When it comes to dietary demons, processed foods are getting a lot of buzz these days.
Processed foods are being blamed for everything from an increased risk of developing obesity and heart disease to cancer and Type 2 diabetes, as well as a variety of other detrimental health effects. But is this villainous status really deserved?
The issue is more complicated than it seems because there isn’t a formal definition of processed foods. They reside on a spectrum: from minimally processed — such as canned peaches or yogurt — to ultraprocessed, such as salty chips, hot dogs and packaged baked goods.
What Are Processed Foods?
Processed foods include any food that has been cooked, canned, frozen, preserved, packaged or fortified with beneficial nutrients. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, anything that has been crushed, cut, chopped, diced, sliced, pitted, blended, pureed, juiced or dried is considered a processed food.
So, while processed foods include frozen mac and cheese or pizza, a bag of barbecue chips or a cheeseburger from a fast-food joint, they also include a loaf of whole-wheat bread, canned beans, a carton of pasteurized milk or jar of tomato sauce.
“Everything is processed unless you go into a corn field or to an apple tree and bite into that food right off the stalk,” says Keith Ayoob, a registered dietitian and associate professor emeritus of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “Processing isn’t all bad. You can have a processed food that’s a whole food.”
Clearly, some processed foods are healthier than others.
“A bag of roasted peanuts is considered processed, but it’s fine,” says Abby Greenspun, a registered dietitian who specializes in disease prevention and weight management in Westport, Connecticut. “By contrast, honey-coated, chocolate-dipped peanuts obviously are more processed and worse for you.”
[READ: Ways to Eat Well and Save Money at Home]
Types and Examples of Processed Foods
Minimally processed foods
Some of these foods are processed at their peak freshness to lock in nutritional quality. In fact, when tomatoes are cooked (processed) then canned, they end up with more lycopene, an antioxidant, that’s available to the body than fresh tomatoes do, Ayoob points out.
Minimally processed foods include:
— Bagged lettuce and spinach
— Pre-cut vegetables
— Roasted nuts
— Dried fruits
— Canned, unsweetened fruits and unsalted vegetables and beans
— Canned fish like tuna and salmon
Some minimally processed foods, such as the ones listed above, make good-quality, nutritious foods convenient for busy people to use.
Processed culinary ingredients
Processed culinary ingredients are foods that are used during food preparation, such as cooking, baking, grilling or roasting.
Examples of processed culinary ingredients include:
— Cooking oils, such as olive oil
— Vinegar
— Honey
— Butter
— Sugar
— Salt
Processed foods
Towards the middle of the spectrum, processed foods may be fortified with important nutrients — such as calcium, vitamin D, folic acid or iron — that can help prevent chronic diseases.
Examples of processed foods include:
— Dairy and plant-based milk products, like cheese and yogurt
— Whole-wheat or whole-grain breads and pasta
— Many breakfast cereals
“The fortification of refined grains with folic acid caused the prevalence of neural tube defects — such as spina bifida — to plummet,” Ayoob explains. “That’s one of the best public health programs that was ever rolled out.”
Ultraprocessed foods
At the far end of the spectrum are ultraprocessed foods, also referred to as highly processed foods. These include:
— Chips
— Sugary breakfast cereals
— Sodas
— Candy
— Cookies
— Meat products, such as deli meats and sausage
— Instant noodles and soups
— Fried foods
— Frozen pizza
— Chicken nuggets
Many food manufacturers formulate these foods in ways that appeal to the human palate’s “bliss point” — the optimal combination of sugar, fat and salt — that will make people want to keep eating them.
“When the mix is right, food becomes more stimulating,” noted Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, in “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.” “Eating foods high in sugar, fat and salt makes us eat more foods high in sugar, fat and salt.”
In fact, researchers stated in the journal NPJ Science of Food that “when the processed food industry added a crunchy mouth feel to their bliss point formulations, a whole new generation of craveable foods was created.”
In other words, these hyper-palatable processed foods can hijack your appetite, causing you to lose control of how much you eat.
[READ: Best Healthy Foods You Should Be Eating]
Why Are Processed Foods Bad?
Consuming lots of ultra-processed foods can increase your risk of developing chronic health conditions.
Ultraprocessed foods contain added ingredients — including extra oils and other fats, sugar, salt, calories and preservatives — that don’t provide any nutritional value.
“You want to minimize empty calories in your diet from sweets and baked foods and beverages with lots of sugar but not much else,” Ayoob says.
The consumption of ultraprocessed foods is particularly harmful for human health. A 2024 metanalysis of dozens of studies shows that ultraprocessed foods can increase your risk of chronic diseases, including anxiety, heart disease, certain cancers, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension.
Obesity
In a study in a 2019 issue of Cell Metabolism, researchers found that when adults who are slightly overweight followed a diet with ultra-processed foods for two weeks, they consumed approximately 500 more calories each day and gained weight compared to when they stuck with an unprocessed diet for two weeks. The researchers concluded that limiting ultraprocessed foods may offer an effective strategy for preventing and treating obesity.
Neurodegeneration
Consuming high amounts of ultra-processed foods has been tied to detrimental effects to brain health. In a 2024 study published in BMJ, which evaluated more than 114,000 adults over 34 years, ultra-processed foods were shown to promote neuroinflammation and impair the blood-brain barrier, which leads to neurodegeneration and associated conditions, such as multiple sclerosis dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Another study in a 2023 issue of JAMA Neurology found that adults with a higher daily consumption of ultra-processed foods have a faster rate of cognitive decline over time.
Poor mental health
Many ultra-processed foods are loaded with sugar, sodium, saturated fat and additives that disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut microbiome, which — as the growing field of nutritional psychiatry has demonstrated — affects mental health.
