Highly Processed Foods are BAD, but What are They ?

World Health Organization lists highly processed food as a definite carcinogen. But they are  also bad because they are often high in fat, salt, sugar and lots of added chemicals. These latter increase risk for Diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases etc.

Before getting into more about Highly Processed foods, I want to point out one study that showed that Highly processed plant based products are less bad for you than highly processed animal products. “Less Bad “ does not mean good for you. So try to avoid all highly processed foods.

Highly processed Animal foods : hot dogs, sausages, lunch meats, many TV dinners, canned soup, chicken nuggets, ice cream etc.

Highly processed Plant Based foods: Commercially produced cakes, cookies, prepackaged snacks, energy bars, most cereals etc. The new plant based meats that look and taste more like animal products. ( ie: these are usually about 50 % fat )

So How Do You Tell if Highly Processed ????

   The ingredients are not something that you would cook with at home , nor would it be in most home pantries.

   Artificial additives

   Refined sugars or grains ( wheat without the word “whole” )

   Greater than 5 ingredients

Unprocessed or minimally processed plant foods :

   Corn  on cob or canned or frozen = unprocessed

   Corn Meal = minimally processed

   Not highly processed - fresh, frozen and canned veggies, legumes, chickpeas, dried , canned and frozen beans.Whole grains like oats, brown rice, barley and quinoa