THIS week’s subject is processed and unprocessed food.

What are processed and un-processed food, and what are the differences between them?

Processed food are generally the foods that we should eat less of.

Foods that are packaged, tinned, have a long shelf life, are high in calories and are high in trans and saturated fats.

Foods are processed for a number of reasons, generally they are processed to make them last longer, such as frozen vegetables or tinned/frozen fish.

These ones are not always bad for us, in fact they can actually contain more nutrients as they are frozen from fresh so stay fresh until we use them.

However there are other meats and fish that are processed that we need to watch out for.

Meats such as sausage, hot dogs, ham are processed and contain high levels of saturated fats, sodium, salt and are often high in calories.

Frozen ready meals contain high levels of sodium and salt too, to make them taste better.

Too much sodium in our diets can lead to high blood pressure.

Other processed foods are those packaged convenience foods, cakes, pastries, ready meals, bread, sugary cereals.

These foods usually have a long ingredients list on the back and contain ingredients that you either can’t pronounce or have never heard of.

Non-processed food are fresh, natural foods that generally have no ingredients list.

They have not been altered from their natural state.

These are fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, nuts seeds etc.

They contain more nutrients and are naturally lower in fat, calories, sodium and none of the other bad stuff.

To summarise, a diet consisting of more natural unprocessed foods will be more nutritious, lower in unhealthy fats, lower in calories and better for our health rather than a diet on predominantly processed packaged or convenience food, which will be higher in salt, fat, calories and less healthy.

Eat healthy and keep your bodies healthy!