You constantly hear about how processed food is bad for your health and should be avoided. But what is it and why is it so bad?
In: Biology
In very general terms you’re talking about 2 phases:
1) actions that make the good more shelf stable
2) actions intended to make the food more palatable when the first batch has damaged the taste or texture.
The first one can be simple things like boiling and canning but it’s also going to be ingredient selection, additives meant to preserve the food and so on. Often these processes strip some of the nutritional value as they go, and many object to added preservatives, emulsifoers, etc… or just the starting recipe composition that lends to something shelf stable like avoiding actual dairy, eggs, etc…. even if you’re dealing with foods that start unhealthy there’s a reason a homemade cookie will change a lot over a week but an oreo doesnt. Peanut butters will have emulsifiers to keep the oil from separating, all kinds of stuff.
The second one….well if you cook off the good stuff along with the things that ruin shelf stability or just make something that doesn’t taste as good because you didn’t want to use butter or eggs now you need to make it taste good. What’s the easiest, cheapest way to give people happy chemicals when they eat your food? Add a ton of sugar and salt. That’s…not great health wise.
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