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Charles Tryon

1 April 2020

English Composition

Professor Loudermilk

Is Processed Healthy?

Processed foods have changed the way people live today in many ways. Although

processed foods are necessary to sustain the growing population around the world, there are also

many downsides to the increased amount of processed foods a person eats. A human body is not

created to digest the high amounts of processed foods created that many consume; thus, creating

many increased health risks to individuals throughout their lifetime. People eat too much

processed foods and this is a problem, but there are solutions.

When it comes to foods being considered “processed” or “modified”, many factors can

come into play to help determine their nutritional value. Unfortunately, most fresh foods or

ingredients lose most of their nutritional value at their first harvest. Looking at a typical food

diet, it is hard to decipher what is healthy to consume versus what is solely just for advertisement

purposes. Food additives will always be a constant topic of conversation within the healthcare

world; always a discussion on what is good to eat versus what is bad for their patients and their

underlying conditions. There are many health issues arising across the globe. A major topic

being the ever-growing and increasing obesity rate.  Many of the foods we as people eat are

initiating this growth. Many of those foods may seem or sound healthy, but underneath their food
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labels, you learn that they are the complete opposite. Studies show that over the last few decades,

illnesses and health problems are increasing due to the types of food being placed on the market.

(How do processed foods affect our health? 10). Realize that the food market is a business, these

businesses will cover up anything they can in order to make more money.

Processed foods can be perceived in multiple different ways. Some processed food,

dependent on how they are modified, can be misconstrued as unhealthy. Many items are

considered “processed” even if they are simply heated, mixed, or canned. There are only a few

examples of modified foods that are unlikely to cause any health issues; the modifying process

does not change the food itself. The modified foods that consumers should pay more attention to

are foods that are being genetically mutated; which consists of the use of chemicals or substances

not meant to be in foods. These are the types of ingredients that our bodies are not familiar with

digesting, which can then cause further struggles.

Modified foods can be separated into four different categories. Modified foods that are

least likely to affect the human body in a negative nature, would be minimally processed foods.

These would include substances that are solely altered in order to extend the life of the food. This

may involve removing any defects on the foods, refrigerating, and vacuum packaging. Virtually,

nothing has been modified or added to the food itself, but because it is no longer in the “freshest”

state, it would be considered processed. A few examples of minimally processed items would be

milk, packaged fruits, and meats. Then, comes processed culinary ingredients. These food items

are only slightly modified from their original harvested state. Oils and nuts are a modified food

but generally are added to other foods to be consumed. Since these foods are refined through

grinding or pressing processes, this would qualify them as being modified through mechanical

processes. However, along with the minimally processed foods, these are not genetically
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modified; which lowers the risk of health risks from consuming them. (“Processed Foods and

Health.” 10).The human body is already designed to process these foods as well. Lastly, Ultra-

processed foods come into the picture. These are the foods that we enjoy so much but do not

realize how detrimental they have become to our health. Ultra-processed are the foods that have

been modified to the extreme. Added salts, sugars, colorings, preservatives, and addictive

chemicals; these are the food items available to consumers every day that should be carefully

monitored and researched. (“Processed Foods and Health.” 10). Foods like cookies, frozen

dinners, chips, and cereal (yes, cereal being the breakfast item that we grew up to know as a

“healthy” breakfast). All these foods have been modified to keep the consumers addicted to

them. By doing this, we the people begin eating large amounts of the product.

Many times, people do not even realize that they are over-eating because they are eating

out of pleasure rather than hunger. It is easy to consume these foods because they are convenient

and easy to prepare. When considering our diets, we need to learn how to decipher what

ingredients are in the food we eat and what chemicals being added to the foods are unseen health

issues. Companies are not focused on the consumers well-being; their focus is money being

brought in. People must research all the hidden chemicals being placed into the foods

themselves. Foods have become so complex due to all the different processes that “processed”

foods does not necessarily mean they are bad, but it is worth researching to determine whether

they are meant to be consumed by the human body.

Many shoppers today find themselves wanting to buy “healthier” version of foods.

However, consumers must be very conscious about their diet and look the labels over closely.

Businesses have become creative when packaging foods that they want to advertise as a healthier

version in order to be more compelling to buyers. (Wadyka, 2017). When you read over the
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labels, these foods are not any healthier for you. For example, shoppers may come across a food

that is labeled as a healthy choice. To someone wanting to begin a healthier eating lifestyle,

“healthy choice” sounds fantastic so they place it in their cart. But, if the shopper were to look

closer at the ingredients on the label they would come to find that it states that it is only a

healthier choice because it has less of one harmful ingredient; it actually contains more of

another chemical or additive that is equally harmful. (What Food Labels Mean—and Don’t,

2017). While walking down the aisle at the grocery store, one may come across a package that

states, “No sugar” or “less sugar”, but upon further analysis it may be found that it has multiple

artificial sweeteners. In most cases, there are no positive health benefits to artificial sweeteners.

