Looking for an S word that means 'pre-processed foods'

[anndelise]

If you've read any of my previous posts, then you'll know that I'm working on nutrition while using No S as the overall meal framework.

My nutrition goals are to eat more natural and whole foods. Pre-processed foods would be my 4th S. I'm looking for an S word to match that goal.

Some of the words I've got so far are
"shadow foods" as in foods that have lost most if not all of their nutrition values (ie natural vitamins and minerals).
"simulated foods" as in foods that aren't natural foods, ala artificial flavoring and preservatives, also artificial fortification
"secondary foods" as in foods that aren't made from primary and whole natural foods.

Does anyone have any ideas on what S words might match the goal of no pre-processed foods except on S days?

[wosnes]

Well, it's not really an "s", but an "s" sound: pseudo-foods

[anndelise]

Well, it's not really an "s", but an "s" sound: pseudo-foods

ooh, i like that.

i was initially partial to "shadow foods", but it had the "sh" sound which didn't fit too well with No S. For some reason my mind can accept the "ps" spelling easier than the "sh" sound, lol.

I'm writing that on my list at home.
But I'm still open if someone finds something else.

[gratefuldeb67]

Hah love that "pseudo" foods!
So true too!
Nice one Wosnes
Debs

[kccc]

Love that addition!

I agree that "fake food" - whatever you call it - is best avoided. Not sure I'm willing to make it a full "S" yet, but only because I do want some at times and want to be "allowed" to have chips with my sandwich IF I really want them. (That IF is really important to me... and usually, the answer is no.)

Still, I'd take it as a "tendency" rather than a rule. Particularly if there's a good S name. Pseudo is clever!

Sham foods? Got the "sh" in that one too.

[anndelise]

It's just something I'm working towards, it'll take me at least 1/2 a year or a year before I'm reading to make it full on S thing. But we are making better food choices now. And I'm finally learning how to cook, plan meals, etc. I figure I may as well learn a nutritious way since I'm just beginning anyways.

As each N day progresses, I'm finding that I'm not eating nearly as much as I used to. A little over half a plate is just a little too much. This has my mind turning to getting as much vitamins and minerals as I can with the lower amount of food. (not like I was worried about nutrition before, but for some reason it's gaining in importance to me) I figure the best way of ensuring we get our vitamins and minerals is to eat whole foods where they are more packed with nutrients than foods that have had the nutrients leached out in some way.

So far, the minor changes of food choices that I've made up to this point have been wonderful. And my family is responding well and being supportive of the changes. It takes longer to make meals, and they don't always come out right, but my family's involved in the meal making process as well. So it's becoming a family thing to make the morning and evening meals. Because they are more involved in it, it means they are also more lenient when something doesn't work out quite right, lol.

And we get to look forward to S days not because of the sweets/snacks/seconds...but also because we get to have that lasagna dish or a hamburger and fries or whatever.

But, as I said, we're just beginning. But so far it's an upward cycle, each success paving the way for further efforts and chances for further successes. And I'm motivated, lol.

And even if these efforts were to ultimately fail, at least I'll know that my daughter's gaining the vanilla No S habit. At the very least that could be something she could carry with her in life.


As for the thread topic, so far psuedo-foods is in the lead. And will be easy to explain why I'm adding that in for myself, heh.

[wosnes]

I'm currently reading Two for the Road by Jane and Michael Stern. It's the story of their adventures on the road writing the Roadfood books. Basically, starting in 1975, they did what Guy Fieri does on his Food Network show, "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." They traveled across the country, stopped and ate in all the little diners, then wrote about them and gave their recommendation. Sometimes there was a recipe included.

A quarter-centruy ago, the American landscape was very different from what it is today. We feel 150 years old to admit that when we started hunting for roadfood, there were no Wal Marts, no Kmarts, no Home Depots, no Targets, no Outbacks, no Olive Gardens, no Red Lobsters, and no Starbuckses. There was fast food, but it wasn't everywhere. This was a good thing.

Every place we went looked different. Today, a lot of Connecticut looks like Arizona, which looks like North Carolina, which looks like Illinois. It is possible to crisscross this country and never eat, shop or stay in a strange place. This is not a good thing.

When I read that I thought about how much our grocery stores and cooking has changed in that time. 1975 was about the time I got married. Grocery shopping, cooking and eating (at home or away from home) has changed tremendously since then. It's changed even more from when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. Like they say, it's not a good thing.

