Are packaged foods overall bad for your health?

[Black_Eagle]

I eat a lot of packaged foods. I'd say 3-4 out of 7 of my dinners every week come from packaged foods. I avoid the stuff with trans fats and I try to keep my sodium intake within the percent daily value, but I can't help but wonder if there is some reason why packaged foods are bad for your health. What do you think, DV? Should I hurry up and learn to cook? Edit: And by packaged foods I mean the types of foods that come in boxes that you would store in the freezer and heat up as an entire meal.

[katemorrigan]

packaged foods tend to have a lot of crap in them that your body doesn't need. Healthier pre-packaged options tend to be crazy expensive, so people usually wind up with the worst of the worst in these things, too. If you have the money to throw away on heat-and-eat meals and you're watching them for all the nutritional content (vitamins and minerals, overall calorie count, high fructose corn syrup...) then you should be alright. Home made is generally cheaper, and it's easier to control what goes in you.

[Maria92]

What do you think, DV? I read that as "What do you think, /b/?" I think that prepackaged food has a lot of crap in it, but nothing that is going to have a huge impact on your health or longevity, especially since your monitoring your intake of sodium, fat, etc. Obviously, fresh fish is going to be better for you than a TV dinner, but since that option is usually out of the question for everyone who isn't rich or living in an island nation, you're probably fine. Cooking your own meals tends to be better for you, too...and cheaper in most cases. A pain in the ass, sure, but healthier.

[Replicon]

You can ask random people on the internet about it, but I think the best advice for you is to just give it a whirl. That is, take a month where you discipline yourself to eat only non-processed foods. You're not on a diet or anything - you can eat the same amount of whatever you want, but cook it yourself from primary ingredients, and try to mostly stay away from refined sugar. Then let everyone here know how you feel, health-wise, compared to before. I'd like to hear your experience.

[Alric]

Well a lot of them use a lot of preservatives, since they sit around a long time. In most cases, this is salt. So it is good that you are keeping an eye on your salt intake, since that is one of the major things. The second thing is the older the food is the more it loses its nutritional value. So some things that might be packaged for a long time, just isn't going to be as good for you as fresh food. Though that doesn't necessarily mean its bad for you.

[Samael]

Basic rule of thumb: the more ingredients you can't pronounce, the worse it is for you. Cooking is easy: pasta and vegetables, go. And meat, for those of you that eat it.