It’s widely understood that you should avoid packaged food products whose nutrition labels read like a textbook. We’ve all seen ingredients like Butylated HydroxyAnisole, Titanium Dioxide, and Xantham Gum, and wondered what these names mean and whether or not it is a good thing to eat. If you follow the general rule a la Michael Pollan: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t,” then all packaged foods should be avoided. But, of course, not all processed foods are created equal.
If you are trying your best to eat healthy, clean foods and are also avoiding meat and dairy, navigating the frozen and packaged food aisles of the grocery store can be a highly conflicting experience. You know meat has been associated with cancer risk and heart disease, but when you turn over a package of plant-based burgers, the ingredient list is filled with “protein isolates,” “tocopherols,” and a number of other things you can’t pronounce. If you can’t discern what exactly is in the packaged alternative, how can you tell if it is indeed better for you?
In a recent episode of #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias, renowned registered dietician, Brenda Davis, gets to the bottom of all of these questions – and a whole lot more. She explains what to look out for in processed foods and which ingredients are especially harmful to our health. Brenda pits bacon against plant-based meat alternatives and goes into detail about why, based on lengthy population studies, we need to be more concerned about consuming processed meat than we do processed plant-based alternatives. That’s not to say she lets plant-based products entirely off the hook, she highlights a few ingredients and nutrition facts all health-conscious eaters should look out for when selecting a meat alternative.
This is the ultimate conversation for anyone who is interested in nutrition, and it is especially helpful for people in the food industry who are looking to make a healthy product – without cutting any nutritional corners – that also tastes great. To learn more about the best sources of fat, sugar, and salt; what Brenda has to say about soy; and other invaluable advice from a dietician, listen in!
You know this is the question that's always stopped me switching from paleo to vegan. That, and the refined starch and grain content in my vegan friends diets.
We are a nightmare to go out for dinner with but we make surprisingly amazing Sunday dinners for 'regular' eaters.
I think of vegan processed foods as transition foods. They help people adjust to a vegan lifestyle replacing their meat burgers with vegan burgers, some of which are widely considered superior for their taste and texture in blind tasting tests.
Wherever I post I argue to move from transition to whole foods for proven superior health outcomes in the long term.
I’m going to listen to this podcast in work tonight. I have been vegetarian for 36 years and have a keen interest in nutrition. I strive for a nutrient rich diet but alas some processed foods are convenient as an alternative to their meat equivalent.
I joined the nhs weight loss program out of sheer desperation for help in losing weight and have found this particular forum to be so interesting.
It's an interesting question: what does "processed" even mean? Is tofu "processed"? Cheese? Bacon? Olive oil? Kimchi?
My personal definition - and it's a completely arbitrary one - is that a food is unprocessed if the technology to make it was available 10,000 years ago (in theory at least). So I would class none of the above as processed. Anything that involves stuff produced by chemical engineering, or mechanical processes that couldn't have been achieved without modern precision and lots of energy, are suspect. As I said, it's arbitrary, but it seems to draw the line in a sensible place.
Bacon for example might or might not "processed" - if it's just salted, seasoned meat (you have to refrigerate it carefully if no nitrites) then it's not. If it's full of phosphates, water, and artificial flavourings, then it is. A burger patty made by hand from pastured beef is unprocessed; those weird rubbery elliptical things that sell for a pound per pack of 8, are not.
I do actually eat vegetarian food quite a lot - they have these buffets here that are great for an in-a-hurry meal. Generally there's a selection of 15-30 dishes, and the quality varies a lot. I've found some of them to be:
- swimming in vegetable oil (ie., polyunsaturates, which are unhealthy for various well-documented reasons)
- loaded up with sugar and salt to mask bland flavours (I don't avoid salt, but I don't like my food to taste of nothing but salt)
- rely heavily on meat substitutes made with TVP (again, not something I avoid on principle, it just looks unappetising, and too much soy probably isn't a good thing).
The best ones use lots of good, fresh vegetables, prepared with a big dose of skill and creativity. Clearly vegan food can be as unhealthy as the McDonald's lifestyle if you choose to make it so; it still takes conscious effort, as with any diet, to ensure you're eating proper food.
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