Processed Food The Healthy Way
There are many home cooks who welcome the invaluable assistance a food processor can provide.
They recognize it as a crucial part of preparing fresh meals from scratch in a reasonable amount of time.
There are also a growing number of home cooks who feel that using a machine to process their food somehow makes it less homemade and wholesome.
There is a well deserved yet less than desirable connotation to "processed food.
" Years of mass-produced garbage masquerading under the guise of food have led to this.
It is unfortunate the food processor should possess a name so closely related to such a hated term.
Let's look closely at the processing done by a food processor vs that done by large corporations.
There are huge differences between the two.
First, when you process your own food at home, you use the same fresh, wholesome ingredients you would use if you painstakingly prepared everything by hand.
Conversely, mass-produced foods contain preservatives to keep them fresh well beyond a natural timeframe.
They generally contain massive amounts of sodium and sugar, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
Artificial colors and flavors are added to make the finished product pleasing to the eyes and taste buds.
Many chemically isolated items are included for various reasons (these are the hard to pronounce items you would never have on hand in your pantry.
) There are a few food activists who advocate eating only raw, whole foods completely untouched by knife or appliance.
The idea is that food is permanently damaged once changed in any way from its natural form.
There is no science to support this theory.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Many vitamins and minerals naturally present in fruits and vegetables are unable to be utilized by the human body until the cell walls are broken down.
A food processor (or knife) is able to rip through these cells walls allowing the desirable nutrients to be released.
After the cell walls are breached, there is a degradation of nutrition.
This is why you should consume food soon after it is prepared to reap maximum nutritional benefits.
This is another reason home processed food is far superior to factory processed food.
In conclusion, I think it's important to realize our very distant ancestors began processing food in one way or another.
Modern kitchen advancements still allow us to eat similarly processed food, but with minimal time and effort.
Do not confuse home food processing with mass food processing; embrace the help a food processor can offer.
They recognize it as a crucial part of preparing fresh meals from scratch in a reasonable amount of time.
There are also a growing number of home cooks who feel that using a machine to process their food somehow makes it less homemade and wholesome.
There is a well deserved yet less than desirable connotation to "processed food.
" Years of mass-produced garbage masquerading under the guise of food have led to this.
It is unfortunate the food processor should possess a name so closely related to such a hated term.
Let's look closely at the processing done by a food processor vs that done by large corporations.
There are huge differences between the two.
First, when you process your own food at home, you use the same fresh, wholesome ingredients you would use if you painstakingly prepared everything by hand.
Conversely, mass-produced foods contain preservatives to keep them fresh well beyond a natural timeframe.
They generally contain massive amounts of sodium and sugar, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
Artificial colors and flavors are added to make the finished product pleasing to the eyes and taste buds.
Many chemically isolated items are included for various reasons (these are the hard to pronounce items you would never have on hand in your pantry.
) There are a few food activists who advocate eating only raw, whole foods completely untouched by knife or appliance.
The idea is that food is permanently damaged once changed in any way from its natural form.
There is no science to support this theory.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Many vitamins and minerals naturally present in fruits and vegetables are unable to be utilized by the human body until the cell walls are broken down.
A food processor (or knife) is able to rip through these cells walls allowing the desirable nutrients to be released.
After the cell walls are breached, there is a degradation of nutrition.
This is why you should consume food soon after it is prepared to reap maximum nutritional benefits.
This is another reason home processed food is far superior to factory processed food.
In conclusion, I think it's important to realize our very distant ancestors began processing food in one way or another.
Modern kitchen advancements still allow us to eat similarly processed food, but with minimal time and effort.
Do not confuse home food processing with mass food processing; embrace the help a food processor can offer.
