Agreed, processed foods may not be as good for you as fresh, unprocessed foods. However, I'm going to take the opposite tack as this article boldly stats that the ‘one reason’ that processed foods are made, is that it is easier to make cheap, low quality food than to make healthy higher quality food.

This is simply not true. It is not the one reason. Another very important reason for processed foods is to prolong shelf life. Even cave men processed food by salting it to preserve it.. Processing is not simply adding chemicals. Just cooking or freezing food is a form of processing.

Another important aspect of food processing is the removal of toxins. Just as important is that processed food can be distributed over long distances easily. Processing allows us to have a more balanced diet with seasonal food available all year around. Imagine how many items would be available in supermarket if there were no food processing.

Sure, we should all try to eat fresh as often as possible. I believe fresh food is generally tastier for starters – that’s when it’s straight out of my garden. Fresh produce in shops often is not fresh at all and it may or may not have more vitamin content. I wonder what percentage of modern society suffers from vitamin deficiencies caused by their diet in comparison to those in poor countries for whom processed food is not available.

At least we have choice; but choosing fresh food all the time simply isn’t feasible. Would you be happy to have to cook everything from scratch at every meal – grind your flour, make your bread and pasta, churn your butter and ice-cream, roast your cocoa beans…. The idea is ludicrous in our society.

A major concern about processed food is food additives. However, the majority of the world do not suffer from food allergies and for those unfortunate ones, generally reading the packet is all that is required to avoid offending ingredients.

Finally, there is also a fear of contamination in processed foods but this can pale in comparison spoilage of fresh products over a relatively short period of time. Frozen foods are said to often be fresher than those you can buy at your vegetable market!

As for shopping only at health food stores, if you really believe your health is suffering, it makes you happy and you have a healthy budget, then why not?

The article also mentions organic vs non-organic foods which is really another question altogether. Organic food can be fresh or processed just like any other food.

I believe that in the end, it is the same common sense solution that prevails whenever we discuss food on Chelsey – everything in moderation!

You are right Anna. I worked with an apple grower a few years back who was over the moon when he discovered climate controlled storage. From memory, a gas was used to stop the apples ripening so we could get beautiful crisp, fresh fruit all year around.

I also believe most imported fruit is irradiated before being distributed.

Mind you even if you grow your own, you could find there are windbore chemicals and pollutants that affect your crop... you might even have acid rain depeindng where you live.... and what about all those power pylons.... I wonder if they can affect crops as well!

Slightly off on a tangent....Heard a guy on the radio the other day discussing bacteria on the human body. He said that for every human cell we have, we have ten bacteria cells but they are much smaller so there is still more of us.

However, he did say that we all have the equivalent of a small dog made entirely of bacteria, living in each of our intestinal systems!

EWWWWoof!!

Guess it could have been worse, but I once found a dirty hanky between the sheets in my hotel room!

its so sad though... coz the idea of going to a hotel is so fun... but when you start thinking about it its... icky!!