Processed foods (4): The advantages of processed foods
Health & Fitness By KEMI ILORI
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

One of the most important contributions that processing food has made to the life of mankind, is the preservation of food, thus making different types of food available beyond the abundance of harvest time.

Now that the world is a global village, this extension of the food supply is enjoyed by countries which are distant from the original source. It has increased the variety and styles of our foods (we now take the good with the bad and ugly where our diet is concerned).

Countries that experience food shortages due to famine, natural disasters like tsunamis, man-made ones like wars, etc; benefit from this food supply extension.This is because it would have been difficult to preserve and supply unprocessed food as food-AID to victims because they would spoil! Foods that have been processed are also used in situations where refrigeration is not possible such as camping expeditions and rations for the armed forces. Another important advantage of some processed foods is the fact that they save time. This is a huge advantage for busy mothers, bachelors and professionals with demanding jobs. It may not be the better alternative for them, but it is a great help to them.

Another easily overlooked advantage of processed food is the health and safety issued. This is because the benefits of food processing include toxin removal, preservation. Processed foods are less susceptible to early spoilage than fresh foods, and are better suited for long distance transportation from source to shelf. Fresh materials, such as fresh produce and raw meats, are more likely to harbour pathogenic micro-organisms (e.g. Salmonella) capable of causing serious illnesses.

A wide variety of items are added to food when they are processed. We mentioned three important nutritional ones, namely; sugar, fats and sodium (salts). We did not delve into colours, flavouring agents, emulsifiers and stabilizers, sweetening agents, flour improvers, food additives, etc.

Why? It would take a whole book to treat all these items. That is not to mention food processing methods like irradiation, chemical preservation, refrigeration, Heat treatment, etc. Readers may also find the long narrative boring. We must however note that minerals and nutrients are added to some processed foods as well. This helps to enhance their nutritional value. I however belong to the school of thought which prefers to exercise caution with regards to some nutrients, especially the fat-soluble vitamins.

This is especially so in circumstances where there are readily available rich local sources (like palm-oil in the case of vitamin A; betacarotene in palm-oil is a precursor to vitamin A). I believe that we have been able to learn that it is advisable to READ FOOD LABELS when selecting food. Does food processing affect our food positively in any way? Besides making food available all the year round, there other nutritional and non-nutritional benefits of processed foods.

Availability of nutrients: You may be surprised to learn that processing certain foods increases the availability of the nutrients contained in them for our bodies when we eat them. One such nutrient is lycopene. This is the substance in tomatoes that gives it its red colour. I had written extensively about lycopene in the past in this column. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant.

Processing tomatoes into either paste or sauce increases the amount of lycopene available to the body. Processing can also make some nutrients more available by releasing them from the compounds they are complexed with. For example, absorption of iron from food is improved by removing phytic acid found in foods like bran, spinach. This of course is if the food is carefully processed to prevent loss of such nutrients in leaching. Frozen vegetables are usually processed within hours of harvest. There is little nutrient loss in the freezing process so frozen vegetables retain their high vitamin and mineral content.

Acceptability of food; Processing foods sometimes helps to make it easier for us to get the recommended allowance of nutrient. One good example is fruits and vegetables. A lot of people buy fresh fruits and eventually throw them into the dustbin because they do not have time to prepare them (even if it is just washing/ cleaning them). Canned fruits and vegetables help millions of people around the world to meet up with the recommended five portions of fruits and vegetables a day.

They take these in form of sweet corn, baked beans, green peas, diced carrots, etc. These are just a few of the accepted global vegetable favourites. The fibre in processed vegetables are also more easily digested ( I hope that you remember that some fibre is digested into short chain fatty acids in the bowels). Another good example are sardines. The soft processed bones of the fish helps us to get plenty of calcium from eating sardines. The only problem is that sardines are very salty and not suitable for everybody.

An important thing to note is that note all food additives in processed foods are bad. Some food additives are actually very good e.g. antioxidants like vitamins C and E. Also some natural agents like guar gum which is used as a thickening agent. The most important thing is for you to "shine your eyes’ or in another parlance, "take your eyes with you to the market"! Read food labels so that you can make educated food choices for the good health of you and your family.