We all have heard, and most of us clearly understand, that highly processed food are bad for us medically, and in terms of our overall health. Yet they are tasty, and easy to put on the table. Here is how to make your own versions of favorite processed foods.
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What is Processed + Highly Processed
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) defines processed food as: food processing can be defined as the use of methods and techniques involving equipment, energy, and tools to transform agricultural products such as grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, and milk into food ingredients or processed food products. They further make a very truthful observation, that while food processing has occurred since humanity began using fire, tools to cook meats, squeeze fruits for juice, or grind grains for flour. All processed foods use food processing, but not all food processing leads to processed foods.
Each year major corporations introduce new processed foods into the global food supply. These industrial processed combination of fat, sugar, salt, colorings, and flavor, make these ”new foods” irresistible, colorful, and tasty. They are essentially designed to hijack our brain’s pleasure centers, and as with addicts, forcing us to crave these foods more, and even pushes us to overeat. And frankly, these companies have been very successful so far.
Studies show that globally, and increasingly, a very large share of the world’s diet is made up of processed food. For the USA ~60% of calories come from these foods, while 25% to 50% of calories are from these types of food in England, Canada, France, Lebanon, Japan and Brazil according to Washington Post. But this level of success comes with severe, societal problems, as many large studies have proven.
The Independent reported that one of the biggest reviews ever conducted of ultra-processed foods was published in March 2024. It had ~10M participants, and revealed that the greater the exposure to ultra-processed food the greater the risk of adverse health outcomes; and that list includes mental disorders, cancer, diabetes, and early death.
These processed foods are linked to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer according to that same WAPO article. In fact, they report that a recent study of more than 22,000 people found that people who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods had a 19 percent higher likelihood of early death and a 32 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared with people who ate few ultra-processed foods. But we are not helpless, we can take steps to improve our health and eat better.
Levels of Processing
From raw to ultra processed, the act of modifying our foods is a spectrum.
The first level of processing are naturally what humans have done with its food since the beginning. But, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture, any action that changes the fundamental nature of an agricultural product is a processed food. That means heating, freezing, dicing, drying, smoking, juicing, and so on. So here is a listing of normal processing we make to our food ingredients.
- Raw: Non-processed food are directly passed from harvest to eating with minimal handling other than harvesting, transportation, storage, and the only real processing is the cleaning and sanitation processes. This is how we often deal with fruits and veggies, and even honey.
- Minimally processed: This is when we have to do something to the raw foods, to make them edible and transportable in a minimal way. Collected eggs that are cleaned and sanitation-doused in the USA, meats that are butchered and frozen, and milk that is pasteurized. This can also include water that is filtered.
- Moderately processed: Is when we convert the raw food, perhaps by adding minimal seasoning or natural preservatives, to create a new food item. So this means milk processed into cheese, peanuts crushed and salted into peanut butter, tomatoes processed into various chopped, skinned, whole tomato sauces or pastes.
The second level of processing means taking raw food ingredients and significantly modifying them into, what the Washington Post calls, industrial concoctions containing a multitude of additives: salt, sugar and oils combined with artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, stabilizers and preservatives. This means the taste, texture and appearance of the original food ingredients are transformed into food-stuffs not found naturally on farms.
- Highly or Ultra Processed: Often contain little (or no) fiber, and are thus easy to chew and digest, and are high in calories. These food-stuffs are therefor absorbed quickly into our bodies, inevitably leading to spikes in blood sugar, insulin, and other hormones.
- Additionally the raw ingredients used in processed foods are subject to extremely high pressures and temperatures that destroy important micronutrients; but more harmful is they can create new chemical compounds that are not nutritional but can be carcinogenic.
- Generally the ingredient list contains more than five items, and look like ingredients for a high-school chemistry class experiment.
- Examples: NOVA writes, snacks, drinks, ready meals and many other products created mostly or entirely from substances extracted from foods or derived from food constituents with little if any intact food. So my list would include cold breakfast cereals, hot dogs, deli meats. boxed mac-n-cheese, and instant noodles.
Make Your Own
The whole point of this section is not to change your diet or foods you love to eat, but to suggest how to enjoy these foods by makeing small changes to up the nutrition and remove the unhealthy aspects of ultra processed foods.
