Does anyone here have a totally non processed food lifestyle?

mumto1_2

unless you eat a completely raw fruit + veg diet and nothing else, there is a 'process' somewhere - grinding flour, mashing nuts, cooking meat etc.

A 'I-dont'-eat-unneccessary-processed-foods-diet' is possible and doable! LOL bread,yogurt, HM everything etc. but you have to have the time and most of us dont'. One that includes 'bought' bread, sugar, yogurt, meat, fish is much easier. I have decided not to buy 'junk' food anymore - crisps, biscuits, candy etc and ready-meals. GOt into a habit of buying the stuff when my LO was littler.... got to get out of it!

ubamother

I think maybe a 'process-aware' diet is more do-able. I strongly believe that the more knowledge we have about our food, and how it gets to our plate is very important, and the more we know the more choices we can make. Milking a cow, making a cake, stirring a sauce are all processes - we just don't think of it that way. I guess you could make your own practical definition of unprocessed food - everyone's definitions would be really interesting to read.

Linda32

Interesting thread, I guess my definition would be no ready meals from the freezer/fridge in supermarkets, by which I mean cottage pie, shepards pie, lasagna etc.

You could of course make these at home and freeze them yourself, which I know alot do do on here.

Vegetables and fruit from the freezers would be okay, as a carrot is still a carrot wether its fresh or frozen. I think some of the tinned ones have salt added, not sure on that as I don't buy them because its an expensive way.

As for canned foods, I wouldn't consider baked beans/tomatos/pulses to be processed food, but canned curry/savory pie filling to be processed.

Just quick thoughts there, no refelction on what I buy at all, apart from tinned veg and thats only because I think thats an expensive way of buying them.

maltesers_2

I would love to be able to do so but it would be impossible to completely avoid avoid processed food if this includes milk, cheese, tea, coffee etc.

But I try to avoid any so-called food items with heavily industrial processed ingredients including the ubiquitous 'vegetable oil', soya products and ever increasing palm oil and other less recognisable items. I suppose it is my personal definition of Old Style food and cooking that I avoid anything that my Granny would not have recognised.

I also attempt to buy and eat local and seasonal if possible (with two allotments we do manage to be almost self sufficient in fruit and veg)But even buying British proves to be increasingly difficult. For example there are less than a handful cereal producers using British cereals and evidently only Hovis (of the major bread manufacturers) use British wheat.

I think the use of very cheap industrial ingredients has devalued food. It may cost more to use traditional ingredients but it is better for health and pocket to have and occasional treat rather than eat a packet a day of cheap 30p biscuits, snacks, cakes etc.

SallyForth_2

I think it would be unrealistic to most people, apart from that fact you would end up spending most of your day preparing food, you would need more specialised equipment, storage, preparation room, ingredients, which could be expensive.

It all seems so simple, but if you grow your own, you do need some basic stuff to get started. If you want to make sauces and preserves, you will need equipment and ingredients which will needs storing when not in use, and the end product will need storing. It won't be a problem for some, but some kitchens are hopelessly inadequate.

Seakay

There's some info on this site http://www.funkyraw.com/ about raw and unprocessed food

lostinrates

I'd like to eat wholly un processed diet but I'm not quite committed enough, and I'd never convince DH who like me likes ''real'' food, but also likes the odd bt of commercial junk (e.g. this weekend he really wanted crisps.) I ''cook from scratch'' in that I never buy e.g. packet sauce, but I do buy and use dried pasta more than I make my own. I'd never buy a packet of cake mix, but I would buy, for example, sugar strands, if I wanted them. I could well do with HM alternatives, if not slavish reproductions, e.g. I could use sugared petals as decoration always, but sometimes its just nice to ...relax a little. I make bread, but have only gathered and ground my own flour once (it was amazing to do and tasted amazing, but once was enough for time and effort, I only did it then because my neighbour who does it a lot was helping me.) For me choosing what to''cheat'' over (eg dried pasta, packet sugar free jelly, and what not to for us (e.g. jelly for fancy parties and filled pastas) is an important part of living sustainably low processed.

sb44

I don't think I could do it myself but I was meaning eating as if in the 50's when everything we (well, not me as I wasn't around then ) ate was in it's basic raw state.

However, I don't think many ate pasta or rice as it wasn't available to a lot of the general public so it would be more to do with eating home grown, market bought, local butchers killed stock etc.

I was just wondring how much healthier we would be if we had the time to cook everything from scratch but still bought milk and freshly made bread.

Kadeeae

As my BH and I embark on a healthier eating regime we've deicded that, for us, a processed food means anything that has an ingredient that isn't a food/spice/herb in it's own right . . . . if that makes sense

We are aiming for better, even really good, but not perfect. We just don't do perfect

Will be interesting to see how others are doing it though . . . .

lostinrates

sb44 wrote: »

I don't think I could do it myself but I was meaning eating as if in the 50's when everything we (well, not me as I wasn't around then ) ate was in it's basic raw state.

However, I don't think many ate pasta or rice as it wasn't available to a lot of the general public so it would be more to do with eating home grown, market bought, local butchers killed stock etc.

I was just wondring how much healthier we would be if we had the time to cook everything from scratch but still bought milk and freshly made bread.

To be a little pedantic, people did eat rice and pasta, just not so much in the UK

I think we'd be healthier...not just because of the e numbers etc, but I think it takes marginally more calories to, for example, cook soup than it does to ''!!!!!, !!!!! pring'' soup. I also think we'd be more aware of what we were eating, the changes we need to make more obvious. The best preventative for eating croissants for me, was making them. My own are pretty fantastic, but when you actually SEE the butter going in its easier to think no to a less good supermarket one.