In fact, chances are the artificial sweeteners have more negative health effects than most regular

sugars. (Wadyka 2017). Due to your body not recognizing artificial sweeteners, it just throws

them into “storage”; creating weight gain and obesity which we will talk about later.

We will now look at some of the other words that businesses use to increase their sales,

but do not necessarily mean that you are selecting a healthier diet. Do you ever look for the word

“natural” when walking down the aisle at a grocery store? Does this word make you feel like you

are picking a healthier choice of food? This word can be misconstrued by many. It is simply just

a word used to make the consumer feel like it is harvested with no pesticides or not genetically

modified in any way. It is an ongoing struggle with the FDA to put restrictions on the use of

words such as these used to deceive the buyer. (Wadyka, 2017). When shopping for eggs, you

may wonder what the difference between pasture raised and free-range eggs are. This means

nothing unless it is combined with an “American Humane Certified” seal. The only difference

between these branded eggs and regular cartons of eggs, is the amount of outdoor space they

have available to roam; it has nothing to do with the nutritional value of the eggs themselves.
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(Wadyka, 2017). Moving on to whole grain items, we are all under the assumption that whole

grain items are the healthier choice, which may be the case, but you have to pay attention to the

specific wording. One item may read “100% Whole Grain” while the other reads “made with

whole grain”. (Wadyka, 2017). Sounds similar right? Only there is a major difference between

the two. The item claiming to be “100% Whole Grain” may be exactly that. However, “made

with whole grain” could have such a small amount included in the product that it makes no

difference that it is even an ingredient. Lastly, a phrase that we talked about earlier, “sugar free”,

means that the product has a very minute amount of natural sugars, but it does not mean that the

product does not have any sweeteners. (“What Food Labels Mean—and Don't” 2017) These

products tend to have artificial sweeteners that are more harmful to you than they would be if

they just contained sugar itself. Artificial sweeteners are quite often a man-made substance that

has been created in a lab. Again, having no place to be stored in the human body. If the consumer

is looking for a truly less or no sugar added product, look for the word “unsweetened”. If your

diet requires little to no sugar, this is your best choice to avoid high sugar products. So as you

can see wording and claims on packaging make a huge difference when a shopper is searching

for groceries and trying to choice the healthier diet. Take it upon yourself to look into the

individual ingredients and research what all the words on the package means. There are so many

different ways to disguise ingredients to make foods more desirable.

Today, it is very challenging if not impossible to completely delete all processed foods

out of your diet. As stated before, some processed foods are only minimally altered and are not

necessarily bad for you. However, there are many processed foods we consume daily that we

should try to minimize or do away with completely in our diet. Many of these foods, mostly the

ultra-processed foods, may be convenient and taste good but they are detrimental to our health
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and are being linked to many health issues like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and

diabetes. These diseases are being directly linked to foods that consumers are consuming on a

daily basis. (McManus, 2020). Ultra-processed foods in most cases have no nutritional value and

are essentially just filler foods that contain addictive chemicals with the sole purpose of

companies making money by keeping the consumers coming back

to buy more. A human body can only process so much sugar than

stores the rest away as excess fat. This in turn creates obesity a

growing pandemic around the world. Sugar is used in foods we all

enjoy because it is a very addictive ingredient that we all crave,

but much of the foods available contain way more than our bodies

know what to do with. Processed foods are also easier for the

human body to digest, so in-turn, the human body burns less

calories processing the foods than it would with a healthier whole food. So if you take a higher

calorie ultra-processed food, combined with your body processing it without burning as many

calories, this leaves more calories for your body to stow away as fat. Saturated fats are the next

problematic addition to many processed foods. An over-abundance of saturated fats can boost

your cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. (McManus, 2020). Another ingredient

to look for that needs to be limited is salt, due to the effects that it can have on our cardiac

systems. We have also all heard about diabetes and the leading ingredient to avoid that

contributes to this disease, sugar. It is known that you should not consume an over-abundance of

sugar because it increases the risk of developing diabetes.

