“Highly processed” is so unclear

[Anonymous]

I am really frustrated by the advocacy around “highly processed” foods.

This morning I looked in my kitchen and realized I have three forms of shelf stable oats. Steel cut, rolled, and Cheerios.

Are they nutritionally different? I have no idea! I mean the Cheerios are just ground up into dust and mushed into Os, right? Is that really worse than rolling them flat? How do I tell?

I don’t understand at all why yogurt is not “highly processed.” It seems to me like highly processed milk?

If I make a fake Frappuccino with xanthan gum in my kitchen, is it highly processed now?

I want to give my family healthy foods, but this “highly processed” thing is ridiculously opaque and hard to follow. This feels as helpful as in fifth grade when I learned I should eat 11 bowls of cereal a day, lol.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Anything you can't really do by hand is highly processed.

[Anonymous]

Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

[Anonymous]

You should learn more about how food is made. Yogurt’s process is quite simple.

“Processed.” Yes, it was like cooking. They processed the milk into yogurt. Depending on what you buy, it could be very little processed. Have you seen people make, or made yogurt yourself? The process is just sitting. Some brands may put in more additives.

Your mind would be blown about flour processing. The raw flour you buy is so simple, right, but the processing removes most nutrition. It’s not nefarious. It’s science and nature and trade offs for having convenient long lasting products.

I’m just to the right of the bell curve, knowing that there is more to learn that I don’t already know. But this isn’t my topic, I’m not usually a food / nutrition girl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

The processing strips the fiber from the oats so cherrios will have less fiber than oats. The processing also removes antioxidants and phytonutrients from the oats. Even though Cheerios do not taste sweet, there is added sugar which is not in oats.

[Anonymous]

What PP said. And stripping nutrition plus over-processing affects satiety, blood sugar,
etc. It’s al interconnected. We have myriad receptors and cell in our gut lining and we’re directly exposing it to junk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

Cheerios have added sugar and vitamins and less fiber. It’s right there, on the label.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Anything you can't really do by hand is highly processed.

I can't harvest 400 acres of wheat by hand.

[Anonymous]

If your family likes Cheerios, give them Cheerios. They’re really not that bad. You can make up for relative lack of fiber and nutrients in other ways.

[Anonymous]

The reality is that certain people like the vagueness of highly processed. It allows them to pick and choose with almost arbitrary reasoning what is and isn't highly processed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

Cheerios have added sugar and vitamins and less fiber. It’s right there, on the label.

Yeah but I can add sugar to oatmeal by hand.

I guess maybe there’s less fiber. I haven’t looked. It says “whole grain” which I thought meant the same product as my steel cut oats are just ground up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

Cheerios have added sugar and vitamins and less fiber. It’s right there, on the label.

Yeah but I can add sugar to oatmeal by hand.

I guess maybe there’s less fiber. I haven’t looked. It says “whole grain” which I thought meant the same product as my steel cut oats are just ground up.

Ok we get it. You’re being deliberately obtuse, as evidenced by the “I can add sugar to oatmeal by hand.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seriously confused if plain oats and Cheerios are both the same amount of “highly processed”?

So what is the difference, health wise? This is an honest question. Cheerios are bad for me because the oats were ground up? Why?

The processing strips the fiber from the oats so cherrios will have less fiber than oats. The processing also removes antioxidants and phytonutrients from the oats. Even though Cheerios do not taste sweet, there is added sugar which is not in oats.

Alright. I went looking for this. I found out that there is a “phytonutrient” called beta glucan, and I found an article about why Cheerios are not as good. It contains this:

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/controversial-science-food-health-news/theres-big-hole-cheerios-boast

“You actually need at least three grams of beta glucan daily to have any effect on blood cholesterol — and that translates into roughly a cup of cooked oat bran, or a cup and a half of oatmeal. Or about three servings of Cheerios. And that makes the cholesterol-lowering claims prominently featured on the Cheerios box ring pretty hollow. There are far better ways to reduce cholesterol than gorging on Cheerios.”

A serving size of steel cut oats is 1/4 cup dry which is 1/2 a cup cooked!!! So a cup and a half of oatmeal is THREE SERVINGS. Isn’t it?

This guy’s bio says “Dr. Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University’s “Office for Science and Society” which has the mission of separating sense from nonsense.”

I can see how the MAHA moms get lost down weird rabbit holes because this all seems like a bunch of crap.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't overthink it. A good rule of thumb for when people are talking about, or rather complaining about, highly processed is the more ingredients it has that sound like science lab chemical compounds instead of food, the more processed it is. A good example would be reading the ingredient labels on ice creams. The more premium the ice cream, the fewer ingredients it has and few of those, if any, will sound like a science lab chemical. Even Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream only has five ingredients, all easily recognizable: cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. The cheaper ice creams will have more ingredients with weird names that are used as stabilizers and fillers and flavor substitutes. That's highly processed.

I also wouldn't call cheerios highly processed in this vein of thinking either. Fruit Loops, on the other hand... and you can probably understand why.