Breakfast Cereals
I really like oatmeal in the morning with fruit and nuts, instead of the American highly sugary, low-fibre, and also highly processed breakfast cereals. Or for a variation I also like some Greek yogurt mixed into a low sugar and low salt Muesli (a mix of grains, dried fruit, and nuts), and sometimes I may add a bit (~1-2t) of raw brown sugar or Maple syrup. Other times, I like grits cooked in water, topped with pepper and an egg.
Cookies
It is always true that homemade cookies taste better than store bought, and the house smells better too. I just made 4 batches of peanut butter cookies that was a hit with my spouse and an easy dessert for taking in the RV. I made two types, the thin hard crunchy versions and the thicker softer versions.
Both were tasty and I controlled the salt and amount of sugar that was added; plus no preservatives. But the sneaky thing I did was to add a bit of fiber to the batter, so they were good to our microbiom as well.
Yogurt + Cottage Cheese
Obviously making your own yogurt is best. But other options are to skip the processed, flavored yogurt or cottage cheeses. Better is to buy plain yogurt or cottage cheese and either chop in fresh fruit, or make your own compote.
- Fruit Compote
- 3C fresh or frozen organic fruit in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, bring to a slightly bubbling sauce.
- Lower heat to a simmer, and use a wooden spoon to muddle the fruit for ~10 minutes.
- Turn off heat, add in 3T orange juice, taste, and only after tasting consider adding options like what I list below.
- Sweet optional: if too tart, add 1t organic sugar
- Spice optional: 1/4t ground cinnamon, or cinnamon + nutmeg, or 1/4t fresh/ground ginger
- Thickener: 1t chia seeds or 1t flax meal
- Pour into a lidded, clean glass jar, and put in fridge or freezer.
- Add to yogurt, oatmeal, use as jam on bread or toast, toppings for pancakes instead of syrup, etc.
But if you are going to buy a commercial version of yogurt, the best yogurt to choose would be a nonfat, probiotic-rich, low in sugar and high in protein container.
Chicken Nuggets
Air-fry or oil-fry your own cut and coated chicken parts. Not hard to do, and you are assured there is real meat and no additives to the meal.
- Air Fryer Nuggets
- Cut up white or thigh chicken meat into bite sizes.
- Season meat with salt and pepper.
- Dip in nearly any type of flour, then whisked egg, and finally breadcrumbs (not Panko).
- Place dipped meat into the fryer basket and cook 400F for ~10 minutes, depending upon size of the chunks. It will be crispier if you flip halfway into the cooking process.
- Try one to assess doneness and flavor.
- Make a dressing for dipping, per your taste.
Mac-n-Cheese
Make your own. Use elbow pasta, or not, and either mix in cheeses and bake or perhaps make a cheesy bechamel sauce for a more velvety mouthfeel.
Sauces, Dressing + Gravies
These have hidden everything, from added sugar, to salt, to emulsifiers, and preservatives. With a little practice most any sauce, dressing, or gravy can be easier done by hand than reaching for a can opener. Here is a link to many I make myself.
My go-to is that instead of buying broths, sauces, or ready meals, cook your favorite foods in larger amounts at home, and then freeze the extra in portioned-bags to use another day. This is then your own “instant” food, with only the ingredients you added.
Soda or Sport Drinks
When we are on the road and out of cold drinks, sometimes I do. Order a root-beer or Dr. Pepper as my soda preferences. But that may be 12-20 times a year. I do not really like soda all that much.
As a kid in Germany, I did not drink soda from cans, but instead had flavor added to sprudlewasser (carbonated water). Basically, the drink was made from a concentrated fruit-based syrup, added to bubbly water. However, these days, this drink is called an Italian Soda in the USA. Often people here use the syrup from Torani, a certified B corporation that made the first such drink in the USA in 1925.
- Fruit Soda
- Add 2oz Torani syrup (or even the juice from a fruit compote you make yourself)
- Half a glass of crushed ice
- Then fill with carbonated water
But if you like Cream Soda try this recipe.
- Cream Soda
- 2oz Torani syrup (I like Orange)
- Crushed ice
- 1oz half-and-half or milk
- 8oz club soda
Make your own plain or flavored iced tea. I use an Earl Grey for black iced tea and a Jasmine-Green tea for variation. Likewise, there are many tisanes you can use to change up the flavors of hot, or cooled and sweetened drinks.
