The truth about processed foods: what you should and shouldn’t avoid

News 25’s Brooke Parker talks to a dietitian to tell us what’s really up with processed foods.

Processed food is a term being thrown around a lot right now. Fear of what is inside our food, red dye 40, cancer-causing agents, and more, has many people making a lifestyle switch.

Laurin Lambert is a registered dietitian at Singing River Gulfport and her definition might come as a shock. “Processed food is basically anything and everything that we eat. I mean, even the good stuff. Cooked, canned, frozen… that we take out and we prepare. So, if you’re cooking a meal, that is considered processed.”

Lambert says processed foods are like a scale. The only way to eat unprocessed food is to eat farm-to-table. On the other side of the scale is the ultra-processed, food that is extremely far away from its original source.

These foods may contain excess salt and sugars, dyes, MSG, and carrageenan, a thicking agent that has been linked to cancer.

However, these ingredients linger in some of our favorite snacks, candies, and fast-food meals.

It’s not always realistic to avoid these over-processed foods, but there are ways to make them better for us or to make the best choices for ourselves.

You don’t have to double your grocery budget to avoid these over-processed foods. “Try not to fall for the organic or the, like, gluten-free because sometimes those foods they give the vibe that they’re healthier, but they may actually be more processed. Those are all just kind of like fad terms right now. They do serve health purposes to some people, but not for the whole population.”

Lambert suggests tweaking your grocery list. Instead of canned veggies, consider frozen. If you know the first three ingredients on a label, that’s a good start.