How Much Processed Food Do You Buy?

I hate to admit it but I do buy a lot of processed foods because they are so convenient. I could just put in some canned meat or some bacon or sausage into the oven and leave it there, for example, while I do my work, and by the time I finish I already have my meal. I try and balance it out by eating more vegetables as much as possible but I'm hoping that soon I could just make self prepared food items that can replace my processed foods while still being convenient.

 

Depends on what you mean by processed. The only packaged foods in my house at the moment are things like rice, beans, lentils etc. I don't buy the highly processed garbage.. won't find a speck of it in my house and that's not arrogance, that's love of life and wanting to be comfortable and healthy for as long as possible. It's actually cheaper to buy healthy.. but people argue it because they think healthy is boxes with the word 'healthy' on it lol. At the moment food is skyrocketing.. but I'm still eating cheaper than I did on a highly processed food diet.

 

Apart from ketchup which my husband likes to have occasionally - absolutely none.

Admittedly this may appear a little unbelievable to some - but I can honestly say that I have never ever bought any processed food - as everything in my household - has always been made from scratch with ingredients that are 100% natural - meaning totally free of any form of additive, preservative, artificial sweetener, flavor enhancer or any other chemical concoction used to masquerade as food - as not only is it a much healthier way of eating but generally way cheaper too.

 

As much as I hate to buy process foods, they're still a big part of our household. We keep on trying to introduce vegetables to our kid but he just won't eat them so he ends up eating something that is processed at times. I cook freshly prepared food most of the time though so we only get to eat the processed ones when we run out of fresh food supplies.

 

I buy a mixture of processed and fresh foods. I do like to cook a lot, so that's not really an issue for me, it's just that there are some situations where processed foods make much more sense.

Ketchup would be a great example, as would canned tomatoes in general. By the time you go out and purchase all the spices needed to make home made ketchup, as well as bundles and bundles of fresh tomatoes, you are way over your head in terms of costs vs. just buying a bottle of it at the store. Even starting with canned crushed tomatoes is time consuming, since it needs to cook down so much further to get to the thickness of what we normally associate with ketchup. But even with the tomatoes themselves, canned tomatoes which are harvested at their ripest are far more flavorful than the watery bland fresh tomatoes that are at the grocery store year round when they are not in season.

Artichokes would be another example. Not only are fresh artichokes rather expensive per piece, but they are a pain in the butt to prep, just to get the heart of the artichoke out. Frozen or canned is not only far more cost effective, but they're far more convenient.

I also buy some frozen TV dinners along with my usual collection of fresh meats and veggies. There are always going to be days where you never know when they may come in handy. I usually grab TV dinners that have ingredients that I don't feel like spending extra money to buy all of them separately and make the dish from scratch. For example, fresh Parmesan cheese and cartons of heavy cream add up, I would hate to waste a whole container of fresh cheese to make an alfredo sauce, when I can just buy a frozen alfredo TV dinner for a buck or so, if I'm in the mood for that. Same goes for regular mac and cheese.

 

I still purchase some processed foods from time to time, but I can honestly say about 65% to 70% of the food that I purchase for my household is non processed. I too have lots of beans, rice, and lentils in the household. I love what you said about not eating processed foods," not being about arrogance, but a love of life." I'm going to make that my new saying whenever someone tries to cut me down because of my food choices. I've already gotten some people to see the light about how affordable it is to eat a "whole foods" diet rather than a highly processed one. I have actually been able to take $20 and feed my family for a week off of that.

 

Exactly, that's awesome! Isn't it odd how people work.. actually looking down on people for eating in a way we're supposed to (or trying to I suppose, since we can't really get away from industry practices). Trying to be healthy so we don't die young, or suffer until we finally do. I don't care what anyone eats unless I love you.. then I'm sorry, you're going to hear it lol. Ok, I do care, but I don't make it my business. Eating healthfully is an insult to their way of life I guess and we're treated like we're judging or feel superior or something. That's the way it is with anything going against the new norms.. somehow eating garbage is progress, when future generations will look back and wonder how we could have been so off lol.

 

Ever since the UK horse meat scandal, I've backed off a fair bit from processed foods. It really freaked me out, especially because at the time, we were heavily reliant on ready made food. Now although we still do get some, we've cut right back. We still buy processed meats for sandwiches and will get a few ready made meals for when I've got a 9pm finish at work because my husband who can't cook, can just bung them in the microwave or oven so that we have something to eat.

 

Honestly, way too much. For some reason it just tastes so good and that can be addicting I think. It's also the easy lazy route so people tend to lean toward that kind of food. I wish there wasn't any processed foods. I'm bad at eating healthy.