Stop Eating C.R.A.P.
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 56
Stop Eating C.R.A.P.
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly of Eating Processed Foods
I actually have no memory of eating store bought meat until I was 18 years old. This is because there were two working farms in my family. We had a large garden and raised a lot of animals. There were numerous fruit and nut trees on the farm. We foraged for berries and went on frequent fishing trips. If that still did not provide enough, we would go to the local farmers market because the things we did buy simply came from local farms.
Then I moved to Colorado when I was 18 and started working a construction job. And to say I was very poor for many months is an under statement. I was so proud of myself when I finally could spare enough money to actually buy a steak.
If you want to hear the end of this story, then listen to this episode called Stop Eating C.R.A.P.
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E56 which is called Stop Eating C.R.A.P. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About Eating Processed Foods
I remember so many times as a kid when I complained about having to do chores on the farm. I was wearing knee high rubber farm boots by the time I was 7 while helping my grandfather feed the pigs and clean out the barns. I also remember complaining endlessly about sitting and working for days at a time to help my mother chop, dice, boil and home can fruits and vegetables. I truly could not appreciate it at the time but such things were to my benefit because we were eating organic home grown, home processed foods. It truly was part of our tradition to grow as much as we could and process as much of our own food as possible.
I was oh so bluntly reminded of this when I first started living on my own working construction. As I said before I was so incredibly poor for many months. I lived mostly off of beans and cornbread, ramen noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, canned soup, spaghetti and anything else that was cheap. I laugh about it now as does most of us that can likely relate to having gone through such a period of time of in their lives.
I was so happy when I finally felt I could spare the money for a steak. I grilled it very carefully and slowly and I could hardly wait to take the first bite. AND when I did, guess what? I thought it tasted like card board. I could hardly believe it. I was reminded of this yet again most recently while on a business trip to Arizona. Since I was traveling, I actually had to buy eggs from the supermarket for the first time in years. I was astounded at the difference in taste. It obviously was not organic and I instantly missed the eggs that were straight from my own barn.
And I think about this often when I go into my local supermarket and see aisle after aisle of processed foods. But I am happy to say that my list of things that I no longer purchase at the supermarket keeps getting longer and longer. I keep getting more and more creative in the form of new recipes and finding new ways to make common things. For example, I had some old sourdough bread the other day that I did not want to waste. I remembered a tip from a vegan friend of mine about home made croutons. So that is what I did and I then had a salad with home made croutons for dinner.
But it seems to me that fewer and fewer people these days go to the trouble of producing home made items. This is because most of us are addicted to convenience foods, ready made foods, frozen foods. In other words, processed foods.
So what I want to accomplish with this episode is to perhaps give you a little better perspective on the subject of processed foods. What I want to do is give you the good, the bad, and the ugly facts about the food we eat. And by the end hopefully I will have convinced you to stop eating C.R.A.P. And I will explain in a little bit just what I mean.
And while you may at first think I am going to beat you over the head for eating a potato chip, I am going to start by pointing out that not all processed foods are inherently bad. You may not really give it much thought but we humans have actually been processing foods for thousands of years. For example, the first evidence of grinding grain to make flour is from a 23,000 year old archeological site in Israel’s Rift Valley. About 9,000 years ago humans began milking domesticated animals. And Egyptian hieroglyphs from 3,500 years ago provide the first evidence of people making bread.
I many ways we have in fact dinked around with various food processing methods simply to meet the demands of an evolving culture. However, as time has passed we have become much more sophistication in our methods. Now this is arguably for better or worse. But the question is whether or not we have now gone too far.
That said, I also have to point out that many factors have influenced the path of processed food. The loss of British and French seaman during the Napoleonic Wars lead to the production of tinned food. Margarine was actually developed due to shortages in edible animal fat in the 1860s. The very popular chocolate spread Nutella was developed due to cocoa shortages during WWII. And during the early 20th century domestic situations in the American home began to change. This was because many people were drawn to well paying factory jobs which meant the responsibility for cooking as well as other domestic chores were expected to be taken care of by more middle class women. Thus a niche for convenience food was produced. Thus the dawn of canned soups, canned bisquits, powder ingredients, as well as many other things.
Believe it or not in the 1950s, C.A. Swanson & Sons came out with the first frozen ready-made dinner on the market. They had actually over estimated their turkey production for Thanksgiving and had to do something with the surplus.
So, as you can see, there have been a variety of factors that have driven innovations in food processing from hunger, poverty, wars, shortages, surpluses, new legislation, and even simple changes in domestic living situation. And I am sure this will continue to happen. My point being, innovation in food processing is not always a bad thing. But again, the question becomes have we gone too far.