Pizza
Pizza is hard not to love, but nutrient-wise it is not the healthiest of foods. The easiest way to make this food healthier is by using a whole grain crust, cauliflower, or flat bread crust, and limiting both the highly processed cheeses and deli-type meats. So I actually like a healthier flat bread with some tomato sauce topped with fresh veggies, mushrooms, and herbs; and grate my own cheese.
Chips
Chips, be it corn or potato, are not known as health foods. But you can make it healthier by making your own, and mixing it up a bit.
- Making apple chips. If you oven-dry thinly sliced apples you can make crunchy apple chips that are sweet, crunchy and fun to eat. It is easy to eat an apple this way, just crunching along.
- Make potato or yams or sweet potato chips by thinly slicing and frying in oil or spraying oil and baking, or using an air-fryer. Then after removing from cooking sprinkle some salt or better, some spice on top and enjoy.
- Likewise you can make carrot chips, or chips from many other veggies or fruits.
Reasons to Avoid Ultra Processed
Eating veggies and fruit as close to raw is as healthy as you can get, where your body has access to all the nutrients the plant has to offer. If meat, getting it least processed, and directly cooking it will retain the nourishment it has to offer. Any veggie or meat dish that does not look like its former self is not going to be as nourishing.
The closer veggies and fruit are to their natural state, the less processed it is, the lower in sugar the food has. The term ”added sugar” shows up too often in trail mixes, pre-packaged dried fruit, and meat-based jerky. I try to stay away from that phrase in the foods I eat, although I am not always successful. This also can help manage triglycerides and improve our blood sugar.
- Sugar may be listed by other names: corn syrup, high-fructosea corn syrup, honey, agave nectar, cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, coconut sugar, dextrose, malt syrup, molasses, or turbinado sugar.
Natural foods are often also higher in antioxidants, which we know can play an important part in keeping us healthy, and specifically heart healthy. This is also the case with fiber, whereas in process food nearly all the fiber is removed to make the food more digestible. Our bodies need that fiber for gut health and adequate waste disposal.
Eating close to raw foods also helps with acquiring a diversity of nutrients, and range of colors, textures, aromas, and flavors. Eating unprocessed food will make our eating experience interesting, diversity here prevents food boredom.
Highly processed foods are often high in salt to improve flavor, or as one of many options for preserving foods.
- Salt (sodium) is known by many names, including monosodium glutamate or disodium phosphate.
- Preservatives may be listed as ascorbic acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, or tocopherols.
- Emulsifiers (ingredient separation prevention) can be listed as soy lecithin, or monoglycerides.
- Thickeners (for texture) include xanthan gum, pectin, carrageenan, or guar gum.
- Colors can be natural, say beet juice for red, or artificial like FD&C Yellow No. 6.
In the long run, of course, eating the least processed foods that we can will be cheaper, resulting perhaps in fewer health complications, and could lesson our negative impact on the environment.
Ultra Processed Pros
It is unusual for me to end on something positive for processed foods. But there are limited reasons I do support occasionally eating utlra-processed foods and making those kind of foods available.
Globally, not everyone has access to refrigeration, so picking up raw foods and storing them for a while is an issue for many families. So having access to shelf-stable foods for during hard times (like crop failures or commodity price drops), in some places, becomes the difference between starvation and survival.
In times of catastrophe, such as war and natural disasters, having food is better than starving, having a sports drink instead of dirty water is better than getting sick. In short, highly processed food has a tendency to package and ship easily, has a longer shelf life, and can be easily distributed in difficult circumstances. Not as a permanent solution, but as a temporary one to assist people in recovery.
In times of few resources and high cost of fresh food, augmenting ultra processed foods with raw foods can be a good cost-cutting way to make ends meet. Such as adding veggies and protein to instant noodles and thereby being able to serve a family of four with just a few dollars.
And finally, some (low) processed foods are actually okay, and even healthy, to consume.
- Canned beans.
- Enriched dairy or plant milks.
- Dried pasta.
- Greek unflavored yogurt.
- Hot cereal like the various forms of oatmeal.
- Frozen or canned fish.
- Seeds and nut butters or even hummus.
- Miso, tofu and tempeh.
Thanks for reading, and please send me topics of things you would like discussed.
—Patty
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