Organic Versus Processed Diets: Making the Right Food Choice

Introduction

Over the last few decades, there has been a rapid growth in the consumer demand for organic foods globally. Consumers are progressively choosing organic foods over processed foods based on many factors that impact personal health and well-being, such as environmental concerns or animal welfare. However, the primary belief of the consumer is that organic foods have superior nutritional value and are healthier. The healthier function of organic and processed foods is still being determined because there needs to be clear evidence that organic foods are richer in vitamins and minerals than processed foods. Product quality is affected by many factors, including time and method of harvesting, soil quality, and growing conditions.

What Are Organic and Processed Foods?

Organic Foods:

• How agricultural products are grown and processed is known as organic foods. According to the US Government, organic foods should be grown without pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and bioengineered genes (GMOs).

• Antibiotics, growth hormones, or animal byproducts should not be used other than organic feed and forage to raise organic livestock such as meat, eggs, and dairy products.

Processed Foods:

• The food cooked, canned, frozen, and packed or changed in nutritional composition by fortifying, preserving, or preparing in different ways is known as processed food.

• Processing foods also includes cooking, baking, or preparing food. These foods were broadly divided into minimal to heavily processed foods.

1. Pre-prepared foods, such as cut vegetables, bagged spinach, and roasted nuts, are known as minimally processed foods for convenience.

2. Frozen fruits and vegetables, canned tuna, and canned tomatoes come under the foods processed at peak temperature to lock the nutritional quality and freshness.

3. Salad dressing, yogurt, cake mix, and jarred pasta sauces are foods with ingredients added for flavor and texture.

4. Heavily processed foods, including crackers, granola, and deli meat, are known as ready-to-eat foods.

5. Pre-made meals, including frozen pizza and microwavable dinners, come under the most heavily processed foods.

What Are the Differences Between Organic and Processed Foods?

Organic Foods

• These foods are grown with manure and compost, known as natural fertilizers.

• Organic-approved herbicides are naturally used to control weeds through crop rotation, hand weeding, mulching, and tilling.

• Naturally derived pesticides and natural methods like birds, insects, and traps are used to control pests.

• Dairy, eggs, organic meat,all the organic hormones, and GMO (Genetically modified organisms)-free feed is given to livestock.

• Rotational grazing, clean housing, and a healthy diet are the natural methods to prevent diseases.

• Outdoors have an opportunity to enter the livestock.

Processed Foods

• These are grown with synthetic or chemical fertilizers.

• Chemical herbicides are used to control weeds.

• Synthetic pesticides are used to control pests.

• Non-organic, GMO feed and other growth hormones are given to livestock for faster growth.

• By using medication and antibiotics, one can prevent livestock diseases.

• Outdoors will not have an opportunity to enter the livestock.

What Are the Benefits of Organic Foods?

The impact on the individual's mental and emotional health and the environment is based on how the food is grown and raised. More beneficial nutrients, such as antioxidants, are present in organic foods rather than their conventionally grown counterparts. When people eat only organic foods, they show symptoms, not when allergic to foods, chemicals, and preservatives. Given below are a few benefits:

1. Always or Every Time Organic Foods Are Fresh:

• Organic foods are fresh because they do not contain preservatives. So they last longer.

• Usually, but only sometimes, organic foods are produced in smaller farms near the marketplace, so watch where it is made.

• Organic farming is eco-friendly.

• This farming is better for the environment because it conserves water, reduces soil pollution and erosion, and increases soil fertility by using less energy.

• Using synthetic pesticides in farming helps people living near farms and birds and animals.

2. Only Fewer Pesticides Are Seen in Organic Foods:

• Conventional agriculture methods use synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides.

• Which results in residues remaining on the food people consume. Organic foods so they are preferable.

3. Antibiotics and Growth Hormones Are Not Given and Are Not Feeding Them With Animal Byproducts to Raise the Organic Animals:

• Feeding livestock with animal byproducts increases the risk of mad cow disease.

• Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are present in animals through the usage of antibiotics.

• Organically raised animals are healthy because they give more space to move around and access the outdoors.

4. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Are Not Added to Organic Foods:

• GMOs are most commonly resistant to pesticides or can produce insecticides.

• Genetically engineered foods are plants whose DNA has been altered to not occur in nature or traditional crossbreeding.

5. Few Nutrients Are More Seen in Organic Meat and Milk:

• The level of nutrients, including omega-3 -fatty acids, was 50 percent less in conventionally raised meat and milk than in the organic ones shown in the results of the 2016 European study.

What Are the Benefits of Processed Foods?

The various benefits of processed foods are increasing food consistency, removing toxins, preservation, easy marketing, and distribution. A few more benefits of these foods are:

• The availability of many foods yearly is increased.

• Transportation is made possible for delicate perishable foods across the long distance.

• Processed foods are safe to eat because they help to deactivate pathogenic microorganisms.

• With modern food processing techniques, modern supermarkets are available to everyone.

• From source to consumers, processed foods are less susceptible to spoilage than fresh foods.

• The overall Nutrition of the population is improved when processed foods help to make many new foods for the masses.

• Fresh foods and raw meats are more capable of causing severe illness by harboring pathogenic microorganisms.

• Processed foods help transport more exotic foods, eliminate hard labor, and give modern eaters easy access to a wide variety of unimaginable foods from their ancestors.

• The act of processing foods improves the taste of the food.

• The quality of life for people with allergies, diabetes, and other people who cannot consume common food elements is improved by modern food processing methods.

• It also helps to add extra nutrients such as vitamins to the foods.

Conclusion

People should follow specific tips to follow organic or a mix of both organic and conventional diets by following particular directions. A few of them are individuals who should choose various foods from various sources. Buy, wash, and scrub all the fruits and vegetables in season well under running water before purchasing any food. An individual should be reassured once again by reading the label. Consumers have a choice to use processed foods or not, as there are pros and cons to this type of food. When to include processed foods into the diet is based on the ingredient list of a few tools given by the Nutrition Facts label. However certain highly processed foods have poor health outcomes because they are rich in high sodium and sugar content and have unhealthful fats, so they are not recommended.