What are processed foods and why are they bad?
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Processed meats are bad, not necessarily processed foods. Technically processed foods include any food that was cut, washed, heated, pasteurized, canned, cooked, frozen, dried, dehydrated, mixed, or packaged. And many vegetables are just as nutritious after processing as they were before.
In fact, many dietitians wish people realized that vegetables don’t have to be fresh to be healthy, because then people would eat more vegetables. Frozen peas, for example, are easy to add to many dishes and you don’t have to worry about them going bad. Frozen stir fry vegetables provide a nice mix, as well. Canned vegetables are healthy, too. Just avoid additives like butter or salt.
But processed meats are normally preserved by smoking or salting, curing or adding chemical preservatives. Examples include ham, sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni, beef jerky, and various deli meats. Those are linked to an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
It’s kind of obvious that too much sugar or salt can be unhealthy. But the same is true of many chemicals used to preserve meats. And that includes both red meats and white meats, or both meats with nitrates or meats without nitrates — or at least at this point the studies don’t distinguish the different kinds of processed meats. Experts recommend reducing or even eliminating such meats from your diet.
Edit: I find it odd that this is controversial.
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