What Is Processed Food, and Why Should I Avoid It? - GQ

With coronavirus spreading in the U.S., bulk-buying is having a moment: Perhaps you've journeyed to the nearest Costco to purchase big boxes of pasta, or hit up the local grocery store to stock up on canned vegetables.

The run on shelf-stable items provides a window into taking a second look at an often accepted, if little questioned, nutritional dogma: take it easy on processed foods. Generally that advice is easy to follow. Cut back on the cookies and candy, limit your daily intake of soda, and consider snacking on something like almonds instead of chips. Purchase fresh fruit and raw vegetables at the grocery store rather than ready-made products that come in bags and cans.

Yet if this rule were truly followed, out of your refrigerator and cabinets go many of the foods you’re eating on a daily basis—and the same ones that people have stockpiled in anticipation of a quarantine order. Canned beans? Processed. Peanut butter? Yep. That boxed spaghetti? Whether it’s made of white flour or whole wheat, it’s still processed.

So is cutting eating processed foods really the silver bullet it’s often made out to be?

What Is a Processed Food?

It helps to begin with a clear definition of just what processed food is. Broadly, it’s any food that has been changed from its natural state in some way. So even if you grab a chopped lettuce or a tub of cauliflower rice from the store, congratulations: You eat processed foods.

“Processing isn’t necessarily good or bad,” says Carmen Byker Shanks, a professor and researcher at the Food and Health Lab at Montana State University. “A lot of times processing can help foods become more nutritious and increase your likelihood to eat it. Some people really enjoy cooked carrots—that’s a form of processing.”

Eating carrots cooked instead of Bugs Bunny-style aren’t a hindrance to a healthy diet. These days, the more accepted nomenclature for the sorts of foods you’re likely to encounter during a stroll through the frozen section of the grocery store is ultra-processed. Anything with a really long ingredient list might qualify, as would anything, Shanks says, with a few key characteristics: more than 200 milligrams of sodium, more than 5 grams of added sugars, or more than 1.5 grams of saturated fats.

Avoiding those sorts of meals—the canned soup that’s high in sodium, for instance—is beneficial. One study published last year compared the calorie intake and weight gain of 20 adults who collectively spent almost a month at a research center of the National Institutes of Health. Over the course of 28 days, people were split into two groups, and each had a two-week diet consisting of either ultra-processed or unprocessed foods. Even though participants were getting the same amount of nutrients regardless of the type of diet, what researchers found was that people who ate an ultra-processed diet gained about a pound per week; those who ate an unprocessed diet lost a pound per week. Again, that's with the exact same number of calories—there's something about processing that seems to be worse for you.

Shanks notices similar benefits in her UnProcessed Pantry Project, ongoing research she conducts that’s funded in part by the NIH. Last year, a pilot group of 40 participants ate less processed food; collectively, their cholesterol improved and they lost weight as they ate more protein and whole grains and fewer added sugars.

“The bottom line here is to try to eliminate ultra-processed food whenever possible,” she says.

When to Trust the Process(ed)

Still, being mindful about avoiding ultra-processed foods doesn’t mean doing away entirely with anything that comes in a box, can, or bag.

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March 10, 2020 at 02:35AM
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What Is Processed Food, and Why Should I Avoid It? - GQ
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