Recently I realized that there's a direct correlation between the amount of overly refined and processed convenience foods (not to mention fast and junk foods) we eat and our increasing weight and decreasing levels of health. Since 1900, the more foods the food industry has created to make cooking less of a chore, the more our weight has increased and our health declined. Even those foods labeled as "healthy" need to be looked at skeptically. One expert says that if it comes in a box or a bag, you shouldn't eat it.

If you avoid the pseudo-foods for awhile then taste them again, you realize how bad they taste (not to mention how bad they probably are for you). Within the last couple of years my cooking and eating habits have changed dramatically because of this. It started with some vanilla yogurt. I thought I had picked up one with artificial sweeteners because it tasted so "off." I started buying high quality plain yogurt and flavoring it myself when I eat it.

Then it was my favorite brand of granola. Same thing. It tasted "off" -- like chemicals. Now I make my own.

One by one formerly favorite or frequently used foods started to disappear from my grocery list and my cupboards. I either completely do without or make my own. Occasionally I miss something, but most of the time I don't. Everything tastes so much better now! Real food, not pseudo-food.

I still keep weeknight meals quick, simple and easy (without a lot of difficulty, time or effort). But it's simple, quick and easy without using much in the way of convenience foods. There's some planning ahead involved. There are also exceptions now and then -- not always on "S" days.

A good deal of cooking like this has to do with technique and I'm forever grateful to Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book and Martha Stewart's Good Food Fast as well as her Everyday Food magazine and http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight/ (there's also http://www.marthastewart.com/everyday-food?src=footer and http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/)

I live in a good-sized city and there's not much I can't find if I'm willing to drive to get it. I'm not. I shop at two local stores and the farmer's market. If they don't have it, I don't eat it. I've also gone back to the foods I ate growing up -- along with some foods from my favorite ethnic cuisines. I'm particularly fond of the foods of the Mediterranean and part of that is because much of the food and cooking techniques are already familiar to me.

I don't think my pantry has to be stocked with foods from any number of cuisines. If I want Thai or Japanese or Indian or whatever -- well, that's what restaurants are for!

I've also gotten a lot pickier about where I eat when I eat out. Within the last couple of months I've been to two popular chain restaurants. After the meal I asked myself, "Why did I spend good money on this food?" It just wasn't good! I'm tending to patronize smaller, local restaurants where the food is usually made from scratch. Not only is the quality better, but I find I eat a wider variety of foods. That is, I don't always order the same thing. I do have favorites that I'll fall back on, but they aren't what I always order.

Between the quality of the food, Reinhard and No-S and Michael Pollan, my eating has changed dramatically. I try to Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I also try to follow Pollan's other "rules" about food.
http://michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=77

My apologies for the ramble this became!

[Jammin' Jan]

I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan, too, and I have been trying to eliminate everything that is manufactured, rather than raised or grown. So far, the only manufactured food-like thing left in my diet is Earth Balance, and that's only because I'm dairy allergic and can't use real butter.

I like "simulated" for the fourth S.

[anndelise]

Recently I realized that there's a direct correlation between the amount of overly refined and processed convenience foods (not to mention fast and junk foods) we eat and our increasing weight and decreasing levels of health. Since 1900, the more foods the food industry has created to make cooking less of a chore, the more our weight has increased and our health declined. Even those foods labeled as "healthy" need to be looked at skeptically. One expert says that if it comes in a box or a bag, you shouldn't eat it.

If you avoid the pseudo-foods for awhile then taste them again, you realize how bad they taste (not to mention how bad they probably are for you).

We've only just started, but we're already starting to recognize this. In fact, yesterday I spent all morning clearing out our cupboards. Most of the foods we had that used to be normal for us to eat, just didn't attract me. In fact, the thought of eating them was kind of...lip curling..heh. And Saturday we went to a favorite restaurant, only to disappointed by the food and no longer feeling that the cost of the food was worth it.

I recognize that our usual tastes are going to go through an upheaval as we slowly make fresher food choices. It's a little scary thought to me. To go from southwestern and fast food meals to something closer to the mediterranean diet. And sometimes it takes having a fresh food a few times before I start to sorta get a taste for it. It's like my tastebuds are learning how to taste, lol.

I still keep weeknight meals quick, simple and easy (without a lot of difficulty, time or effort). But it's simple, quick and easy without using much in the way of convenience foods. There's some planning ahead involved. There are also exceptions now and then -- not always on "S" days.

