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5 things you probably didn't know about processed food
The Rise Of Processed Food
Shortages of key ingredients during war-time and the rising need to work for the middle class led to households adopting processed food as an alternative to slow-cooked, authentic home food.
Powdered milk/custard, cereals, pre-made sauces, and biscuits started dominating the dining table due to time shortage and convenience.
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Processed Food in History
The need for food preservation has historically led the Ancient humans to develop techniques to process food.
From learning to control fire to grinding grains, our ancestors have been able to process food in a variety of ways.
Evolution: Shaping Up Humans
Processed food has aided the evolution of Homo Sapiens: As food became easy to eat and digest, our jaws and teeth became less powerful and smaller.
The shape of our brains and even the development of language resulted partially from our eating habits in our evolutionary path.
Changes in DNA
The current crop of super processed foods is altering our insulin resistance, teeth, metabolism, brain chemistry, and internal organs.
The Rise Of Processed Food
Shortages of key ingredients during war-time and the rising need to work for the middle class led to households adopting processed food as an alternative to slow-cooked, authentic home food.
Powdered milk/custard, cereals, pre-made sauces, and biscuits started dominating the dining table due to time shortage and convenience.
Added Ingredients
Processed food has earned a reputation for being high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.
Another major concern about processed foods is the long list of complicated ingredients that are cryptic to decode, added to enhance flavor, preserve color, improve consistency, keep ingredients mixed and preserve for longer.
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Natural
The term is not formally defined by the Food and Drug Administration. But, the government agency doesn't object to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial...
Organic
The term organic doesn't necessarily mean healthy, as evidenced by organic candies and baked goods. Once again, when buying packaged food, the real litmus test is the ingredient list.
The Organic Seal indicates that food was produced without industrialized substances and under humane conditions. It goes from “100% organic” to "Made With Organic Ingredients"(the product was made with a minimum of 70% organic ingredients, with restrictions on the remaining 30%, including no GMOs.)
Local
There is no formal national definition for the term local. What local does not mean is organic or more nutritious, which is something many believe.
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Ultra-Processed Foods
Ultra-processed foods like white bread, cereal, chips, and wafers are remarkably common, convenient, affordable, extremely profitable for the makers, come in strong flavors and are aggressively ma...
Our Everyday Foods
We consume ultra-processed foods every day without even realizing it.
- The morning cereal and flavored yogurt.
- The savory snacks and sweet baked goods.
- The vegan hotdog and the chicken nuggets available on the street.
- The doughnut or the premium protein bar we buy as a snack.
- The carton-packed almond milk put in our coffee or the diet coke we have.
More Light On Ultra-Processed Foods
Most cooked foods can be termed as 'processed foods', but ultra-processed foods are in a different domain, with few people having the clarity to differentiate.
A cooked carrot is processed food, but a bag of industrially-produced, carrot-flavored veggie puffs are ultra-processed and are still aimed at toddlers as a portion of natural food. Other examples include frozen peas or pasteurized milk.
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Understanding how long food lasts
Should humanity face a nuclear apocalypse of worldwide war, we need to understand which foods might be safe for survivors to eat, and how long the foods will last.
To understand this, we ne...
Why foods go bad
Most foods spoil because of the growth of microbes. Preserving food is an attempt to limit microbial growth. Food can be preserved by drying, salting, chilling, or storing in air-tight containers.
- Drying is the most effective because microbial growth is inhibited.
- Salting is effective because it removes moisture, creating an environment where microbes cannot survive.
- Sugar coating can prevent bacterial cells from functioning correctly.
- Storing in air-tight containers is less effective because there are probably a lot of microbes on the food before you put it in the container. Some microbes are anaerobic, meaning they don't need oxygen.
Food preservatives
Preservatives are used in foods to extend their shelf lives. One of McDonald's Big Mac in Iceland is an example of a long-lasting processed food. It has been on display since 2009, in a glass box. Preservatives that has been discontinued by McDonald's are:
- calcium propionate that prevents mold growth on bread.
- sorbic acid that also inhibits mold from cheese
- sodium benzoate, which inhibits the growth of bacteria in the Big Mac special sauce.
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