Limiting Food Processing
The quick answer: Limit exposure to processed foods by eating whole foods as close as practical to how they were first created.
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A Food Catastrophe
Food corporations, starting in the late 1800s but mainly in the 20th Century, innovated beyond traditional forms of food processing to create novel but unproven food-like products. These new food forms made a good business but were bad for our health—it took time but the catastrophic increase of chronic diseases now afflicting the U.S. was the inevitable result.
I suppose the toll of premature death from these industrialized foods exceeds the casualties of both World Wars, though it’s not something likely to be reported. It was a food catastrophe that occurred in several phases:
Phase I—Ingredients: Food ingredients were the first targets: cheap white sugar, refined white flour, pure white salt, Crisco shortening, margarine, and chemically refined vegetable oils. In the processing of salt natural trace minerals were first removed and then, after problems arose, one was restored: iodine. A similar process occurred with white flour, now known by the inaccurate phrase, “enriched flour.” Hydrogenation, which creates harmful trans fats is a sad example.
Phase II—Foods: Factories began to combine cheap ingredients into convenience foods that could be “branded.” Crackers (Nabisco soda crackers), cookies (Oreos), and breads (Wonder Bread) are early examples but there were also novel products like Jello. Jello mainly sugar with gelatin from animal hoofs as a thickener, plus artificial flavors, was a good example of Madison Avenue branding. Cake mixes—unhealthful as they were—were another post-WWII food convenience. The granddaddy of all these however is the cola drinks, a meal you could drink and addictive enough to make you a user until you died.
Phase III—Meals: After ingredients and foods came complete meals. This final phase had several iterations, ranging from frozen TV meals to fast food, which made home kitchens redundant. Walk around your local grocery store and observe how the frozen prepared food section has expanded in your lifetime.
Factory foods require:
- Cheap ingredients (think refined flour, sugar, salt soybean oil)
- Fast process time,
- Long shelf life (“dead food” is great for shelf life)
- Potential for branding,
- A mildly addictive taste.
Nutrient value, you can see, is not a consideration. In fact, the demand for longer shelf life causes many nutrients to be removed during processing.
How Much Processing is Too Much?
There’s a food reformation underway—which I define as a return to eating food as close as practical to how it was first created—and people are relearning how to eat. In the food reformation, processing of foods should be minimal and not affect the nutrients. That’s the starting point. But Food Inc makes their money from processing and nutrients, though good for us, usually reduce shelf life.
I think this is the food battle of the 21st Century—finding a better limit on food processing. The battle must be fought by us consumers—Food Inc, like the dinosaur, won’t go away on its own.
Alice Waters, the creative force behind “local seasonal food,” and founder of Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse restaurant, simply reinvented the forgotten half of the Mormon scripture called the Word of Wisdom that calls for eating fruits and vegetables “in season.”
How much should food be processed? This is a common question and the subject of this post. Here are examples of appropriate minimal processing:
- Butter (churning cream is impractical unless you own a cow), but not margarine, nor the spreads that replaced margarine,
- Farm milk—titled the ultimate probiotic in a recent article
- Sourdough whole grain bread (no added preservatives),
- Prewashed, precut, and bagged greens—they make fresh salad easy,
This brings us to Healthy Change #37:
Eat whole foods, as close as practical to the form in which they were created.
Phosphates and Processed Foods
There’s more, from a Web MD post titled “Less Deli May Reduce Kidney Disease Risk.” The article featured a new study showing that kidney function could be protected by avoiding visceral (belly) fat and processed foods. Here’s a quote: “A good rule of thumb is that if the food comes in a package, it’s likely to be high in phosphorus.”
Basically, phosphate based additives protect the taste and shelf life of processed foods, but are hard on the kidneys. If you know anyone who suffers kidney failure and needed kidney dialysis, you’ll understand the importance of looking after kidney health. Whenever possible, eat fresh food!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 5:00PM | by Skip Hellewell | 6 Comments | 1 Reference | Share Article | Email Article 
Reader Comments (6)
I've been working on this change for a couple of years now. Let's put it this way..if a kid looked in our pantry he'd say, "there's nothing to eat!" There's no boxes of anything, no bright colored packaging, just whole foods. I do have homemade soaked granola and dried fruit..maybe that would seem edible to the average kid ;)
Dee I loved your comment. I cannot tell you how many times my kids have looked in my pantry and made that same declaration of "there's nothing to eat". Once while visiting a cousin my daughter made a point of showing me my cousin's pantry and then proceeded to tell me that was what a properly stocked pantry should look like. However, I was not to be swayed, and slowly my children (all grown now) are seeing the light, that processed food is not a healthy, nor delicious option. They are not completely converted but I suspect that will come in time.
Spot on, Skip. Excellent post.
Since our daughter joined our family almost eight years ago we have eliminated processed foods from our diet, as we refused to give them to her. My own mother believes I 'waste my time' preparing everything at home from whole wheat breads, crackers, granola, almond milk and healthy cookies, cakes and treats. We are also a vegetarian family and eat whole foods with joy. There is such a variety to explore and we rarely eat the same dish even twice a month. We realize we are odd, but firmly believe we are protecting our health and our children's health - one of a parent's most important responsibilities. We see the short-term effects of our choices - each daughter has only ever been on antibiotics once and no one in our family has seen a doctor for illness in over three, nearly four years. We are hopeful the long term effects will also be good.
Keep up the encouragement, Skip. Your work is valued.
To Dee, Karen, and Dee Dee
Thanks for your comments. You caused me to look at another aspect of eating natural vs. processed foods—the problem of too much sodium and too little potassium. I'll add a discussion of what's called the sodium-potassium ratio as a supplemental post. Thanks.
I have never put together the Word of Wisdom instruction to eat foods "in season" with the idea of limiting processed foods. Love it! Thanks
Great post. I'm still working on phasing out processed foods. We are at 85%. It's mostly a matter of convincing my husband the dangers of processed foods.