Processed foods are the punching bag of the food, health, and nutrition industry, and blaming them is as low of a hanging fruit as a cyclist blaming cars for car accidents only to proceed to take a bus or drive their car when needed. The truth is that every single food we eat has undergone some level of processing and every recipe conceived by mankind is just a guide to processing food at home.
The More You Process Something, the Worse it is for you
Food processing has made foods safer, tastier, more colorful, better smelling, shelf-stable, and more accessible. These are all net positives. The notion that more processing is bad for you is a manifestation of an "appeal to nature" fallacy which dictates that anything natural is good for you. This premise is inherently flawed because nature has also given us diseases, plagues, and catastrophes. Additionally, we do put processed foods into our bodies regularly. This includes filtered water. Sadly, this was the poor premise used by NOVA classification, a regressive model that is a witch hunt used to substantiate that more processing is bad for you.
Processed Foods are not nutrient-dense
This is false and is based on cherry-picking specific processed foods that may not be nutrient-dense. The most nutrient-dense forms of macronutrients and micronutrients are all processed foods. This includes protein powders for protein, oils for fat, sugar crystals for carbohydrates, and multivitamin pills for vitamins and minerals. Consumer ignorance and nutrition gurus brainwashing consumers to think otherwise is a different problem.
Additives and Chemicals are bad for you
Many processed foods have long chemical lists which are usually chemicals that you may find in other foods you're already eating but serve a similar or a different purpose in the packaged foods. This may be to increase shelf life, enhance the appearance, or make the food safer or healthier. Every food we eat, even raw, is made up of tens of thousands of chemicals. As a society, we focus so much on learning and our focus should be on understanding the chemicals rather than demonizing them when we use them. Additionally, many artificial chemicals are rigorously tested before they enter the food system.
Plastic packaging is bad for you
Plastics used in the food industry are rigorously tested before they enter the food supply. If anything, plastics may be the safest part of a food, especially factoring in unprocessed foods which may be laced with microbes.
Food companies are out to get you
In every aspect of society, industrialization has been a net benefit. Cars, phones, bottled water, and various commodities are available due to industrialization. Industrialization is merely a duplication of science that works. The problem in nutrition is the existence of extremely poor science, diet camps, and dogmatic beliefs even among intellects and scientists which gives birth to extremely poor science and generates poor food products. This is a deeper topic we plan to cover more in the future.
It's not a real whole food
This is once again a manifestation of an "Appeal to Nature" fallacy and merely showcases ignorance of the fact that the human body seeks nutrients and raw or 'real' foods are merely a complex network of these nutritive and non-nutritive components. The term 'real whole food' is used in conjunction with diet books, recipes, and overpriced or re-packaged supplements while providing no constructive approach to improving modern foods. Nobody wins in this case and we regress further into not understanding more about food.
Processed foods are addictive and cause overeating
Though foods, regardless of processing, generally can be addictive, it is important to note that not everyone who is addicted is overweight or obese. Many diet gurus and radicals, therefore, trivialize the struggles of those who may be completely healthy but yet be addicted to foods. Hence, it's hard to see how the addictiveness of food can explain the current obesity pandemic.
Processed foods are too tasty and hyperpalatable
Sensory Specific Satiety is a notion by which any tasty food you, you will habituate to them. Even the tastiest foods eventually become bland while our taste preference changes based on the past foods we have eaten. Therefore, the argument that something is 'too tasty' or 'hyperpalatable' is a chorus sung by 'Eat real whole food' dogmatics who are usually purveying recipes, diet books, other forms of processed information, and useless supplements. In other words, this isn't helpful to anyone.
Processed foods are loaded with fats, proteins, fibers, and sugars.
We chastize processed foods for not having enough nutrient density but also call them out for having too many nutrients at the same time. This merely showcases the various different types of processed foods in the market and a need of consumer education on how to utilize such foods properly.
They cause mood swings and mess up your sleep
Most of the science used to make these claims are associative. Most scientists don't have a good clue about modeling processed foods. It's hard to see how these claims can gain legitimacy. These claims are, at best, equivalent to 'driving a car causes car accidents.’ This sort of sensationalism only generates dogma and clicks while yielding no knowledge on how to improve processed foods.
Conclusion
As you can see, we human beings have lost our drive to appreciate, create and understand innovative food products. Though many modern processed foods may have a key role to play in poor health, the solution has to be to improve these foods. When the first cars had problems, we didn't go back to riding horses or walking. We improved the cars. We lack good science around food processing and health. Right now, even among the scientific community, we severely lack this knowledge of foods and in many circles, we are merely embodying sensationalism rather than a quality understanding of how foods work.Join us on our journey to sift through this insanity. We create and sell Energy Pods in the global vision to improve our product and provide better information that makes your life easier.