I AM IN PROCESS

Processed foods often get demonized by diet culture due to recent “clean food” movements. Note, ‘clean foods” are NOT REALLY A THING.

Lets talk processed foods. Any food that has been through any sort of process is a processed food. Lauren Thomas, PhD explains that “any food that has been altered from its natural state in some way, either for safety or convenience” is PROCESSED.

This includes:

-canned foods

-frozen foods

-cooked foods

-chopped foods

-pasteurized foods

These foods can most definitely be part of a balanced diet.

What is so often forgotten is that NO ONE FOOD OR MEAL WILL DIRECTLY IMPACT YOUR HEALTH. Patterns over time influence our health and research indicates that 20-30% of our “health behaviors” impact health outcomes. As much as our society (read: the diet industry and diet culture) wants us to believe, our food and exercise choices do not dictate our overall health. There’s no such thing as a perfect diet. Processed foods are part of the rhetoric that fuels FOOD FEAR. The psychological implications of FOOD FEAR are more harmful THAN ANY FOOD.