A good deal of cooking like this has to do with technique and I'm forever grateful to Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book and Martha Stewart's Good Food Fast as well as her Everyday Food magazine and http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight/ (there's also http://www.marthastewart.com/everyday-food?src=footer and http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/)

I have Anderson's book. I like things that allow for a mix-and-match like the way she has the salad set up. Following recipes has never been a strong suit of mine. Not that I can't, but that I don't like to. (I don't like being told what to do and when to do it, etc. lol) But I never developed taste, so experimenting was even less of a strong suit. Hence, never learning to cook anything that can't be made from a box or microwaved.

A couple of years ago an online acquaintance mentioned www.whfoods.org to me. I looked it over, thought it was another one of 'those' sites, and didn't take anything away with me. But then a couple of months ago I went to it again, finally got what it was suggesting, and purchased the book. I am so glad I did. This is what is teaching me how to cook. It uses fresh foods, tells me what I need to know regarding a particular food's freshness and nutrition in selecting, storing, and preparing processes. 90-95% of its recipes can be made in 7 min or less, ingredients are minimal, and the preparation method is designed to bring out the food's best flavors, while keeping as much of its nutrients as can.

Now, if it only had the foods already listed by seasonal peak..

I live in a good-sized city and there's not much I can't find if I'm willing to drive to get it. I'm not. I shop at two local stores and the farmer's market. If they don't have it, I don't eat it. I've also gone back to the foods I ate growing up -- along with some foods from my favorite ethnic cuisines. I'm particularly fond of the foods of the Mediterranean and part of that is because much of the food and cooking techniques are already familiar to me.

I live near a fairly small town, well, it's not a small town, it is a college town, and is growing pretty fast, but I still consider it fairly small. But I do have to travel about 20 min or so to get there. I'm thinking though that it would be nice to join one of those community supported agriculture things, pay an upfront fee to one of the farms, and receive weekly fresh produce from them. That way I'd KNOW what's in season, lol, and would be getting food at its freshest...well, fresher than at a store at least. But honestly, that probably won't happen until next year. For now I've started shopping at Trader Joe's and organic when I can. Eventually, as I know what I'm looking for, I'll go to the Farmer's Market or even to the Farms themselves if they are set up that way.

I'm tending to patronize smaller, local restaurants where the food is usually made from scratch. Not only is the quality better, but I find I eat a wider variety of foods. That is, I don't always order the same thing. I do have favorites that I'll fall back on, but they aren't what I always order.

I just found out that some of this town's smaller restaurants make things from scratch or with whole foods. We'll probably be checking out those places on S days, or if I'm in town during lunch time. It's definitely time to find some better restaurants than the fast food places we frequented.

Between the quality of the food, Reinhard and No-S and Michael Pollan, my eating has changed dramatically. I try to Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I also try to follow Pollan's other "rules" about food.
http://michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=77

My apologies for the ramble this became!

No apologies, I like rambles
I've heard of Pollan elsewhere, but haven't read his stuff yet (except that link you gave, and I'll check out some of his other articles). Thank you for the link.

It's nice to hear that it could actually be doable, by someone who comes close enough to what I hope to do. Thank you for writing what you wrote.

[anndelise]

jammin jan, 'simulated' fits the S part, without the ps spelling nor the 'sh' sound. Now that someone's voted for it, I'll keep it in the running.

psuedo foods and simulated foods are currently the top two choices I have. I just can't get past the sh sound of shadow and sham.

It's really great to see that others are already doing a '4th S', (even if not as an actual S...yet. )

[wosnes]

anndelise, you might be interested in The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller, M.D. She looks at various traditional diets and how they can be adapted to our ways of cooking and eating. The thing about the various traditional diets, be it Mediterranean or any other, isn't the specific foods, it's the principles -- which are actually all very similar.

So while you would probably want to limit or eliminate fast foods, you can eat the Southwestern foods you like and just follow the principles.

[reinhard]

simulacra.

As in:

According to Greek mythology, the food
in the underworld, Hades, looks beautiful and tempting;
but when you bite into it, it tastes like dust. And then you
have to stay in the underworld forever. Modern fake food
has always seemed a little analogous to this to me, trick-
ing the appetite with insubstantial, and perhaps danger-
ous, illusions. I’ve found the image of the dusty, damning
food of Hades useful fortifi cation in those rare moments
when I’ve been tempted by simulacra.

(page 73 of the No S Diet book)

See also:

http://www.answers.com/simulacra&r=67

Reinhard

[anndelise]

simulacra.

As in:

According to Greek mythology, the food
in the underworld, Hades, looks beautiful and tempting;
but when you bite into it, it tastes like dust. And then you
have to stay in the underworld forever. Modern fake food
has always seemed a little analogous to this to me, trick-
ing the appetite with insubstantial, and perhaps danger-
ous, illusions. I’ve found the image of the dusty, damning
food of Hades useful fortifi cation in those rare moments
when I’ve been tempted by simulacra.

