Daniel Roe
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Poster: Daniel Roe @ Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:02 pm
 Depression has been linked to processed food according to the bad-science-embracing BBC.
In this article, they're basically saying 'junk food' is bad, and stating that 'processed food' is synonymous with 'junk food', and therefore also bad.
Of course with the UK waddling down the trail blazed by the US in regards to unhealthiness and lard-buttedness, they're having increased incidence of gluttony-N-sloth-related illnesses.
Depression, of course, is one of them.
The problem with making the leap from depression to processed food is that unprocessed food can and does lead to just as many problems as processed. If you find me a 100% organic cheesecake that wont make you as fat as a processed one, I'll find you the ring of power and a hole to stick it.
The only link between processed food and obesity is that processed food is cheaper and that the moniker applies to more foods. For instance, you can't find unprocessed Ho-Hos, therefore that's one food that is worse for you than its 'organic' counterpart ... the infamous imaginary organic Ho-Ho (now with < 0 calories!). On a 'No Processed Foods Diet', you have to cut out foods such as Sodas, Twinkies, and Fast Food--all of which are verboten in ANY OTHER DIET.
Obesity, in all but a few cases, requires a huge amount of food to maintain. "There were no fat people in Auschwitz", as the saying goes, and likewise there are few obese people who don't eat too much.
One obvious advantage to an 'organic' diet is that it is invariably more expensive, and therefore you have to eat less. With that also comes less access to food since many dining establishments wont serve 'guaranteed organic'. This results in an additional de facto diet restriction.
Another advantage to 'organic' foods is that they are often fresher and therefore taste better. Taste is an obvious yet commonly overlooked part of sticking to a healthy diet. However, there's no rule saying processed foods can't be just as fresh and tasty as unprocessed, nor is there a rule saying organic is always fresher.
Heck, I've eaten TONS of organic foods that taste worse than store-bought produce or even FROZEN foods! I bought some 'organic' tortilla chips the other day that were stale, gross, and less healthy than generic cheap crap. I think some people see the 'organic' stamp and convince their senses it must taste better because it's organic. WRONG. The only things organic food 'must' do are cost more and be sold by hippies.
Make no mistake though, if you mixed all the natural ingredients of a McDonald's meal together in a blender--even without their added preservatives and whatnot--and chugged that sucker down, you'd still be just as big a fat ass as just buying them freeze-dried, re-fried, and laced with formaldehyde. Carbs are carbs, fat is fat, so why not save some money, get some discipline, and eat right... or you could 'be an individual' like everybody else and sell your soul to Whole Foods and 400% markups.
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