But what exactly are we supposed to avoid? Indeed, what is processed food?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's definition of the term is so broad — any food of any kind that's been canned, cooked, frozen, dehydrated or milled — that the only products that don't count are "raw agricultural commodities," such as an apple picked off a tree's branch or a carrot pulled straight from the ground.
So what's that mean? That the bag of vegetables in your freezer actually is processed, even if it has no other ingredient aside from the vegetables themselves. It's the same with those steaks you're saving, and with the grapes or tomatoes that you sun-dried on the deck.
But honestly, is that really what the authorities on diet are talking about?
Not really.
"If there's anything that experts misspeak about when it comes to food, it's this [processed food]," said Diana Thomas, director for the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University. "There is no solid definition; it seems to scoot around all over the place. And people get confused."
With good reason.
For instance, she said, apples are simmered in hot water to make Mott's natural applesauce, and ascorbic acid (a natural preservative) is added to keep it fresh. That's processed. Contrast that with a bag of Doritos, though, which contains 26 different ingredients including vegetable oil, sugar, monosodium glutamate (MSG), maltodextrin (a food thickener/artificial sweetener), and preservatives like citric acid. That's also processed, but it's at a different level from the cooked apples.
Although the FDA has a voluminous page on its website dedicated to listing the additives commonly found on ingredient lists — some, like sodium, are familiar, while others, like the half-dozen texturizers that "improve mouth feel," may be foreign — it doesn't provide a way of measuring how processed a food might be.
Thomas personally gauges how much processing might have occurred by considering the amount of "interference" that occurs between a food's natural state and the final product. Baby food made of crushed bananas or apples might lie on the lower end of the spectrum, she said, while a Twinkie is going to be more "complex" — that is to say, containing about three dozen chemicals that give it color, enhance its taste, and give it a longer shelf life.
Kit Yam, Ph.D., graduate program director at the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, said that although there are many negative connotations associated with processed foods, the decision to begin preserving our sustenance wasn't a choice for humans — it was born of necessity, especially in a society where most members don't want to be farmers.
"We live in cities, and food needs to be processed so it's preserved and it can be shipped," he said. "Without processed food, you don't have modernization."
Susan Kraus, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center, said the need for packaged fare began some time around the 1960s, when the pace of life began to quicken and we needed meals we could grab and go.
"There was a market for things that were very convenient," she said.
Some merits
But "convenient" doesn't necessarily mean "bad," and few would argue that roasted nuts, steel-cut oatmeal and low-fat milk — all of which are processed — are bad for you.
Even fairly heavily processed foods like packaged bread can be a good choice, said Andrea Anfuso-Sisto, a registered dietitian with Valley Hospital in Ridgewood; some are fortified with iron, and whole-grain varieties still contain the vitamin- and fiber-laden outer layers of the bran.
"I read somewhere that someone said, 'Don't buy things with ingredients you can't pronounce,'" she said. "Well, there are a lot of vitamins that people can't pronounce."
Anfuso-Sisto said that when eating for health, reading the label so as to avoid products high in added sugar (which has been linked to diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease) or sodium (linked to high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease) is more important than religiously avoiding processed foods in favor of "natural," "organic" or "vegetarian" fare. Some of these, such as veggie burgers, are traditionally seen as the more nutritionally "safe" option, but in reality they're loaded with artificial coloring, flavor enhancers, and sodium. Others, such as organic cookies, still contain sugar, which often hides behind other names like "high fructose corn syrup," "glucose," and "dextrose."
No one is particularly clear on why the phrase has taken on a life of its own. Kraus blames health experts who appear on television and make broad statements that further confuse the public, while Thomas believes it's an example of how information on the Internet can be manipulated to support a certain point of view, even if it involves only selecting certain studies that help prove a point.
"It's people in public health that want to do right, but twist the evidence and misinform the public," she said. "And it's so easy to put that information out, and if someone says, 'Processed foods are bad, you shouldn't have them,' that can get propagated quickly."
How do we cut through that fog of misinformation?
Thomas said that reading science-based blogs, such as conscienhealth .org, as well as the studies themselves, have helped her move past the sensationalism — along with a healthy dose of cynicism about what's being reported as "fact."
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
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