What defines highly processed foods

My answer to a question for a definition of highly processed foods-

Michael Pollan has a nice thought about that: “If it is a plant, eat it. If it is made in a plant, don’t eat it. Some are more processed than others. Any process changes the raw materials in some way. The most egregious are the additives. So trimming meat to make it ready to cook is minimal change, unless you age it or leave it unrefrigerated for too long. When you grind it, for example, and add multiple ingredients you are processing it. Many of the ingredients are flavor enhancers, preservatives, meant to stretch the raw materials so they cost less to make-often with the idea of increasing the profit, etc.. Many of the additives are very questionable as to their potential side effects and long term adverse reactions, such as cancer, Parkinson’s, dementia. Even those on the GRAS list are not tested for safety and are still used. I tried a new frozen ravioli, gluten free, with some really great Rao’s marinara Sauce and they were delicious. On further examination of the ingredients I found a mold inhibitor in there. Now I do not know why a frozen product needs a mold inhibitor added, even tho it is on the GRAS list. So, now that product is off my list. It is not an item I have in my kitchen either-the inhibitor, that is. The other thing about highly processed foods is that this is probably the first time in the history of Homo sapiens that those ingredients have been put together. We don’t do to well with that, as we are seeing now. Living Downstream, Our Stolen Future, The Body Restoration Plan, the books mentioned in the post, and many more, including several articles in National Geographics over the years, are telling the drastic story and we are not listening or taking action. We were sprayed with DDT every summer when we were kids. We used to follow the tractor and play in the fog. We are lucky to be alive. This was before Rachel Carson exposed that. Now we just ship DDT out of the country to others. There is no conscience where money is involved. Google “toxic load” and see what pops up. It is scary and we deserve to be so. Perhaps starting with Our Daily Poison will cover the topic well. You can use her bibliography for further resources. I choose to eat organic and mostly plants, supplement wisely, and choose to leave the processed foods on the store shelf, and highly recommend the Classic Mediterranean Diet and lifestyle. 1 Dec 23