The raw truth on processed foods

Nutrition

How much processed food are you really eating and why does it matter?

At Taste Success, we’ve been working with people and their diets for a very long time.  We’re deeply curious about what drives food behaviour, especially at a time when we are surrounded by so much choice!

We talk with people a lot about their food stories – we’ve all got them!  What strikes us, with all this communication around food, is that people are certainly becoming more educated and empowered by the information available, but that isn’t necessarily translating into easier or better food choices. 

How could this be?  Here’s what it seems to come down to a lot of the time – time and money.  With the best will in the world, if you don’t have time to source good ingredients, or the money to buy them, then you’re on the back foot already.  Then of course in comes the information overload about the next new superfood; why you should stop eating this or that food etc. 

From our conversations, we know that most people are aware that eating foods as unprocessed as possible is the ideal.  It’s understandable that the ready availability of processed foods that are not only quick to prepare, but often cheap and tasty makes choosing these a very convenient choice. 

Knowing something and making a change to food behaviour often feels like too big a challenge when we’re trying to fit healthy meals into our busy days.  Amplify this ten-fold when trying to feed a young family!  We hear lots of stories of confusion, frustration, and people being very hard on themselves around food choices.

One of the motivations for writing the Taste Success programmes www.tastesuccess.com.au was to help people move gently away from processed foods in a way that is easy and supported.  That’s why we provide coaches as supportive mentors to walk beside you as you make this change to a less processed food future for you and your family.

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by all the “bad food news” that comes our way through the media.  The last thing we would ever do is food-shame.  We meet you where you’re at and create an environment of kindness and solid support to help you integrate more wholefoods into your lifestyle in a way that is not only achievable, but sustainable for you.

There are clearly some health risks associated with a diet high in processed foods.  Here is a toned-down list of processed food facts: 

·         A processed food is a food item that has had mechanical and/or chemical operations performed on it to change the structure of the food. Usually this is to make the food more malleable (such as a whole grain into a flour), or easier to cook.

·         A food additive is a substance added to a food to change its flavour, colour or length of preservation. 

·         Processed foods are often higher in sugar, salt and damaged fats than wholefoods

·         Processed foods are often lower in vitamins and minerals than wholefoods

·         Some of the chemicals used in processed foods have known and serious health risks associated with them.

·         Processed foods are often packaged in plastic, which has been shown to leach chemicals into the food.

There are many lists available that will give you a breakdown of food additives, their code numbers and health risk factors.  We think that the health risk information has been slightly lost amongst the coding for consumers, and there are still some highly undesirable chemicals entering our bodies via our daily food intake.  One of the things you can do to understand your risk a bit better is to keep a simple food diary for a week.  Eat your regular diet, and record what you are having at each meal, snack and drink.  Also keep a note of how many items you purchase that have preservatives and additives in them.  You may be surprised by how many additives are in your diet already.   While some of these will be processed and excreted by your body, many others are known to have a cumulative effect.  We’re not going to go into the risk factors for each of these individually here because our intention with this article isn’t to scare you, but rather to inform and inspire.  But we can tell you that it matters.  What you are eating matters a whole lot.  And change doesn’t need to be hard.  In fact, it can be delicious and fun!

Make a time to talk with us reducing processed food in an easy, tasty way that you can sustain without it costing the earth.