I talk to my patients a lot about negative aspects of processed food.    But I’m realizing that the term “processed” is not very specific.  It can mean a lot of different things.   So, for my own sake, as well as others, I need to be more specific.

Processed food just means that a plant or animal product has been altered in some way.  Wheat from the field, for example, is not very useful until one grinds it into flour.  Then it can be mixed with some salt and yeast to make some delicious bread.  Therefore, processed food is not necessarily bad. It all depends on the type of processing.  How has it been changed?  What has been added or removed?

In general, I tell patients that if God made something and that something is pretty tasteful on its own then it is best to eat it in is most natural form.

For instance, let’s consider an apple.

A small apple picked fresh from the tree has about 77 calories and 3.6 grams of fiber.  The skin is mostly insoluble fiber and the flesh of the apple is mostly soluble.  This soluble fiber is largely pectin, a fiber that can bind cholesterol…and therefore lower your cholesterol level.  Hence, the “apple a day keeps the doctor away!”

But now consider one cup of unsweetened applesauce.   The apple has been processed by having it’s skin removed.  A cup of applesauce has about 100 calories but only 2.7 grams of fiber.  It is still good for you, just not quite as good for you as the apple.

Now consider one cup of unsweetened apple juice.  It has 116 calories and only 0.25 grams of fiber.  Nothing bad for you …just not as good.  So processing can take a food from “GREAT” TO “GOOD” TO “OKAY” for you to eat.

And in modern America it can even become something bad for you — just look at some juice boxes for kids and how much added sugar is in them!

Of course, you can take the processing even a little further — in the form of an apple pie.  But honestly in the old days it wasn’t the apple pie that make a farmer unhealthy.  They had worked in the field all day.  Plus the if they used a home made crust, cut down the sugar, skipped the ice cream and kept the portion small — well then they did not gain weight.

 So the moral of this blog is you can make your pie and eat it too —provided you are careful with how you process things.