http://www.care2.com/greenliving/processed-junk-or-just-junk.html
Processed Junk Or Just Junk?
I often talk about “processed food” and “junk food.” Let me define my terms, because the categories overlap somewhat. By “processed” food I mean food that has been processed as a part of the industrial food system–seasoned rice mix, microwaveable, pre-sliced beef with gravy, most store-bought breads. Typically this kind of food is loaded with things you wouldn’t put in it if you made it yourself.
It is not always bad stuff–and usually at least looks and sort of tastes like real food–but processed food is usually loaded with ingredients you probably don’t want to be eating, and is rarely the best choice if you can do better. By “junk food” I mean the things that don’t even try to fool you into thinking they are real food: Packaged pastries, heavily sweetened breakfast cereals, most salty snacks, those kinds of things.
Sometimes the processed food is worse than the junk food. I’d take a bag of potato chips fried in safflower oil over the microwaveable “fresh spring peas in a tasty butter-flavored sauce” any day. The first is a junk food that knows it’s a junk food. You can eat a little of it knowing exactly what you are getting (deep-fried potatoes with too much salt). The second is junk pretending to be food. You eat the peas thinking something like “well, at least that’s one of my five-a-day,” but really you’re probably getting more garbage in the peas than you are in the chips. Junk food is not always all that heavily processed. Processed food, even if it started out as real food, almost always becomes junk in the course of being processed.
What processed or junk food do you love to hate?
Avery Hurt is a health and science journalist. Her work appears regularly in national publications such as: Better Homes and Gardens, Newsweek, and The New Physician. She is author of Bullet With Your Name On It: What You Will Probably Die From And What You Can Do About It (Clerisy Press, 2007) and Don’t Worry, I’m Not Contagious: Your Guide to Staying Healthy in an Infectious World, due out from Clerisy, fall 2008. She is at work on her third book, on alternative medicine.
related stories
-
averyh
(11 comments)
-
(23 comments)
-
(115 comments)
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
5 comments
add your comment »Great post. I stopped eating processed foods, even the so called “natural” and “healthy” processed foods and lost 40 pounds.
starflower oil
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
Love bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, pickled onions, and salsa. Trouble is that most of the stuff in jars comes with an extra helping of sulfites. Allergic. Have to go organic, even then, still need to use a microscope to read the labels. Want to learn how to can so that this can be avoided.
Also addicted to Oreos. Sorry, but the organic equivalents just don't stack up. No way, no how. Milk gets lonely without at least 3 of them.
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
soya burgers.. or similar i hate to love.. soya cheese.. though I havennt bought that for 6 months..
Corn chips... organic but still..
Oh I hate to love my sumpstered food... its free and 90% of the time its organic and has no problems.
I love to hate lots of things.. all commerical stuff... any animal products and soda
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
"Lite" salad dressings! I know I should just make it at home with some EVOO, vinegar, and lemon juice... but those low cal dressings find a way of sneaking into my grocery basket! I hate the weird ingredients lists.... but it's one of those things! They feel healthy but I know they can't be that great.
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
What processed junk food do I love to hate?
Ready-Made Dinners! They have enough preservatives in them to keep you alive till you're 100 years old.
send green star
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: