I heard an interview with the person who makes the school lunches for a large school district. This school district recently changed their lunches to a healthier menu with less processed food and more real food.
What is Processed Food?
Processed foods are basically part food and part chemicals, in other words, processed foods are foods that have chemicals you would never use at home to prepare your own meals.
Processed food started out simply enough as TV dinners, something you could quickly put in the oven and then eat. No preparing, no cooking, just heat and serve. It was marketed as a miracle for the busy family.
Today processed food is much more deceiving. There is so-called health food that is actually just processed food, there is fitness processed food, there is vegan and vegetarian processed food. Many foods labeled healthy fat-free are actually unhealthy processed foods with too many chemical food additives.
Chemicals in Processed Food
A CNN investigative report found that McDonald’s chicken nuggets in the US had two chemicals that the European nuggets did not, Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) and Dimethylpolysiloxane [1].
This is not just McDonald’s food, it is in fast food and in the processed food you buy at the store and bring home to heat up. TBHQ is a petroleum-based product that contains butane. So don’t think oil is only for your car. Butane, that’s the stuff we put in lighters and butane torches.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates that TBHQ cannot exceed 0.02 percent of its oil and fat content. Death can occur when someone ingests as little as 5 grams. A single gram of TBHQ can cause vomiting, nausea, delirium, ringing in the ears, sense of suffocation and collapse.
Some will say that the amount of these chemicals in our food is so low that it will not hurt our health. Do any of these chemicals accumulate? Not long ago we might have eaten processed foods once a month, now it is every day and for many people every day all day.
The liver is what has to detoxify this processed chemical junk and that puts an extra burden on the liver and other organs.
The Simple Hamburger Bun
Here are a few ingredients in a common fast food hamburger bun. I am sure it isn’t only hamburger buns either; you can find these chemicals in many of our every day processed food products [2].
- Ammonium sulfate – According to the Materials Safety Data Sheet this stuff is harmful if swallowed
- Calcium carbonate – Antacid with several side effects
- Sodium propionate – Is used in bakery products as a mold inhibitor
- Calcium sulfate – Pigment in white paint, soil conditioner and also known as Plaster of Paris
- Ammonium chloride – Causes irritation to the gastrointestinal tract
What happened to real food? For a comparison I went to the Great Harvest Bread Company and looked at the ingredients in a loaf of their bread, the five ingredients are:
- Fresh-ground whole wheat flour
- Water
- Fresh yeast
- Salt
- Honey (usually local honey)
That is what real food ingredients should look like.
Processed Food Awash in Corn and Soy
Looking at ingredients in processed food, you would think the United States was awash in corn. And this corn is almost always genetically modified corn (GMO). Almost every processed food you look at in a grocery store will have at least several corn derivatives in its ingredients including high fructose corn syrup added.
Back to the chicken nuggets, the ingredients include corn starch, yellow corn flour and corn oil and Autolyzed Yeast Extract (MSG).
In addition to the corn fillers there are two soy products in the ingredients, soybean oil and hydrogenated soybean oil. Soybeans are also mostly GMO. Since the article was written, McDonalds looks to have removed the soy ingredients [3].
Beef is a Processed Food
Beef from factory farms or feedlots are fed corn; cattle are meant to eat grass, not corn. Include all of the hormones and antibiotics they also give cattle, practically turns beef into a chemically processed food. If you eat meat, buy range free poultry and grass-fed beef and if possible grass finished beef.
MSG is Still MSG
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, one of the most common fillers in processed foods is made by boiling soy, corn or wheat in hydrochloric acid.
None of those sound like vegetables to me. Many of these hydrolyzed types of ingredients are food flavoring additives otherwise known as MSG, which is unhealthy for some people. Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a free glutamate just like MSG is, but the labels say “MSG free” [4].
Chemicals in Processed Food
Some of the ingredients in our food are also listed on Drugs.com. I found these ingredients in popular processed foods like pizza rolls, macaroni and cheese, non-dairy creamer, breads and buns.
- Aspartame is an artificial sweetener with at least 90 health-related problems associated with it.
- Medium chain triglycerides are for dietary use in people who cannot digest food properly like gluten or lactose intolerance [5].
- Sodium tripolyphosphate is mainly used in soap and dishwasher detergents, in food it is used as a preservative.
- Ferrous sulfate is iron and listed on Drugs.com as a drug to treat people with anemia.
- Sodium aluminum phosphate is listed as a pesticide among its many uses.
- Titanium dioxide is bits of titanium and is used in cosmetics and sunscreen. In food it is used to whiten products and artificial coloring and is now classified as a possible cancer-causing carcinogen to humans [6].
- Ammonium sulfate is used as nitrogen for yeast in bread and bun products, it is also used in fertilizer.
- Sodium erythorbate is a chemical variation of vitamin C with general side effects listed as dizziness, fatigue, headache, and flushing.
- Guar gum can cause temporary digestive problems.
- Sodium aluminum sulfate is a leavening agent also used for waterproofing materials.
- Sodium metabisulfite can cause dangerous health problems in those with allergies or asthma. And it goes by other names like Disodium Salt Pyrosulfurous Acid and Disodium disulfite.
- Sodium Benzoate can turn into benzene, which is a carcinogen.
- BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole) is a known carcinogen.
- FD&C Yellow # 5 or tartrazine is a food coloring is associated with numerous health problems including suppressing the immune system and has been banned in Europe.
- FD&C Red Dye #3 or erythrosine is known to cause cancer and behavioral problems in children.
- Other synthetic food colors include blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40 and yellow 6 all cause health problems and could be banned soon.
Processed Food and Health Problems
Obesity continues to increase. Hidden sugars, hidden carbs and chemicals of all kinds are in most of our foods today. Could these synthetically made processed foods be part of the problem, is there something with all of these chemicals that causes weight gain or overeating.
Real food tastes good so why do these manufacturers insist on adding more and more chemicals to flavor food. Because they aren’t selling real food so they have to add more chemicals to the processed food to even make the processed foods taste like food.
Processed food destroys the real nutrients so they add synthetically made vitamins and call it enriched or fortified. I don’t think we should have to be a chemist to understand ingredient labels and what we are buying and eating.
Processed Foods and ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects at least 5 million children in the US alone. A 2007 study has found a link between ADHD and some additives and colorings in processed foods in children.
Processed Foods Cause Obesity
Scientist at Pomona College in California fed two groups of people the exact same amount of calories. The only difference was that one group’s calories came from processed foods and the other group’s calories came from whole foods.
The conclusion of the study found that the energy expenditure decreased by 50% after the processed food meal compared with the whole foods meals. This reduction is daily energy or calorie burning can lead to becoming overweight and obesity [8].
What You Can Do to Eat Healthier
Avoid processed foods and buy simple real food for the ingredients and make your own meals. We really can’t always avoid these chemically processed foods, but we can be aware of what is really in these processed foods and learn to read ingredient labels and try to stay away from them as much as possible.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 2011-2018 Sam Montana
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