What's On My Mind: Processed Foods

A lot of hits to this blog come from searches such as “Is yogurt processed?” or “How is oatmeal processed?” While the intent of this blog isn’t to explain how certain foods are made or how exactly different food items are processed, I think it does help to at least define what is meant by the term processed food.

So what is processed food? One definition (from the textbook Developing New Food Products for a Changing Marketplace) explains that processed foods are “raw animal, vegetable or marine materials [that have been] transformed into intermediate . . . edible products through the application of labor, machinery, energy, and scientific knowledge.”  What this means is that a lot of food products are processed. And it’s not just pasteurized milk or a box of cereal that’s considered to be a processed food product. Even a bag of salad greens—which has been mechanically torn apart and pre-rinsed prior to being bagged—is an example of a processed food. Unless you’ve pulled it directly out of the ground or off the tree and eaten it, you’re eating a processed food. Where I try to draw the line, however, is in the ingredients. I much prefer to eat processed foods that have the most “real” (that is, whole) ingredients and the least amount of total ingredients. Using an example from yesterday’s post, I’d much rather buy a jar of peanut butter that lists its ingredients as “peanuts, salt” rather than one that lists “peanuts, sugar, palm oil, contains 2% or less of: salt, molasses.” I also tend to shy away from products with artificial flavorings and/or colorings. However, I am far from perfect when it comes to this topic (hence the blog's name is A Less Processed Life, not An UnProcessed Life) -- sometimes it's just easier, and let's face it, way budget-friendlier, to buy products with more questionable ingredient lists than I would prefer.

In my mind, the best way to ensure that you are eating what you want to eat ingredients-wise is to make it yourself. The downside of this, of course, is the time it takes to do so. I can understand why so many people would rather reach for a can of cream of mushroom soup rather than take all the steps to make it on their own. I think, however, that if you do have the time, it is often well-worth it, both flavor-wise and health-wise, to skip the canned or boxed stuff and make it on your own.

Do you rely on a lot of processed foods in your cooking? Are there certain ingredients you try to avoid? Do you ever try to make things from scratch?