Has anyone ever stopped eating processed food?

My grandmother always claimed you have to you onions ASAP after you cut, because they go "toxic" after some 12 hours. Sure they don't taste as good.


I recently discovered train wreck of Sandra Lee's "semi homemade cooking". It's horrible. She basically takes a store bought salad dressing, then adds pack of store bought seasoning, some garlic powder, mustard, pours it into zippy bag, plops a meat into it (she will just take the whole thing out of package, won't wash it, tender it or do anything to it) and than she cooks it or throws it on pan (the british way: cook till all the shape, color and taste are gone).

And as for all the fat-free dairy products, and decafenized coffees and teas (um, I drink coffee for the caffeine. And decaf is nasty...), margarines and other foods that pretend to be healthy....

I am guess I am a hick, a slightly chubby hick to that...but I never got those trends. Like... why would somebody want to eat that? Eat the real thing in moderate doses for goshsake!

Dairy fat actually protects from obesity.

I've personally never understood why anyone wants milk free milk

My sister buys 2% and fat free, tastes nothing like milk, it's like milk flavoured water and also makes my coffee taste like shyt!

Then again, I don't ingest any fat free products, it's just bland, like its been stripped of its essence.

We need fat in our diets, people who eat all fat free stuff are often craving to eat cause fat singles the body it is sated, and done eating. If they keep eating the become overweight if they don't they often become crabby and short tempered. Fats in moderation are what the brain needs.

I call it "milk from empty cow" (based on labelling one chain store has here. they have cow heads that are either just outline, fully colored or half of the face colored). And yes, it makes coffee taste horrible

I'm just starting my less processed diet. I personally define processed as artificial additives. If I can't pronounce it I don't think I should eat it. I am doing this to see if it impacts my mood. A doctor in the psych hospital told me to cut gluten but I read up on that and as hamster said that may be bull butter. I've heard organic is bull butter too, plus I can't afford that stuff. I've decided to cut down on my sugar intake and my processed grain intake.

I'm also considering going vegetarian again because meat is starting to gross me out again. I keep thinking of that poor animal...but it will be hard because my husband would never be down with that lol. Plus when I was veggie before I would eat replacement meats from whole foods and wegman's which are sometimes just as processed.

I guess my reL goal is to start cooking from cratch as much as possible and trying to find whole replacement for the processed things we eat like hamburger helper.

It's going to be tough during depressed episodes for sure. But hopefully I'll stabilize on the lamictal and won't have to deal with severe ones.

It's not just gluten; it's wheat and grains in general (although I think rice and quinoa are ok in modest amounts).

There is a lot of evidence that wheat in the diet raises bad cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, promotes hunger, and even has an addictive effect causing you to crave more of it. Allergies and related health problems are a whole other issue I won't discuss in this post.

Many grains also have anti-nutrient properties (something even nutritionists and registered dieticians aren't always aware of) in which some of the nutrients your body would have absorbed end up getting passed through and wasted. Phytic acid is part of the reason this happens (the wheat doesn't want animals to consume it so evolution developed a means for it to disrupt our digestive systems).

The wheat the earlier generations you speak of consumed contained FAR, far less gluten than the selectively bred and modified garbage we have today, which is one explanation for the dramatic increase in celiac disease, which cannot be explained by better awareness alone. It's also important to know that less than half of celiacs know they have the disease, and most that go undiagnosed die before 65. The stuff we have is also filled with synthetic toxins. Celiacs that follow a strict no gluten diet have lower rates of heart disease (although I admit I think this is mostly because they eat healthier overall).

The reason it's a staple of most diets, indeed for most people throughout the world, is because it's relatively easy to mass produce, and thus, easy to feed masses of people with. That says nothing at all about the health properties of it. The truth is that it's a sub optimal source of nutrition. Everything beneficial in it can be extracted more readily from foods that are more nutritious and easier on the body. We we're meant to eat primarily meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits. We did not evolve to eat grains, certainly not on the level most do.

I suspect for one that the obsession with eating grains is that it's ingrained into us (pun intended) from every angle. It's a perfect example of social influence. Everyone eats it, therefore it's strange and even treated as hostile when someone does not. Plus you really have to go out of your way and make a conscious effort not to eat any of it. The learning curve is very steep.