Certainly it could be argued that every food in the super market is processed in some way or another. In fact this is true. Even the un-bagged apples sold by the pound have to go through several processing steps before they make it to the supermarket shelf.
But to make sense of all this, what’s good and what’s not, you have to have some basic understanding of the types of food processing. Although it may sound like boring information, knowing the four categories of processed food is actually valuable and helpful information. It may help to steer you toward eating healthier food.
Now the NOVA Food Classification system was developed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition at the University of San Paulo, Brazil. But it is a simple system to group foods according to the extent and purpose of the processing they undergo. And this is open information on the internet by the way.
So, the four groups are as follows:
Group 1: Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods
Obviously unprocessed foods are those taken directly from nature without any alteration. Try going to a farmers market in rural Latin American where the vegetables and fruit are harvested and immediately taken to the market without any cleaning. There is still a lot of dirt on them. But, it does not get any fresher than that.
Minimally processed foods are simply natural foods that have been submitted to cleaning, removal of inedible parts, grinding, drying, fermentation, pasteurization, freezing but does not including the addition of salt, sugar, fats, or oils.
Examples of these foods include grains of wheat, oats, cereals, rice, raw corn, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, dried herbs, fresh or frozen meats and sea foods.
Group 2: Oils, Fats, Salt and Sugar
These are also referred to as processed culinary ingredients because they are used to season and cook foods. Examples include oils made from seed, nuts, soybeans, corn, sunflower and olive. These include butter, lard, coconut fat,
Group 3: Processed Foods
This includes products that are manufactured using salt, oil, sugar, or other substances to enhance their flavor or to preserve them. Examples of these would be a lot of the canned foods we see in the supermarket, tomato products, beef jerky, bacon, salted, dried, cured meats, cheeses, and fermented beverages such as beer and wine.
Group 4: Ultra processed foods
These include any prepackage breads such as hamburger and hotdogs buns, ice cream, biscuits, soft drinks, sports drinks, and pre-prepared food such as pizzas and frozen dinners, instant soups, flavored yogurts, sweetened juices, margarines and spreads, lunch meats, cookies, cracker, chips, and many breakfast cereals.
Think of these as your typical ready-to-eat foods that require little or no preparation. Anything you can open and eat right away, pop in the microwave or oven, cook in 5 minutes. These are ultra-processed foods.
And while you are thinking about your favorite chip to eat with your lunch, allow me to give you a completely different way to think about these types of foods.
Ultra processed foods are simply industrial formulations. They contain flavor enhancers, food coloring, preservatives, and a whole list of chemical additives. What we are talking about is food that is truly made in the laboratory. Think about Cheetos. That is a true example of a laboratory formulation.
So just for a quick review to set this in your mind.
Natural or minimally processed foods: Think carrots straight from your garden. The grits that I love to eat, which are part of my Southern heritage, have 6 ingredients. One is corn, the other 5 have to do with vitamin B enrichment.
Oils, fats, salt, and sugar: Think of various culinary ingredients used to cook and season your food.
Processed foods: Think of the canned vegetables and canned fruits in the supermarket.
Ultra-processed foods: Your typical hotdog bun off the supermarket shelf has 18 ingredients. They is ultra-processed. By comparison, my sourdough bread that I make at home has four ingredients: flour, yeast water, and salt
Is Processed Food Unhealthy?
Now, all this being said, the question is whether or not processed food is actually unhealthy.
Well, the short answer is it depends. So, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good Side of Processed Foods
There are obvious advantages to processing foods in certain ways.
Processing foods actually allows us to eat a greater variety since foods can be safely preserved, packaged and transported. Expiration dates on foods help in ensure food safety. We can also personalize our nutritional needs. Processing can in some ways help to maintain nutritional value. Foods can often be fortified and enriched to add micronutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals.
And you can see obvious examples of this throughout history. Infant cereals were fortified with B vitamins and iron to prevent anemia. Milk was fortified with vitamin D to prevent rickets. Wheat flour was fortified with folic acid to prevent birth defects. Iodine was added to salt to prevent goiter. Pasteurization can destroy and/or inhibit the growth of bacteria.
And various forms of vitamin B are added to the grits that I love to eat.
To sum it up, the good part of processed foods is that a greater variety of safe, healthy, and potentially vitamin enriched food is available to us.
The Bad Side of Processed Foods
But as you can guess, there is also a bad side to processed foods. Any kind of processing has the potential of altering nutrient, vitamin content and fiber. To some degree these can be added back but nothing ever beats food in its natural state.
Processed food often contains unhealthy levels of sugar, salt and fats which can lead to various health problems.
