One of the biggest problems with our diet today is that much of our food is refined, or highly processed. I call it the 'curse of processed foods'! Let me explain why?
A refined or highly processed food is one which lasts longer on the supermarket shelf because pests, like mold for example, are less attracted to foods that are low in nutrients. But the question is, if highly processed food is so low in nutrients that even the pests don't want to eat it, how healthy can it be for us?
In fact, the nutrient content of any given food is directly related to the spoil rate of that food. Foods that are very low in nutrients spoil much more slowly than foods that are rich in nutrients. One of the best predictors of a healthy diet is whether it is cooked by a human being or a large corporation. And the reason is that when we outsource our food preparation to big companies, they tend to cook in a certain way that isn't very healthy. They tend to use too much salt, fat, and sugar, all of which are problematic nutrients for our health, and they tend to use the cheapest possible raw ingredients.
Thinking about the nutrient density of the food is another conceptual way of making sensible food decisions. The nutrient density of a food can be thought of as the amount of nutritional value, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber, divided by the calories, or energy content, of that food. Foods that provide lots of calories with very little nutritional value are sometimes called energy dense foods, but their nutrient density is low. For example, a glass of soft drink is high in calories without providing much in the way of nutritional value. A bunch of fresh spinach, on the other hand, would be an example of a nutrient dense food because its nutritional value is relatively high compared to its caloric content.
When people talk about fast food being cheaper than fresh food, they're often referring to the fact that the cost per calorie of highly processed food is lower than that of fresh, whole food. This is often true because highly processed food is so high in calories that the cost per calorie is relatively low. But, if we instead look at the cost of food per unit of nutrient density, then buying fewer calories of higher nutrient density food is a much better use of our food budget.
In the midst of a serious epidemic of obesity, avoiding empty calories should be on the top of our list of priorities. One of the reasons why highly processed food is usually higher in calories is that in order to make these products sell, significant amounts of fat, sugar, and salt are added to make the nutrient-stripped foods taste good. Additives like colorants, artificial flavors, stabilizers, and other preservatives, are also added to enhance packaged products and increase their shelf lives.
The last thing we need to be aware of are highly processed foods that are sold as healthy foods. These are products that have synthetic nutrients added back to them after they've been refined, and this is usually done to make the product seem healthy to the nutrition aware consumer. It's important to remember that the most nutritious foods, like broccoli, don't come in packages which tell us how healthy they are. So we need to be 'beware' of the curse of the processed foods!
A refined or highly processed food is one which lasts longer on the supermarket shelf because pests, like mold for example, are less attracted to foods that are low in nutrients. But the question is, if highly processed food is so low in nutrients that even the pests don't want to eat it, how healthy can it be for us?
In fact, the nutrient content of any given food is directly related to the spoil rate of that food. Foods that are very low in nutrients spoil much more slowly than foods that are rich in nutrients. One of the best predictors of a healthy diet is whether it is cooked by a human being or a large corporation. And the reason is that when we outsource our food preparation to big companies, they tend to cook in a certain way that isn't very healthy. They tend to use too much salt, fat, and sugar, all of which are problematic nutrients for our health, and they tend to use the cheapest possible raw ingredients.
Thinking about the nutrient density of the food is another conceptual way of making sensible food decisions. The nutrient density of a food can be thought of as the amount of nutritional value, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber, divided by the calories, or energy content, of that food. Foods that provide lots of calories with very little nutritional value are sometimes called energy dense foods, but their nutrient density is low. For example, a glass of soft drink is high in calories without providing much in the way of nutritional value. A bunch of fresh spinach, on the other hand, would be an example of a nutrient dense food because its nutritional value is relatively high compared to its caloric content.
When people talk about fast food being cheaper than fresh food, they're often referring to the fact that the cost per calorie of highly processed food is lower than that of fresh, whole food. This is often true because highly processed food is so high in calories that the cost per calorie is relatively low. But, if we instead look at the cost of food per unit of nutrient density, then buying fewer calories of higher nutrient density food is a much better use of our food budget.
In the midst of a serious epidemic of obesity, avoiding empty calories should be on the top of our list of priorities. One of the reasons why highly processed food is usually higher in calories is that in order to make these products sell, significant amounts of fat, sugar, and salt are added to make the nutrient-stripped foods taste good. Additives like colorants, artificial flavors, stabilizers, and other preservatives, are also added to enhance packaged products and increase their shelf lives.
The last thing we need to be aware of are highly processed foods that are sold as healthy foods. These are products that have synthetic nutrients added back to them after they've been refined, and this is usually done to make the product seem healthy to the nutrition aware consumer. It's important to remember that the most nutritious foods, like broccoli, don't come in packages which tell us how healthy they are. So we need to be 'beware' of the curse of the processed foods!
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