Real People Should Eat Real Food

May 26, 2025

In my first draft of this article, I wrote that the value proposition of mass production when it started was one of large corporations using their purchasing power to mass produce, market, and distribute processed foods and sell it at a lower price than what consumers could make it for at home. My mom came into my room and asked what I was writing. When I told her, she laughed.

“Do you think we could afford those fancy foods?” she replied, “No! We cooked our own food because we couldn’t afford any other way. The food we made was healthier and tasted better, so there was no point. On a special occasion, we might have a sample of one, but they were never part of our diet.”

This article now is about how processed foods have always been expensive, and its just recently that I have been paying more attention to the prices and the ingredients in them, I have been wondering why these foods are in my life.

I, like most, have become more price sensitive. It is only natural that this sensitivity has now extended into one of the biggest expenses I have, if not the largest, certainly the most often.

According to my mom, processed foods were never marketed as value for money. It was always convenience and a new trendy experience. Today, the newness certainly does not apply. You might see a new ‘invented’ flavor being marketed, but it is rarely persistent. Everyone knows they are convenient, so there is no point in pushing that point on the consumer. Instead, they market them as healthy, which I found weird, because they certainly are not.

They boast how a product is low in sugar or salt and high in fiber, protein, or made of vegetables or its lower chemical make-up, but all this is just comparing current versions to previous ones they manufactured. The unhealthy nature of processed foods cannot be escaped.

• Excess sugars are added to make them tasty and to create that addictive sugar rush. Even bread has more sugar in it than what you would put if you were making it yourself at home.
• Corn syrup contributes to this sweet flavor and is linked to diabetes, obesity and liver disease.
• Sodium/Salt is added in excess as a preservative and to improve the flavor. Its addition leads to high blood pressure, heart disease and over-working kidneys.
• Preservatives and colors are added to make the food (chemical mixture) last longer on the shelves and look more like food. These additives are linked to a variety of cancers. Food coloring has been banned in many countries for its link to children’s hyperactivity.
• Included trans fats are a contributing factor in inflammation and heart disease.

They are also unhealthy for the environment. The processed food monster walks around the earth with a massive carbon footprint. Its supply chains dominate refrigeration, warehousing, transportation and packaging.

The litter of its plastic packaging blows now uniformly through-out the globe, and its micro-particles have been absorbed by every organism on earth.

Its demand on agriculture has lead to soil erosion and degradation. Forests have been replaced with commercial farming facilities which use standardized crops reducing the biosphere’s diversity. The poor and child laborers on these farms barely make enough to survive as they have no market power against massive corporate conglomerates.

Processed foods are vulnerable to criticism via these routes, so their marketing is purely geared to boost their credentials in doing all they can to mitigate these negative effects. However, compared to cooking similar products yourself at home, they cannot hope to compete. Not on health, the environment or even on price. If you care about these things, cut out processed foods from your diet. Your body and your planet will reward you.

In 2023, ZerOsin, a middle-aged female member of n·h·g famously announced to us she lost 30 lbs ( 13.5 kg approx. ) over the previous year by cutting out all processed foods, and changing nothing else. When she heard about this article, she asked me to mention that she is the mother of two children, apparently that’s an important detail. Since this article now has me in her territory she has also passed me this list to start you off on your home-made food adventure.

• Start with peanut butter. Buy nuts and use a blender to liquefy them. It is cheaper and tastes better than store bought.
• Make your own tomato sauce.
• Make your own dough for pizzas using the sauce from above.
• Don’t drink soda’s, drink water.
• Eat fruit and fresh vegetables.

The negative properties of processed foods are exacerbated because in many urban places, where the poor reside, healthy food cannot be found. Called food deserts, they are places where only processed foods can be purchased, usually at convenience stores. The poor also are the least likely to have the equipment, knowledge, or the time to invest in cooking their own meals. By giving in to the convenience of these products, they spiral into a trail of poor health, cognitive skills and increased poverty.

Keeping inexpensive healthy foods at home can help to make it easier to prepare healthy foods. You can keep a supply of canned beans and fish, rice, pasta, canned or frozen vegetables and fruit. With these items you can make an assortment of healthy meals with minimal prep time such as;

• Soup with vegetables.
• Scrambled eggs with vegetables.
• Rice with vegetables.
• Stir fry with vegetables.
• Tuna salad.
• Toast with a topping.

If you ever need a visual representation of how distant processed foods are from real foods. Go look at processed cheese. It looks like they started with cheese and melted it down into a molded shape and the chemicals added to flavor and preservation give it that plastic appearance. Each slice is then wrapped individually. It does not even look like something you should be near, never-mind eat.

Choosing not to eat processed foods is about reclaiming control over what goes into your body. Whole, natural foods nourish us in ways that prepackaged, artificially enhanced products simply can’t. By making more intentional choices, we not only support our health, but also reconnect with the real flavors, traditions, and values of eating well. The change starts with small, mindful decisions—and every step counts.

Zaarin -- Founder n·h·g