June 2024
Karen Ensle EdD, RDN, FAND, CFCS
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County
We often think of food processing as taking nutrients out of food which makes them less healthy and we think that "fresh is best" but is this factual? Research has shown us that frozen fruits and vegetables are packed with excellent nutrients at their peak and they are able to retain more nutrients than fresh produce. Canned can even retain more nutritional value than fresh as we see with canned tomatoes retaining a higher amount of lycopene and carotenoids than fresh tomatoes.
The worst processed foods for your diet are typically ready-to-eat and low in nutrients. They include cookies, sugary drinks, deli meats, and frozen pizza, salty snacks like chips, and most breakfast cereals. These foods may taste good, but they're loaded with added ingredients that aren't good for you. Not all processed food, however, is bad for your health. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurized to remove harmful bacteria. High-fiber breakfast cereals, whole breads, and some lower-fat yogurt can also be part of a healthy diet.
As we shop in the supermarket looking for produce with the highest nutrient quality, we need to remember that the aisles also contain canned and dried beans, whole grains, pasta, nuts, seeds, and hot and ready-to-eat cereals like oatmeal that are healthy for you and your family. Reading food labels helps to define whether a product contains nutrients that we need or more salt, fat, and sugar from processing. Processed bread products, for example, may be made from refined grains that are lacking in minerals such as iron and magnesium along with folate and fiber. Processing helps to restore or fortify these essential nutrients in white bread and flour which has been helpful to many Americans who eat a refined diet and lots of white flour breads, crackers, snack foods and cereals.
A well-balanced diet does not depend on cooking; however, it helps to know how to choose nutritious, affordable convenience foods to make meal preparation easier such as jarred tomato sauce, grain mixes, rotisserie chicken, canned tuna and more. Check out the nutrition label and ingredient list to ensure these foods are providing nutrients without too much additional fat, sodium or added sugars. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits, nuts, meats, seafood, herbs, spices, garlic, eggs and milk. Make these real, whole foods the basis of your diet.
There are many budget-friendly, nutritious foods, such as canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, pasta, cereal, eggs, yogurt, nuts, canned and dried beans. Using these foods weekly as a basis for your weekly menus will help you shop from a list of healthy foods to plan your meals in advance. These are staples that are healthy and affordable. Remember to take small steps to plan and feed your family healthy meals that include raw and minimally processed foods that make eating in your house moderate in cost and maximum in nutritional quality.