The recommendations made by official sources are a health disaster, and are firmly rooted back to decades old junk science from the 1950s, specifically regarding saturated fat and cholesterol. These same official sources recommend diets consisting of low fat intake, high carb intake, unhealthy vegetable oils, butter substitutes, and that grains be a major portion of our diets, which is though to be contributing to the phenomenon known as diseases of civilization.
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About organic food, the problem with our produce and meat is that even these are starved of nutrients. The soil used to grow the produce is often lacking nutrients, resulting in frutis and vegetables with little flavor or color, and the meat often comes from unhealthy animals that are fed garbage. So ideally, you want grass fed meat, wild caught fish, and locally grown produce. Organic stuff isn't much better than traditional, if at all, but it doesn't have as much pesticide residue.

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Just months ago I thought this whole gluten thing was just a fad started by a couple of snake-oil diet plans, but I really think there's some truth to it.

For anyone that's interested, I think it would be a good idea to do some research on the longest living populations of the world, such as those from Okinawa, or possibly on the lack of western-world diseases in hunter gatherer populations.

I just logged on YouTube and seen this video about Gluten. I thought I would share it since we have all been talking about it for the last few days.

I saw that video yesterday by coincidence. It doesn't present a complete picture of the issue.

I think it's actually attempting to ride the anti anti-gluten campaign since it's now common practice for people to take it upon themselves and bully people that don't eat gluten.

It's true a lot of idiots claim not to eat gluten, then inconvenience everyone around them, then turn around and decide to cheat or makeup an excuse and eat it anyways, to everyone's dismay.

Roads made a really good comment about toxins and body stresses in our homes
and workplace.

How do we expunge the impacts?

By eating non-processed and/or organic foods, are we making our bodies
better able to fight the stresses?

Yes.

Proper hormone levels also play a big role in stress resilience, which many psych drugs throw out of whack.

I think we do help ourselves a lot by paying attention both to our physical environment, what we fill our minds with, as well as what we put in our bodies--be it food or medication or anything else.

Our ancestors (even as close as grandparents & great-grandparents) lived a very different life from ours. Looking closely at the history and personal journals from the Civil War and Great Depression era in the United States (& comparable times in other places), I've noticed better common-sense coping skills, less focus on problems and more on survival, stronger ties with family and friends--and the bio-geological record reveals that there was everywhere on Earth significantly less pollution.

I can't prove a connection, but the human species has had to adapt (some would say evolved) in order to survive. Body chemistry (including brain chemistry) has changed. My grandparents didn't have any allergies, hardly ever had indigestion unless they were sick, and even in old age healed more quickly than my parents did or than I do.

I'm awed by god's giving us the ability to be conscious of ourselves and consider/think/cogitate so that we can we not only perceive problems & situations but an also solve/analyze them, and reflect/record them in so many ways, to communicate with others. Fiction, music, journalism, visual arts, dance, theatre, essays, and so much else.

(Sorry for the rant.)
roads

Haven't read this whole thing, but I have tried to cut out processed foods. Right now I'm at a point where if I eat processed foods, especially fast food or restaurant foods I feel like I'm dying the next day (in and out of the bathroom, sick to my stomach, headaches, mood swings). I cut out soda a long time ago, and junk food early this year. The only time I drink soda now is with booze, which isn't that often. I haven't cut out things like pasta or dairy, but I've cut back on pastas and breads... I just can't part with cheese! But, I'm trying to eat a mostly meat and plant diet. It's nice, and makes me feel much better physically and mentally.

Vitamine b complex has also helped me with my fatigue problems, kind of. They're not gone, but I'm not about to fall asleep on the bus. It helps with mood as well.

Things like breads and pastas can really mess with your mood. And (apparently) a mostly raw food (plant) diet also helps with mood, though I haven't tracked this.

ps, check out the documentary "food matters" it's on (Canadian) Netflix and it gives good insight in to using vitamins to treat health problems including depression.

On that note I would like to add that I've cut down my bread consumption over a year ago.

I refuse to eat more than 2 slices a day, unless forced, but never more than 2 slices in 1 sitting.

Why? Because it left me feeling sluggish, which impacted my mood. I would feel morbid and just want to go right to sleep.
I don't like how I feel after 3 slices of bread, its just ick. So I rather make the 2 slices as filling as possible for me.

Listening to my body in this regard has definitly helped me.
I don't have that problem with pasta though, and am always on the lookout for other foods that negatively impact my mood.

