Drying, canning, freezing, baking and cooking are all forms of processing food that's good for you, writes Niki Bezzant.
The other night I ate a meal made almost entirely from processed foods.
I'm very comfortable saying that, which might raise an eyebrow. But when I say processed, I'm not talking about two-minute noodles washed down with fizzy drink. I think it's important to make a distinction between processed and processed; or more usefully, processed and what's come to be known as ultra-processed food.
My dinner was comprised of some very useful foods that had been processed in some way; a boon to people who are busy, or home late in the evening after a flight, as I was in this case. A packet of ready-steamed brown rice and quinoa; some frozen edamame beans; a bag of leafy greens and some leftover chicken, tossed together in a pan with a bit of soy sauce and chilli and dinner was ready in about 8 minutes. It was tasty, satisfying and I think pretty healthy. I could equally have tossed an egg in there instead of the chicken, or a bit of tofu (also processed) or a can of tuna (ditto).
These foods are examples of ingredients that are super useful when you have a full schedule, as most of us do these days, with the demands of work and family and social life. I always find it a bit judgmental when I see comments – often in the "wellness" space – deriding so-called processed foods. Most of us rely on a degree of processing, after all, in many foods we eat. Most of us don't have time or equipment to mill our own grains, bake our own bread, catch our own fish or make our own preserves, for example. We don't all have our own cows to milk. Many of us – myself included – live in apartment spaces with no outdoors, so we can't grow our own vegetables. The processing of these foods helps us feed ourselves and our families with safe, affordable and nourishing food. Don't forget drying, canning, freezing, baking and cooking are all forms of processing.