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Southwestern Minnesota | Yes, cooking is processing and the question is how much processing is too much?
In my apple example I was just trying to illustrate the various processes that occur:
* Fresh apple- has fiber and cellular structure. It probably takes a minute or two to eat (depending on how fast you eat). And you usually only eat one and are satisfied.
* Applesauce- usually has the skin removed. It's cooked and that is a process. If we're making applesauce homemade from fresh apples, then we cook it down and soften up the apples. Usually we don't eat it without adding at least a little sugar. We might can our own applesauce, but the majority of people likely buy it. How much sugar has been added? Does canned, store-bought applesauce have sugar, stabilizers, emulsifiers, etc to sweeten it, preserve it? When we eat applesauce we are probably eating more than one apple in a serving and it probably takes less than 30 seconds to eat a serving. It's easy to eat more than one apple's worth and with some sugar and no fiber, it is going to cause your blood sugar to go up quicker than an apple would.
* Apple Juice- even more processed than applesauce. Now several apples have been used to produce the juice. It's really easy to drink a large portion. Now we have a lot of fructose, which is going to influence one's blood sugar even faster. Certainly not the same response in our body as one apple would have.
* Fruit snacks- then we get to foods like fruit snacks that imply that they are fruit. But probably they're more like sugar and starches with emulsifiers and flavoring that have been pressed into a shape. It may say it's made with fruit juice- hard to say how much juice it might be or if it even was apple juice or is just apple flavored.
So that is the question- we all eat processed foods. How much processing is okay and when does something become so ultra-processed that it isn't even that food any more? I have an apple tree. We eat fresh apples. I also freeze them and put them up to use later. I take off the skins when I do this. When I take a package of apples out of the freezer and turn it into an apple crisp with added sugar, flour and oatmeal, it's not the same nutrients as the original apple even though that is what it started out as. But is that better than buying apple pie filling on the store shelf? I think so and I know it tastes better.
A long-winded response, but fresh and raw is good, some processing is going to happen, but the less ultra-processed foods we can eat the better, in my opinion. It's the same issue as the comparison between sunflower seeds and sunflower oil- a completely different product after the processing. | |
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seed oils?