There's a much simpler explanation for the declining health of successive generations and the increases in chronic illnesses. Before the advent of modern medicine, only the naturally strong survived to adult-hood. Children born with anything that compromised their immune system and overall health, such as food intolerances or even allergies, mostly died. My grandmother was fiercely healthy into her 80s, which is no surprise since she was strong enough to survive scarlet fever, mumps, measles, and probably a few other now-prevented diseases I don't know about. 6 of her 14 siblings failed to survive these illnesses. Today those 6 children would probably survive to pass on their weaker genetics.

People don't like this explanation, but we're now looking at as many as 4-5 generations that have been influenced by modern medicine, each experiencing a greater influence than the last. And not only do those who would've died in earlier eras survive, but people with chronic illnesses, including mental illness, receive treatment that improves their quality of life--making it more likely they'll have children and pass on the propensity for compromised health. This is painfully obvious in my mood disorder support group. Most of their children also have mood disorders, as do a lot of their parents and siblings.

This isn't even really a theory. It's a proven fact that one of the greatest risk factors for mental illness is genetics. It would be nice to think that there was some environmental factor we could blame, because environmental factors can be changed, but I've never seen a credible study that changing what you eat will cure or even treat bipolar disorder.

^^ been thinking along the same lines myself, without having done much research on it.

I eat quite well but I am not too strict with my diet. I try to stick to fresh food when I can (fruits and vegies, although living where I do this is quite expensive). I'll use premade pastry, chips and frozen vegies on occasion (as in less than fortnightly).

I feel the shops are encouraging laziness with preprepped food. Some foods I cant even get in their whole form regularly (spinach is a good example of this, I can rarely find it in a bunch, I have to go for bagged stuff that is twice the price and doesnt last as long). It worries me the amount of packaging they use and how quickly the produce goes off when they have it pre cut. I would never trust things that say "prewashed", wash it yourself!

When I was first learning to cook I would use things in jars, now I rarely do, besides curry paste - yet to learn how to make my homemade one taste as good as those in the jars and I dont think many of them have too many nasties in it.

The gluten free craze is a load of bull. Humans do not need gluten free unless there is an absolute allergy to it. It has zero health benefits to those that are able to digest gluten. Just wasting your money. Those that report improvement usually have had a terrible diet before hand.

Dairy is important to good health too, and again unless their is an allergy to it, it is not particularly good to avoid it. Unless you are getting sufficient calcium from other sources (and I do not mean pills, it is much better to get it from food rather than supplements).

The hardest part of eating healthy is the shopping for it. Its more of a hit to my hip pocket trying to buy fresh unprocessed food all of the time. Processed food is cheaper and there is much more of it available. Cooking is a great mindful activity and it is useful to know how.

I know that the processed food here is not nearly as bad as that in the US, it is frightening what they have in some of their foods and no wonder there are so many people reporting problems.

I have seen first hand the effect of a good diet can have on autistic children, so it is no surprise to me that there are many in the world having mood issues in relation to their terrible diets. It should be one of the first things your doctors target, especially if you are overweight, before turning to medications that can cause more weight issues.

For sure. America is a corporate owned nation and what is good for the corporate pocket book rules over any needs the people have. There are a ton of additives allowed here that are banned in other countries.

In many of your points I agree with you, Nightside of Eden. I didn't put it together with this particular thread, but I'm glad you have.

WARNING

Certainly most people don't like that explanation, or wouldn't admit it if they do agree. It is part of my argument for doctor-assisted suicide. The massive waste of resources forced upon people who recognize that their quality of life at the end of their lives is going or gone horrifies me. I chalk it up to a combination of corporate greed and the Doctor-God complex. This point of view isn't popular either. I'm often told it's not even humane, an opinion shared by many who condemn me to hell for my pro-abortion stand. Fortunes are spent bringing genetically weak fetuses to the point of birth and greater fortunes to keep them alive from then on--even if they need hands-on care 24/7 & have the mentality of a 2-yr-old.

My husband's family suffered in general everything mine did, except he never mentioned bipolar (in the 70s, it was called manic-depression). Our daughter was a month premature, and died after eight months from what they called "crib death." Since her genetic pool would have been much like mine, I've always wondered whether I was just lucky to grow up in a world of less stress and pollution. It was my final year in graduate school and I was finishing my dissertation. I didn't have much money, and I was time-crunched so I didn't eat much of a variety or on a schedule & what I did eat was mostly prepared food. I nursed her the whole time, and what baby food she got was all processed. My husband had gone missing in Vietnam two weeks before her birth.

Maybe she never had a chance. Fate overpowered her. Survival of the fittest won out.

