Processing foods is what likely helped Homo to get enough energy to evolve big brains. So, processing foods isn’t all that bad, and it may even be hard-wired in many of us.

But, Humans tend to take things too far, and inventing new ways of processing is really fun! So, most food today is over-processed. It’s acceptable to grind, dice, tear, smash, smush, squeeze, ferment, spice, salt, and cook veggies, lightly. Any more than that is risky territory.

> Processing foods is what likely helped Homo to get enough energy to evolve big brains.

Hm cooked food maybe; processed food, not really, at least according to the current definition of it.

https://www.foodindustry.com/articles/the-4-categories-of-pr...

I think that is slight miss-use of term processed food. Process food (at least to me) is anything that has been artificially adjusted by factory processing, like injecting meat with some solutions in order to 'make' more meat.

I would hardly qualified lets say smoked bacon as processed food in that sense. But all of those microwave ready meals et al. large content of it is cheap filler masqueraded as actual product.

It is not a mis-use. Bacon is absolutely a processed meat.

“Microwave ready meals” are typically just pre-cooked meals prepared for reheating - they’re probably not the best meals in terms of ingredient quality or cooking methods, and low-quality ones might have some plant starches as filler, but most of them are pretty straightforward.

Anything prepared for the microwave like that is high in sodium. We’re talking over a days worth of sodium all at once. Very far from healthy.

Actually, most meat nowadays is injected with huge amounts of sodium. It’s like we’re all eating log term storage foods-even that raw meats.

Of course there exist low-quality or over-salted meals.

But I just took a look in my freezer at two bog-standard ready meals I have there just in case - macaroni and cheese, and a beef lasagne. They’re each about 1.5g of salt, and there’s nothing notable about the ingredients.

Anything more than like 700-900 mg/day is less than ideal. 1.5g leaves you no budget for the rest of the day. (Though some sources say you just need to be below 2.5g. Still, that’s not much higher than 1.5g when we’re talking an entire rest of the day to eat.)

What does “less than ideal” mean?

NHS guidelines in the UK are <6g of salt (2400mg sodium) per day. US guidelines are 2300mg. Salt and sodium are not the same; 1.5g of salt is about 600mg sodium, or about 1/4 of the recommended daily limit. That seems entirely reasonable for a main meal.

Here is the thing: I can make my own microwave-ready meals. I might put "cheap filler" in some things: beans and lentils and whatnot. It is still processed food, even if I'm not adding chemical additives or having food scientists add aromas and testing for peak yumminess. To that end, plain frozen peas are processed.

Smoked bacon is exactly the sort of thing they warn to eat sparingly because it is a highly processed food. It doesn't really matter that we've been making it for some time, it is still highly processed. I'd argue that most of it has added chemicals and things like the meat you describe upfront. Even without, the actual curing and smoking is what makes it more harmful.

I think it's also not great for many of the same reasons but the motivation might be more eithical or environmental than health. Most of the vegans I know (myself included) have totally different diets that don't include meat replacements at all. Beans and legumes take the place of red meat.

Probably none, most want to hear about, if there is something to it. They struggled hard to replace their meat with soy and extracted proteins and yeast from wherever .. it must be good.

I just really believe, that for the most part my body knows the best whats good for him. I just have to really pay attention. So sugar might taste good, but my body does not feel good, when eating too much of it. Meat is good, but only if it is good meat and not too much (meat that did not suffer too much and pushed with medicaments).

So balanced diet, lots of vegetables ... the classical recommendation, seems right.

> Probably none, most want to hear about, if there is something to it. They struggled hard to replace their meat with soy and extracted proteins and yeast from wherever .. it must be good.

I already addressed the first part in another comment in this thread. I wanted to point out that the "protein" argument is dated and uninformed. Protein is everywhere, grains, nuts, seeds and vegetables. It does not need to be "extracted" through some external process, it occurs naturally and can be used by your body. Also no one "struggled" with this, huge populations of the planet have been getting protein from plants for a long time before modern fake meat.

Yes, but most converted vegans and vegetarians really struggle to replace meat tastewise. Thats why the big "extracted" market.

You're right, it is often used by new vegans or vegetarians taste wise but nutritionally it isn't needed.

It's simple. Avoid them, just as you should avoid processed meat.

Easy less processed food, and lots of fruit, veg, fiber, and protein from whatever source you like. That's the key to a healthy diet.

I don't get the downvotes, it's a pretty solid advice.

You have to try really hard to be unhealthy if you eat unprocessed meat, veggies, grains and stick to the basics. It's what millions of years of evolution engineered our body for. Not 300gr of smoked bacon every morning and 1L of fruit juice per day.

A good heuristic for this is don't eat anything that, in its purest form, wasn't around 10,000 years ago.

This is obviously a simplification, but a rule of thumb is probably: Just as unhealthy as the meat alternative for you (particularly the closer these alternatives come to the original), but better for the planet.