A steak is obviously not processed. But then it is ground into mince meat. And then lots of preservatives are added. Then it is shaped into a burger patty and frozen for transportation to a supermarket.
Another example: whole grain is ground into flour. Another batch has its germ(?) removed and ground into white flour. Another batch has its gluten removed. Another batch has preservatives added to increase its shelf life.
These examples might not be great, but I hope you get the point.
A steak is processed. You’re not eating it right off the animal
For all intents and purposes when they say avoid processed foods, they mean highly or ultra processed foods. Ones that are so far from the original thing and are ready to eat basically
Well, a steak actually has to go through a lot of processing before it ends up on your plate. Steak doesn’t just exist in nature, it starts as an animal and goes through multiple processes before it’s packaged as steak.
It depends how technical you want to be about a given food.
Even in the literature, I don’t know if there’s a consensus on the definition of “processed” food. It seems to have multiple definitions and researchers may choose to label something as processed depending on the criteria they set for that definition, even though not all food is processed the same.
Personally, I don’t feel like the definition of processed is something to worry about, because whether something is processed does not inherently mean it is less healthy. For example, fortification is a type of food processing that can increase nutritional value/quality of a certain food.
The term “processed foods” is as loose as the term “chemicals”. When someone says you should avoid processed food they mean food that is overly processed in ways that make it unhealthy. When people say you should try to avoid chemicals in your food, they mean artificial and potentially unhealthy chemicals. But of course when you get technical about it almost every food has some level of processing and almost everything could be considered a chemical, even water.
Even if you just put some fruit in a blender to make a smoothie you’re creating a processed food. When you consume fruit that’s already been pulverized your body absorbs it a little bit differently. Even cooking something is a form of processing it.
Processed Food
When applied to food, processed means:
• Fiber Removed
• Refined Carbs
• Added Sugar
• Added Salt
• Added Trans Fat
• Added Preservatives and Colors
• Nutrients Lost
There is not really a great answer. Many of the things people think of as unprocessed foods actually are processed in one way or another. Whole fruits and vegetables are probably the least processed (though they may still be sprayed with waxes or preservatives, or exposed to gases to expedite the ripening process if they were harvested early). Meat would technically be “processed” once you start dividing it into specific cuts, but that’s minimal and not really what most people thing of as processing.
After that, what else do we have left? Seeds, nuts and grains which, again, technically have some processing involved but usually not much.
Literally everything else is processed. Many people don’t think of something like whole grain bread as processed but baking literally involves chemical changes.
And much of what we eat needs to be cooked (or is easier to eat and/or has nutrients that are more bioavailable after cooking), so that is another layer of processing.
Almost everything we eat is “processed.” When people talk about processes food they typically mean “ultra processed” foods that involve food scientists: things that no longer resemble the original ingredients used to make them (this may or may not include most baked goods, depending on who you’re asking).
unreal question. I talk about this all the time. when prometheus gave man fire, is the answer. whenever the first unnatural action happened.
there is no true definition of processed. the unhealthy part is usually either that fact that a substance is concentrated (sugar cane->sugar), or has added, often artificial ingredients for taste or preservation.
Id add also that none of the food we eat today is natural. its all gone thru years of artificial selection. almonds were once literally poisonous and we bred to be edible. this is why i think fruit is such a conundrum from people. is fruit healthy? yes. but modern bananas have way more sugar than “paleo” bananas, or even wild bananas you might find in SE Asia. Same with apples, berries, etc.
Using “processed” as a criteria for health is really hard. you need to get more specific.
There are a number of standardised systems with definitions and food database. A common one is NOVA.
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova
As you point out, where you choose to put the lines in your definition between say, grinding whole grain into flour, vs removing its bran and germ, then adding preservatives is somewhat arbitrary.
But similarly, deciding that an inch is any given length, is somewhat arbitrary too (even if you use metric, and it translates easily between other metric measures). The nature of measuring something is that you have to make a decision about how you’re goin to measure it and account for something.
So with NOVA, maybe a whole grain rye bread is group 3
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/41005514/whole-grain-rye-bread-schneider-brot
A rye flour is group 1
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/5011766010054/white-rye-flour-doves-farm
But a white bread with emulsifiers is group 4 (ultra processed)
But note, this is not saying that any one of these things is more nutritious in and of itself, any more than saying that something that’s larger is heavier. It’s just a metric of some sort. It’s a way of assigning a number to how processed something is, in some qualitative spectrum.
However, by inventing a metric, however arbitrary, you can ask questions like “does eating fewer NOVA group 4 (ultra processed) foods lead to a reduction in all cause mortality:
And the answer appears to be, yes.
But is that inherently because it’s processed? Maybe not.
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqac123/6602408
This study suggests that highly processed foods all tend to be highly calorific, low fiber, high glycemic load, high added sugar - and that when you control for these things, all foods with these properties are bad, regardless of “processing”.
From a scientific standpoint this is a very relevant piece of information, but from a personal dietary standpoint it’s a bit splitting hairs. It’s doesn’t really matter that the reason eating a Twinkie is bad is because it’s highly processed, but rather that it’s low fiber, high glycemic load, extremely calorific, and with lots of added sugar. From a practical standpoint what matters is that it’s bad, and that highly processed foods are disproportionately bad, perhaps because they’re disproportionately exhibit these properties.
It’s kinda like saying “it’s not the volts that kill you, it’s the amps”, for a laymen, it’s still probably a safe bet to be cautious around something labelled extremely high voltage, as the exceptions will be kinda rare and not really a big part of life.
The term processed doesn’t really have a black and white answer. There is a lot of argument and variance in peoples opinion. So wherever you draw that line is correct.
For me, if the “processing” doesn’t change the basic nutritional value of the food, then to me, it’s not “processed”. For example, I consider a pork roast, pork chop, and ground pork to be “unprocessed” for the sake of this discussion. However, ham, bacon, heat and serve ribs for example, I would consider processed.
I’ve never seen a wild cheerio growing out in a field.
I wouldn’t say that processing is inherently bad, as noted in this thread everything is processed to some degree. Control your sodium, watch it for sugars, try to eat things with a simple list of ingredients, and you’ll be good.
I don’t think it’s been truly defined. We tend to think of it as shelf-stable preservative filled plant-made junk on the shelves of the supermarket. Personally the way I would consider processing is how diminished a food’s nutritional value is from the place it started. A grain for example can be 1) bleached 2) stripped of fiber 3) fortified 4) colored with artificial colors 5) preserved with artificial ingredients. That’s a lot of processing steps. Vs choosing a whole grain without any ingredients added would have more original nutrients intact. Another generally good thing to check is the ingredients list. If you a lot of non-food words and things you can’t pronounce, it’s probably gone through a lot of steps to turn it into a food-like product rather than an actual food. Just my 2 cents and what I consider when thinking about whether I’m going to choose a packaged food.
Man, peole are really pedantic here. My personal definition is anything with tons of added spices and sugars. And anything with more than a few ingredients. E.g. instant lasagna is very processed and it’s good to avoid in general, while raw minced meat is perfectly fine. Instant flavored oatmeal very processed, rolled oats fine.
Make of that what you will. Oats and minced meat are just one thing, there’s nothing else added to them.
The whole point of avoiding processed foods is to eat healthy, right? So I wouldn’t really be so pedantic with the word “processed”. Everything is processed in one way or another and that’s not the point at all.