There are primarily two directions from which arguments against "survival of the fittest" come: religion & law enforcement. Both assume that the average person is selfish, greedy, mean, ignorant, and needs a "Father Knows Best" figure/institution in life to counsel/manage the person.


I don't expect anybody to agree with me. I've spent 68 years trying to figure out why I'm here and what my life is all about, & the working hypotheses I've come to live by are strictly personal and derived from the physical & mental life I've lived. I'm unique, as are my opinions and my beliefs. I'm not looking for a fight and I'm not looking to convert anyone, only add my experience to the discussion.

Anyone I've known in the Christian (including Catholic) faith learns or has the opportunity to learn what is expected of them--what is right, what is wrong. There are classes, there are inductions. They are given every chance to learn the rules and laws and tradition which are the basis of their religion. My father's family was Catholic, my mother's Protestant. I declared when I was eight that I didn't believe in God and refuse to go to anything even vaguely religious ... at 16 I went to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and saw the Milky Way for the first time--and knew that God Is. I was permitted to look through the telescope for the entire night, seeing binary star systems, galaxies so far away they might have changed enormously by the time the light reached us ... the rings of Saturn, "seas" on our moon and Mars. It was an awe-filled night unlike any other in my life. I've never doubted my belief in god since. Organized religions? I don't fit with them any more than they fit with me--but many are filled with grace & practice their chosen religion. That's good for them and for the rest of us.

Law enforcement contains one provision that cracks me up: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. That, to me, sums up the underlying premise of the legal profession: They hold all power and I am always wrong; I shall pay for something if they decide I am guilty. I am helpless because I am not one of the very few people in the world with the money and power to fight them. The governments I live under (town, county, state, & federal) and the courts (from the local traffic court on up to the federal Supreme Court), which do their best to control me ... "Red Light" tickets, limits galore on what I can do in and around my own condo, what I may build on my property. No felonies, but I've lost track of my arrests for civil disobedience, environmental protection, civil rights.

Both law enforcement and religion have their ways of punishing people they judge guilty (of something). Some of religion's punishment involves social stigmas or exclusion, others are set in the future ... in Christianity, it may be promises of hell or purgatory--a version of, "Just wait till your father gets home!" The law may punish me by taking away my money, my freedom, or my life. Both law enforcement and religion can frighten people into doing or not doing something, without their making any choice. They do or don't do something because they're afraid of doing otherwise.

I believe in personal free will. I believe actions, speech, and even thoughts have consequences. I also believe in evolution, and that god designed our physical world and included evolution so that Original Man could adapt as the physical world changed. The physical world is nothing but change, on the grand scheme matter converts to energy (e.g., wood burns, producing light and heat) and energy becomes matter (mostly theory, but in general the belief that heat and light energy from the sun changes an acorn into an oak). What astounds me the most is that god gave us a brain with the ability to be conscious of this world through the senses, to think about it, and try to figure it out. He also gave a self-consciousness, the ability to try to figure out ourselves.

I feel programmed to be a bipolar alcoholic, and I don't think there's anything I could've done to prevent it. My parents were opposites, coming from different worlds. Mom's family had come to the United States as early as the middle 1700s. They had always been without formal education--farmers or craftsman of some sort, living in small towns or even more often on farms or ranches. My maternal grandmother was the exception, coming from an educated and very well-off family that immigrated originally from Denmark and Scotland. My dad's family was mostly in Germany (or elsewhere in Europe), mid-level industrialists in large cities. None came to the United States untill the very end of the 1800s.

The genes that I've inherited reflect parents who were opposites in everything, different in many more ways than Catholics differ from Protestants. Maternally, I'm genetically programmed for cancer, heart disease, strokes, bipolar disorder, depression, dementia, and alcoholism. My paternal genes invite cancer, Alzheimer's, and addiction (alcohol, other drugs, prescribed meds, tobacco ... pretty much anything existing). This smash up of opposing lifestyles in my inherited genes has mysteriously produced four out of a possible four genetic markers for diabetes, which has never been suffered by anyone on either side of my family.

I have two 1st cousins and a 2nd cousin I've never met, a few distant in-laws (or ex-in laws), and some very distant "kissin' cousins," but the rest of both sides of my family are very distantly related and in Europe or elsewhere in the world. I don't know them. In my generation, most were only children (not on purpose). The entire generations of my parents and grandparents have died. Most of the women have not survived beyond their sixties, but the men live usually into their eighties and a few over a hundred. Even with Alzheimer's and other health issues, my dad lived to be 82.

