What are Processed Foods?

Processed food is anything that has been changed from its original form.  This can be done in the home or in factories, which is what most people think of when processed food is talked about. But, why do we process food? Before grocery stores were around, people had to grow and process all their own food. Although many of us could not imagine a life without grocery stores, processing, was the only way to ensure they had food all year long when crops were not producing food. They had to can, freeze, and dry all the food they grew in order to store it for the rest of the year. 

Today, some foods are minimally processed simply for our convenience, such as spinach in a bag or frozen green beans. These processes slightly change the nutritional composition of these foods. There are also more heavily processed foods that are created in factories with added sugar, salt, fat, and preservatives that the body is unfamiliar with. Examples of these foods are frozen or microwave dinners and deli meats. 

When we consume high amounts of these highly-processed foods we are consuming extremely high amounts of sugar, sodium, and fat that the body is not accustomed to eating. The best way to avoid these foods is to try and eat foods that are closest to their natural form. Looking at the nutrition label to see specific nutrient content, and reading the ingredient list can also help. A good indication of whether a food is highly processed or not is to see how familiar the ingredients are. Often highly processed foods  have unknown ingredients that are hard to pronounce. The reason we would want to shy away from eating heavily processed food is because these processes change the nutrient composition, often decreasing nutrient density, while increasing caloric content.

This information was derived from: www.eatright.org/resource/food/nutrition/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels/avoiding-processed-foods.