The Ugly Side of Processed Foods
Ultra-processed foods often contain an unevenly high ratio of calories to nutrients. The result is that you are consuming what is called “empty calories”, meaning you are adding calories to your diet without any beneficial nutrition. Additionally, the calories in ultra-processed foods are more easily digested. When we eat unprocessed foods, our body burns calories during the break down and digestion of that food. When digesting processed foods, we burn fewer calories. Bottom line, we are consuming high calorie foods that are easy to digest so we are more likely to gain weight.
More and more studies are making the connection between increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and increased heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
One study I came across linked eating four or more daily servings or ultra-processed foods to a 62% increased risk of premature death.
Deakin Lawrence, a public health and nutrition professor at a University in Geelong, Australia was associated with two studies regarding the consumption of ultra-processed foods. One of these studies involved 20,000 people that were monitored over a 15 year period. What the study found is that the people who ate the most processed foods were more likely to be obese, smokers, frequent snackers, regular TV watchers, and more likely to have cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and depression.
And on top of that, many of these foods are high in calories and are also specifically designed to stimulate our brain’s “feel-good” dopamine centers which makes us crave more of them in the future. In one report by the Psychiatric Times, foods known ae “junk food” are often reported to be highly addictive leading to behavioral effects as overeating, eating compulsions, and loss of control. And I quote “These foods have been associated with physiological stimulation of the same neurobiological reward response in the brain as that of drug addiction.”
So isn’t it nice to know that you are being manipulated even when you are sitting quietly at home eating a potato chip.
Furthermore, there are many additives to our foods to to improve flavor, texture, and to preserve and sweeten food. But did you know that of the roughly 5,000 substances that get directly added to our food, the FDA has no knowledge of an estimated 1,000 of those additive. Of the remaining 4,000, only roughly half of those substances have ever under gone any sort of testing.
Now you can begin to see why I look at ultra-processed food as being an industrial, laboratory experiment. Because it is.
What is even more frightening is that roughly 57% of the calories in the average American diet is from ultra-processed foods. It should therefore be no surprise that 75% of Americans are over weight, nearly half of Americans have some form of heart disease, 10% of us have diabetes, there is roughly a 7 % prevalence of depression and 1 in 6 Americans is on some sort of psychiatric drug.
You know I am not going to waste your time out lining proper meal plans. But, I did find a very concise, very descriptive acronym on the internet that is very fitting and it sums up the whole situation.
Simply stopping eating C.R.A.P.
That translates into
Carbonated drinks
Refined sugars
Artificial Foods
Processed foods
By doing so you will decrease your risk of heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, depression and you just might live a little longer.
Just recently I was having a discussion with a physician that was retiring and moving to Panama. He came into the veterinary clinic to take care of some of the legalities associated with taking his dog with him. And of course because of my love of travel, I got into a discussion with him about Panama.
But that also lead to a discussion about general health conditions in the American population. I shared with him some information from an article I had recently read that stated 75% of the health problems in the United States could be avoided or completely eliminated with nothing more than a change in diet and lifestyle. Looking at the end of a long career in family practice, he just laughed and said I was absolutely correct.
Often times when I am producing content for a podcast episode, I circle back on my own lifestyle and look at my own experiences. I have often stated that despite the principles I discuss and teach, I am not perfect of course. For example, just the other day I ate some food from Burger Kind. That said, that was the first time I had eaten fast food in about 2 months.
But what I have also noticed is that the more frequently I eat fruits and vegetables as snacks, the less I think about eating potato chips. It is just how I have conditioned myself over time. Along the same lines, if I am ever staying in a hotel, it never occurs to me to turn on the TV because it has been over 20 years since I have watched network TV. It is no longer a part of my life so it never occurs to be to reach for it. The same is true when it comes to eating C.R.A.P.
Just like so many other things in life, it is often about making better choices. I would much rather pay the farmer now instead of paying the doctor later. I would much rather enjoy daily meditation instead of daily medication.
So do yourself a huge favor and stop eating C.R.A.P. It is not healthy nor is it sustainable.
So the next time you reach for a potato chip, think of C.R.A.P. and remind yourself that what you are about to eat is nothing more than an industrial laboratory experiment. Then remind yourself that eating organic is not really a trend, it is actually a return to tradition.
And folks as I close this episode, please remember that if you enjoy what I produce, then please take the time to leave me with a review and subscribe to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast as well as my companion blog Off Grid Living News. That’s it for this week folks.
This is your host Patrick signing off until next week. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.
Resources
More Evidence Links Processed Foods to Health Risks
The Many Health Risks of Processed Foods