In a 2023 analysis published in JAMA Network Open, researchers found that participants who consumed nine or more daily servings of ultra-processed foods, particularly those containing artificial sweeteners, had a 50% increased risk of developing depression than those who only consumed four or less daily servings.
Cancer
A study in a 2022 issue of BMJ found that men with a high consumption of ultra-processed foods have a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer among men and women in the U.S.
Higher mortality
Not only are ultra-processed foods linked to a slew of health problems, but they have also been shown to be tied to early death as well. In a 2024 study, researchers found that people who consumed an average of seven servings of ultra-processed food — particularly ultra-processed meats, high-sugar breakfast foods and sweetened beverages — had a 4% increased risk of all-cause mortality and 8% increased risk of mortality due to neurodegenerative diseases compared to those who didn’t.
[READ: Worst Cancer-Causing Foods.]
How to Avoid Processed Foods
Processed foods are virtually everywhere, making it difficult to avoid altogether.
In fact, these types of foods are becoming more ubiquitous. A study in a 2022 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that intake of processed foods, especially ultraprocessed foods, continuously increased among adults in the U.S. from 2001 to 2018. What’s more, research in BMJ Open found that ultra-processed foods comprise 58% of the calories consumed in the U.S.
However, there are ways to curb your intake.
Here are some strategies for avoiding processed foods:
Cook at home
When you eat out or grab convenient snacks off the shelves, you don’t have a say in what goes into those products. However, when you cook at home, you can control what types of ingredients you use — such as fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, fish and other nutrient-rich ingredients — and how to prepare them.
Meal prep
If you’re too busy to cook, you can avoid giving in to the convenience of eating fast food meals by planning ahead of time and preparing your meals at home for the week. To help take the guesswork out of it, there are plenty of meal delivery services that can ship all the pre-portioned ingredients for you to make homemade meals — right to your doorstep.
Hydrate with water
Sugary bottled beverages — such as soda, sweetened tea and fruit juice — are notorious for being loaded with empty calories. Instead, quench your thirst with water. If you miss the carbonation from sodas, sparkling water is a great alternative. For a caffeine fix, brew your own tea and/or coffee at home, but skip the sugar and creamer.
Make smart food swaps
You can replace highly processed foods with healthy substitutes. For example, if you’re craving the crunchiness of chips, reach for slices of bell peppers or make your own kale chips by lightly seasoning kale leaves with salt and popping them in an air fryer or the oven. If you feel tempted to eat ice cream, satisfy your sweet tooth by freezing ripe bananas and blending them to make your own homemade healthy soft serve. Not only will these swaps satisfy your cravings, but you’ll sneak more fruits and vegetables into your diet.
Step away from the deli counter
The deli meats section is full of cold cuts, sausages and other processed meats. Instead, fill your shopping cart with protein from the grocery store’s meat and seafood department, where you’ll find smart alternatives, such as chicken, beef, salmon and shrimp. For plant-based proteins, try tempeh, tofu and chickpeas.
Read the ingredient label and the nutrition facts label
Stay clear of products that include high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, hydrolysed protein, artificial colors, flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents and thickeners.
Keep salt in check
Try to limit added salt. Most canned vegetables, soups and sauces contain added salt. Choose foods labeled “no salt added,” “low-sodium” or “reduced-sodium” to decrease the amount of salt you’re consuming from processed foods.
“Processed foods are major contributors of sodium in our diets because salt is commonly added to preserve foods and extend shelf life,” says Jerlyn Jones, a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of The Lifestyle Dietitian in Atlanta.
Stay clear of trans fats
Also known as trans-unsaturated fatty acids, trans fats are a type of dietary fat often found in processed foods. Although small trace amounts are naturally occurring in food, most health experts are concerned about trans fats when it is used in large amounts. Highly processed packaged foods — including cookies, donuts and crackers — and deep-fried foods are some of the top products with trans fats. Consuming too much trans fats is associated with poor heart health, as they can raise the LDL “bad” cholesterol and lower HDL “good” cholesterol.
It may be hard to spot trans fats because they don’t appear on labels with those words. To find them, you should look for ingredients listed as “partially hydrogenated fat.”
Be aware of hidden sugars and artificial sweeteners
On the ingredients list, added sugars can go by different names including brown sugar, corn syrup, cane sugar, honey, fruit juice concentrate or any word that ends with -ose. If these appear among the first two or three ingredients listed, it means the product contains considerable amounts of sugar.
Keep in mind that some processed foods contain artificial sweeteners instead of sugar. Artificial sweeteners, also known as non-nutritive sweeteners, can cause bloating and other digestive distress. World Health Organizationguidelines from May discourage the use of artificial sweeteners for weight loss. In July, the World Health Organization released another statement announcing that aspartame (an artificial sweetener) is possibly carcinogenic to humans. The artificial sweetener is widely used in processed foods.
Can You Still Eat Processed Foods?
While it may not be possible to eliminate processed foods entirely from your diet, what’s important is your overall diet quality. Health experts agree that as long as you generally eat a healthy diet, a few servings of processed foods every once in a while isn’t cause for concern. After all, certain foods — including whole-grain bread, protein shakes and fortified foods — are both healthy and processed.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, the goal isn’t to demonize or completely banish processed foods, Ayoob says, but to make more conscious decisions about consuming them.
Stick with minimally processed foods as much as you can, but remember: There’s nothing wrong with having chips or cookies occasionally if that’s what you really want.
“It’s about how you incorporate it as part of a healthy, balanced diet,” Ayoob adds.
More from U.S. News
The Benefits of Magnesium for Brain Health
What Are the Best Food and Drinks to Improve Your Mental Health?
How to Eat Like the Mediterranean Diet With Food From Other Cuisines
Processed and Ultraprocessed Foods: Examples and Health Risks originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 07/26/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