Recent studies have proven some of the effects ultra-processed foods have on the human

body compared to whole foods. One study was conducted taking participants and giving them
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diets over a 14-day period while examining the effects each had on the human body. It was clear

that the ultra-processed foods had more negative effects. One documented effect was weight

gain. On average, each participant gained two pounds over the 14-day period, while losing the

equal amount on the whole food diet. The other difference the researchers noticed was the

overall food consumption. When placed on the whole food diet for 14 days, the participants on

average consumed 500 calories less than the processed food diet. (How do processed foods affect

our health, 2020).When looking at this study, it is clear that the processed food influences human

weight gain. If you take this weight gain recorded in this research project and multiply it over

multiple years, you can see why obesity is a growing problem around the world. Learning what

types of foods and active ingredients to avoid can help minimize the chance of further health

risks and help lower the risk of becoming part of the obesity statistics.

Additional research has come to the conclusion that many additives and ingredients

placed into processed foods actually increase the risk of cancer and heart disease. (McManus,

2020). While most are concentrated on reducing the amount of obvious ingredients such as salts,

sugars and oils, food companies are slipping in chemicals known to cause serious health issues.

Rather than the FDA removing these foods from the shelves, they simply label them as no longer

recognized as safe. While consumers are trying to reduce the amount of the obvious ingredients

in food, in order to try to live a “healthier” lifestyle, companies are slipping in addictive

ingredients that are known to have even worse health effects on our bodies. Did you know that

some food coloring in common foods is actual dyes extracted from bugs? One dye is extracted

from a Cochineal Bug and has been shown to be linked to a disorder, we are all familiar with,

ADHD. (“6 Scary Facts about Processed Foods.” 2014).

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In conclusion, after doing my research on the effects processed food have on human

health and obesity, I have shown that not all “processed” foods are created equally. There are

many foods on the market that are perfectly fine, they are simply considered to be processed

solely because they are no longer in the state in which they were when they were harvested. At

the same time, nothing has been added to them to make them anything more than what they are

or were. Then comes the processed culinary ingredients, which again are not necessarily bad for

you. These are essentially natural ingredients added to foods when cooking. Processed foods

come next and these are the products that start to flirt with the foods that you want to steer away

from at the grocery store. Although they may not be bad for you, these are foods that have added

sugars, salt, and fats. This is done to make the foods more enticing to the consumer. Ultra-

processed foods are the last category I found in my research that should be avoided as much as

possible because it has been proven through research and studies they have direct effect of the

human body and a person’s overall health and weight. Many of these have little to no nutritional

value left in them. They have been genetically modified to be essentially an addictive and

consumable item, rather than nutritional. These foods hold endless empty calories that have no

place in our grocery stores. In most cases, we as a society are aware of this and we fight with the

ability to find other enjoyable foods to eat. Foods that are not as convenient as the simple frozen

dinners we throw in our ovens to eat, or the irresistible chips we crave. In most cases, we know

these foods are the cause to our weight gain and obesity. Doctors cannot stress enough how

consumption of many unregulated foods are causing the rise in new illnesses or new diseases.

Consumers must be more selective about what foods they choose as the healthier version, read

the fine print and do their own due diligence. Companies will do whatever they can to keep

people wanting more of their products. It has been proven that a more selective diet with less
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processed foods and more whole foods reduce weight gain and the development of many

growing illnesses and diseases.

Work cited

Evans, Alexandra. “6 Scary Facts About Processed Foods.” One Green Planet, One Green

Planet, 23 Apr. 2014, www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/6-scary-facts-about-

processed-foods/. Accessed on 21 April 2020

Gilleran, Kelly. Happy Meal Print 2013. Fine Art America, World-wide web.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/happy-meal-kelly-gilleran.html Accessed on April

26 2020.

McManus, Katherine D. “What Are Ultra-Processed Foods and Are They Bad for Our Health?”

Harvard Health Blog, 9 Jan. 2020, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-

processed-foods-and-are-they-bad-for-our-health-2020010918605. Accessed on 19 April

2020

“Overweight & Obesity Statistics.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney

Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 Aug. 2017,

www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity. Accessed on

19 April 2020

“Processed Foods and Health.” The Nutrition Source, 24 June 2019,

www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/processed-foods/. Accessed on 22 April 2020

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“Symptoms & Causes of Diabetes.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney

Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 Dec. 2016,

www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/symptoms-causes. Accessed

on 24 April 2020

Wadyka, Sally. “What Food Labels Mean-and Don't.” Consumer Reports,

www.consumerreports.org/food-labeling/what-food-labels-mean-and-dont/. Accessed on

24 April 2020