I had a little asthma and allergies as a kid; when I moved out West after school, those went away and I was very healthy. I was an alcoholic and smoker, but became "clean and sober" via support groups. My health was excellent until two years ago, and my doctors tell me now that in two to three years I'll need to be in, at least, an ACLF (assisted-living). I not only a bipolar alcoholic, i also have Disintegrating discs in my neck and spine (which are collapsing & squeezing my spinal cord), Sjogren's disease, and early stage dementia (probably Alzheimer's). My quality of life diminishes with each passing month & will take a huge plunge if I am institutionalized.

One way of putting it would be that I am becoming less and less fit to survive. I am approaching death because my body (also brain) is getting to the point that it can no longer support my life in this world.

I seldom discuss these beliefs or my wishes with anyone except my health care surrogates, lawyer, and doctors. I had to choose these people based partly on their agreement with me (or at least acceptance of my belief) regarding death with dignity.

There are at least a few members here who understand me so well that one I call twin, another best friend, one daughter, two nieces--they and my two friends/healthcare surrogates here are my family. There's also the serendipitous blessing of coming across people I don't know but who say just the thing I need to hear. My pdoc referred me to PsychCentral and all of my closest contacts among the folks here save my life daily. These are the only people I can be honest with; others become very upset if I tell the truth--they think that I've lost my mind and one tried to have me committed.

I'm not suicidal now. I'm fine now, with my therapy cat Charlie and my volunteer work to keep me busy in retirement. If I would kill myself now, it would be suicide. Everyone I know would consider it wrong, unfortunate, and certainly not dignified.

I could probably live into my eighties or longer if I were willing to place my life in the control of scientific handling (including being the lab rat occasionally), doctors who act (and all too often are treated) as if they're god, better living through chemistry, and the goodwill of institutional staffs and management--and of course there's Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Congress, the Supreme Court to worry about. I'm not taking that on.

Thanks to any who read this, and I'm open to discussing any of it--discussing, not defending. If any of this offends or triggers you, I'm sorry--now you know why I used the icons I have.

roads

I would add:

- smaller families. If you have 2 children, you are likely more attuned to them than if you have 10. So, symptoms are likely to be reported to drs than overlooked by parents. So a child who would get diagnosed now would not have been shown to a dr two centuries ago

- Wider access to healthcare. Fewer people undx'd because of lack of access to healthcare

- possibly, there is overdiagnosis now. If the current figure of incidence of mental health disorders is inflated and in tne past these disorders were grossly underreported, that ALONE would create the impression of a growing propensity to mental illness,.

Oh, they call it a skinny latte here - with what Trippin would call milk-free milk. I tried once. One sip and into the trash can the paper cup went.

HAPPY CAMPER,
That was a long winded post that failed to answer my question and even attempted to alter the question. Please reread my post since you quoted it so you were apparently responding to it. I asked to explain how that damn thing the Internet got invented and built out by people eating that horrible modern wheat.

Don't forget that humans, as a species, are omnivorous. that confers a major evolutionary advantage on us. Had it been really the case that grains or any other type of food that is maligned as per whatever fad is currently en vogue, was not meant for human consumption, we would have long died out.

Hunter gatherers didn't invent the Internet. Nor did they send a man into space in a spaceship. They didn't leave behind any sonnets, nor any hymns. They didn't discover the penicillin. So watch out if you truly want to become like a hunter gatherer...

I tried the Paleo diet craze and lasted a week. The food was great and I felt good, but it was too expensive. Lately I have just been trying to be sensible and eat less processed food, including more protein, veggies and healthy fats during the day. I'm also trying to make sure that any bread or cereal I eat has at least 3 grams of fiber per serving.

It does make me feel better, but I still indulge a little at night. I'm pretty sure its my nighttime meds giving me sugar cravings. I can be comfortably full, take my risperadol and I'm a cookie monster two hours later.

Between moving in with my boyfriend, my total meltdown last year and starting AP medication I have packed on a lot of weight. I'm hoping that gradual healthy changes will help me drop it over time. No diets for me, I have a history of eating disorder behaviors. Any kind of diet that involves counting calories or points makes me obsess in a really unhealthy way.

Just wanted to say that I don't understand the point of fat-free milk. It looks so thin, and it tastes like water. Don't want it with my cereal, don't want it with my coffee. If I have to gain weight for this, I will.

So, what really is the answer.

That we eat processed food because society controls us?
Brainwashing maybe

That we eat processed food is because our thinking has moved away from the "I must provide for myself thinking?

How do you see it