The Case for Processed Foods
As we were leaving my daughter’s 4-week midwife checkup, my husband asked if I wanted to make any more stops before heading home. I suggested we pop into the grocery store, as it was just down the road and we were out of a few staples.
As we perused the aisles, my husband pushing the cart while the baby dozed in the carrier on my chest, I stopped occasionally to read food labels. I was planning to make some freezer breakfast sandwiches to help us through busy mornings once Nik returned to work, and was on the hunt for some quality English muffins. I pulled a gluten-free pack out of the freezer in the Natural/Organic section and read the ingredients. Making a face, I promptly put them back. As with many gluten-free products, they consisted mostly of gums, starches, oils and other additives – very little recognizable food.
We continued on to the snack section and I proceeded to gather a selection of whole food bars, one or two of which I scarfed down almost every night during 4AM feeds.
“Do you want anything?” I asked Nik, gesturing to the shelves of colourful wrappers.
“Nah,” he waved a dismissive hand. “This is all just processed junk.”
Despite the mini swell of pride I felt that my diatribes about eating real food had gained some footing in his psyche, I couldn’t help but stifle a crooked smile. “Have you read the ingredients lists?” I wanted to ask but didn’t.
Every one of the snack bars I’d selected for myself contained nothing but recognizable whole food ingredients; egg whites, dates, nut butter, organic oats, honey, sunflower seeds…
Were they technically processed foods? Yes. But they weren’t anywhere close to being in the same category as the gluten-free English muffins I’d rejected. They were also the only thing keeping me alive through endlessly demanding breastfeeding sessions.
It occurred to me how few people know how to read food labels properly (not just the “nutrition facts” panel but the ingredient list too), and how even fewer people know that not all processed foods are created equal. Ground meat is a processed food, for example, as is homemade banana bread, pre-cut salad, and butter.
Processed foods are categorized into four groups by the NOVA classification system, which ranks foods based on the extent of their processing and helps distinguish between whole foods and ingredients that have been significantly altered with additives. These categories are:
1) Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods; this includes things like fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, canned or dried beans, etc.
2) Processed Culinary Ingredients (Olive oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, flour)
3) Processed Foods (canned vegetables and fish, freshly baked bread, cheese, cured meats)
4) Ultra-Processed Foods (sugary drinks, frozen and ready-to-eat meals, cereals, ice cream, mass-produced baked goods, chips and candy, etc)
The category of processing a food falls into determines how easily our body can recognize and metabolize it. The fewer ingredients a food contains, and the closer those ingredients are to their natural state, the less processing it’s undergone, and therefore the better it is for us.
As much as I would like everyone to eat only Category 1 Foods, that simply isn’t realistic for every season of life. And it’s important to acknowledge the point of diminishing returns; Sometimes the stress of preparing only whole foods can do more harm than simply sourcing some high-quality pre-prepared snacks with natural ingredients. (I have neither the time or energy to be making my homemade cashew butter protein bars at the moment).
DID YOU KNOW?
According to food labelling regulations, ingredients are listed in order of descending weight or proportion, so the ingredient present in the largest amount will be listed first, and the ingredient in the smallest amount will be listed last. I would choose a snack bar, for instance, that listed “organic oats” as the first ingredient, and not “sugar” or “vegetable glycerine”.
I would also place more importance on the ingredients list than the nutrition panel; while it’s true that a tablespoon of pumpkinseed butter contains significantly more calories and fat than, say, a handful of rice crackers, it also contains notably more nutrition and fewer artificial additives.
The reality is that, sometimes, there is a well-earned place for processed foods in an overall healthy and natural diet. Often, lower categories of processed foods can even play an instrumental role in making a healthy lifestyle attainable and sustainable, as they can act as a bridge from a diet that consisted mainly of ultra-processed foods to a more wholesome one, or provide a healthful options when sourcing and preparing ingredients from scratch is simply not an option.
As with most things, an “all or nothing” approach is likely to get us nowhere fast, as it sets unrealistic expectations and doesn’t allow for the “somewhere in the middle” grace that keeps us on the right track.