Processed foods, as defined by the USDA, is any food that has undergone any changes from its natural state. 

That includes almost everything we eat.  We all benefit from processed food.  I would love to bake my own bread, but I don’t always have the time.  I also eat a high fiber cereal, a fairly healthy food, but it is a processed food. The International Food Information Council’s Food and Health Survey shows convenience and affordability rank high on the list among reasons people choose processed food.  Unfortunately, many of the processed food we are eating are devoid of some essential vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive ingredients which have medicinal qualities.  In addition, some processed food is likely to have nutrients, such as sodium and sugar, preservatives, and pesticide residue that may be harming our health.  Americans are eating up to twice the amount of sodium that is recommended.  This category of food is called ultra-processed food, and we are eating them more than ever.  Ultra-processed food is very palatable and even formulated by food manufacturers to be habit-forming.  These foods are aggressively advertised easily convincing people to abandon their own needs for someone else’s profit.

The Center for Disease Control’s Second Nutrition Report found some populations in the US don’t get enough vitamin A, B6, B12, folate, vitamin C, iodine, vitamin D, iron or zinc. Worldwide, 10.7% of people suffer from chronic malnutrition which means these nutrient deficiencies are severe enough to cause acute infection, serious disease, and death.  In the US, we are more likely to suffer from marginal nutrient deficiency.  From a public health approach, we can make an educated guess about the nutrient status of Americans based on food survey reports, but we know self-reported surveys of food intake are not accurate.  Even so, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) annual survey, What We Eat in America, the typical American doesn’t eat enough whole grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, or seafood.  Many of those nutrients listed above are found in those foods. 

How does one know they have a nutritional deficiency?  In the US, people are likely to have sub-clinical signs which means you can’t tell just by looking at someone.  Physical symptoms of nutrient deficiency may manifest as anxiety (magnesium deficiency?), excessive tiredness (iron deficiency?), or frequent infections (vitamin C deficiency?) often attributed to overworking or lack of sleep.  Even when we go to the doctor for our annual checkup, no one is looking for marginal nutrient deficiencies; instead the focus is on major symptoms of illness or chronic disease. This is treating the problem rather than offering a solution.  These sub-clinical nutrient deficiencies may be an underlying cause of illness and chronic disease.

Occasionally, a registered dietitian is called upon to analyze a person’s diet to estimate how much or little of nutrients they are consuming and compare it to the Dietary Reference Intakes for age.  They make recommendations for decreasing and increasing the intake of specific foods to target specific deficiencies or to decrease your risk for chronic disease.  Dietitians get their information about food from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (recently changed to FoodData Central) as a reference for how much of a nutrient is available from a specific food.  There are several problems with this database (and any database quantifying nutrient content of food). There is as much difference in nutrient content among varieties of the same food, e.g. carrots, as there is between different foods, e.g. carrot vs a cucumber.   The environment the food was created in plays a huge role in what nutrients are available in food.  This is largely due to the availability of these nutrients in soil.  Climate change and soil health influence nutrient density.  The American food system is in constant flux and keeping up is a major challenge.  According to USDA’s ARS, in 2012, there were 30,000 new foods introduced to the American public.

Photo by wuzefe–680554 at Pixabay

The use of chemicals to grow our plant food and the rise in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide has resulted in the decline of many nutrients we would normally expect to be there.  Dr. Donald Davis, a professor of plant science, published a landmark study on the nutritional changes in common garden crops from 1950 to 1999. Results demonstrated that among 43 crops, the nutritional content of 13 nutrients had declined. That study along with many that followed have consistently reported a decline in protein, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C.  Speculation is that the use of synthetic fertilizer, while it increases growth rate and pesticide resistance, and the increase in greenhouse gases, cause plants to make more carbohydrate.  They are bigger but less nutritious. Micronutrients such as those listed above are not taken up by the plant. Not all nutrients have been tested so we can assume many other nutrients have declined over the years as well. 

Our food doesn’t have in it what we think it does.  This seems like an insurmountable problem, but I believe we can do a few things to improve what we eat as well as how we produce our food. Meanwhile, what can you do now?  Here are my top five suggestions. 

  1. Do not use dietary supplements. You are probably thinking this is an easy fix.  While certain supplements have some of the missing nutrients you may need, they are devoid of others which you may be deficient.  It’s generally not a good idea to self-diagnose.  More important, plant foods have bioactive ingredients we know play a role in the reduction of chronic disease.  Dietary supplements create a false sense of security and don’t address real health problems. Caveat: some people do benefit from a dietary supplement, but these are prescribed by a health professional who is treating a specific health problem.
  2. Eat plenty of plant foods at every meal.  This includes fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.  These foods have almost all of the nutrients discussed in this article.  Notice I didn’t say anything about protein. Americans typically consume twice what they need and many of the plant foods contain protein. This is not a concern unless a person has a medical problem such as cancer or AIDS. 
  3. As bestselling author Michael Pollan says, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”  I want to emphasize the “not too much” part.  Excess body fat increases your risk for chronic disease and causes whole body inflammation.  The body is in a constant state of stress and any additional stress such as an infection can increase the risk of serious disease and death. 
  4.  Cook your own meals because convenience leads to chronic disease. Tim Wu, a New York Times columnist and lawyer, wrote a brilliant piece titled, The Tyranny of Convenience.  In it, he makes the point that convenience makes our decisions for us and robs of us of our ability to control and solve problems. As Katherine Martinko says in her blog about the same topic, “…this causes people to miss out on valuable experiences along the way.”
  5. Grow your own plant foods. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into a lot of details. This isn’t convenient, but it is fun and satisfying.  It is also healthier for you and the environment.  Growing and eating your own food has been shown to increase consumption of valuable nutrients.