other things, a two-word prescription to avoid processed food, I believe there is no need to make this any complicated than it actually is.

You don’t need to know what a protein, carbohydrate, or dare I say it even a fat is, if the food you choose arrives in its natural, nourishing, unprocessed state you have (for the most part) nothing to worry about.

A processed food is one that has been altered from its natural state, to make it cheaper, more convenient, more attractive or to extend its shelf life. More often than not it’s all of the above.

Humans have been processing their food for thousands of years. Freezing, drying, preserving, however in more recent years with the progress in food manufacturing a worrying amount of processing takes place.

In every aspect processed food is both a food manufacturers and retailers dream. With the ability to mass-produce a product and extend its shelf life enables both producers and retailers to make huge profits. By taking a poor quality product, processing it at high temperatures (killing any natural goodness) and adding a variety of sugar and sweeteners they can create something that, rather than like fresh food, will go off in days, will sit on a shelf in a shop or in a warehouse for years before being consumed.

Whilst the Food Standards Agency will claim that the chemicals used in food processing are safe, I think there is an element of putting their head in the sand when it comes to challenging food manufacturers. I believe, and I might be wrong, that it is for the FSA to prove that a food is unsafe rather than the food manufacturers to prove it is safe (If you don’t believe me read the research on MSG and Aspartame). Needless to say two things are for sure, firstly the western diet comprising of lots of processed food, sugar and salt is giving rise to many western diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. And primitive cultures that ate no chemically processed foods did not. Therefore it is my recommendation to eat food that resembles its natural state.

What do I mean by this? An apple in a bowl still resembles and apple on a tree, whereas a crisp (having been heavily processed) looks nothing like a potato.

Some of the foods that are processed include the packet of ham, bread (both white and wholemeal), pasta, tins of beans, and yoghurts.

The fact remains eating too much processed food will make you both fat and malnourished. To avoid it follow these couple of simple tips…

1. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.
2. Avoid foods with ingredients with ingredients you wouldn’t have in your cupboards.
3. Avoid foods that have a sugar or sweetener in the top three ingredients on the label.
4. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients on the label.
5. Avoid foods with a health claim on the label.

You can more often than not do this by shopping around the outside of the supermarket.