(page 73 of the No S Diet book)

See also:

http://www.answers.com/simulacra&r=67

Reinhard

my thesaurus had simulacrum as an option, but the only 'meaning' it gave was "copy". I kept telling myself to look it up but never got around to it.

I didn't know you went into anything like types of foods (aka fake food vs real food). I guess I'll have to find your book to read it.

Have you ever considered adding an alternative fourth S? (just curious)

***

I'm wondering if perhaps a 4th S isn't quite the way to go.
With the snacks/sweets/seconds, we're moving away from those bad habits. But, say, with shovelglove, we're moving towards a good habit. There's a subtle but distinct difference between moving away from something vs moving towards something else. By viewing the more natural foods habit as a 4th S, it gives the feeling of moving away from processed foods and some of the foods we still love. But I prefer viewing the more natural foods habit as moving towards nutrition. Gaining something instead of losing something. And just like with shovelglove we can start out with just a few minutes each day, or just a few moves, we can do the same with the natural foods habits by starting out with something like a meal or a food 'group' becoming more natural and less processed. I dunno, it just seems to give more of a 'partial is acceptable' instead of an 'all or nothing' kind of thing that making it a No S might seem.

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense.

[anndelise]

So while you would probably want to limit or eliminate fast foods, you can eat the Southwestern foods you like and just follow the principles.

Funnily enough, this afternoon I was in town doing some errands, had my brother with me. We live in the northwest now, but ran into a new southwestern/local foods, restaurant. Guess where we ate lunch? Afterwards, I was all smiles and feeling very satisfied. I told my brother a littler later that it felt like I had just ate a bunch of comfort foods. He agreed (he's not the type to eat comfort foods normally, lol).

[marygrace]

Synthetic? = fake, processed, etc.

[anndelise]

Synthetic? = fake, processed, etc.

ooh, that's a good one too!
"Sin-thetic"

Wow, ok, so we've got, in no particular order...
pseudo-foods
simulated foods
synthetic foods
simulacra

hmm, they each add their own twist to the concept

[iggy]

I've been using the term "pseudo-foods" ever since starting No-S in March. I also call them sh*t foods, but pseudo is a little classier. And I'm all about classy.

[howfunisthat]

Love this conversation! I don't have much to add, except the fact that I totally agree! I absolutely believe our high cancer rate in this country is in direct coorelation to the processed foods & chemicals we eat. Our bodies just plain weren't designed to filter out massive quantities of junk.

Thanks for the great food-for-thought (pun intended).

janie

[wosnes]

Love this conversation! I don't have much to add, except the fact that I totally agree! I absolutely believe our high cancer rate in this country is in direct coorelation to the processed foods & chemicals we eat. Our bodies just plain weren't designed to filter out massive quantities of junk.

Thanks for the great food-for-thought (pun intended).

janie

I agree. I know a number of people who think its animal products and/or added fats, but more and more I believe it's a lot more related to chemical additives and such. Having said that, I think factory-farmed animal products may indeed be hazardous to our health. Grass-fed, free range organic animal products that haven't been raised on antibiotics and hormones DO cost more. But I think that they taste better and are better for us. And it leads us to one of Pollan's principes: Pay more. Eat less.

[anndelise]

I agree. I know a number of people who think its animal products and/or added fats, but more and more I believe it's a lot more related to chemical additives and such. Having said that, I think factory-farmed animal products may indeed be hazardous to our health. Grass-fed, free range organic animal products that haven't been raised on antibiotics and hormones DO cost more. But I think that they taste better and are better for us. And it leads us to one of Pollan's principes: Pay more. Eat less.

Yesterday I was buying milk for my daughter's morning breakfast shake (banana, fruit/cocoa powder, milk). I saw organic milk as being one of the options, but for the boxy container it was $1 more. I wasn't quite sure what organic meant in terms of milk and cheese and such. But thankfully the store had it listed on the price tag as including not eating anything with pesticides and such, as well as no artificial hormones and such. Yeah, I'm willing to pay $1 more to keep that stuff out of our bodies.

(Surprisingly, the organic cottage cheese was only 50 cents more than nonorganic.)

[wosnes]

I'm not so sure that foods that are altered to be lower in fat or no- fat, low-carb and artificial -- designed to be "healthier" -- aren't part of the problem as well. When one thing is removed, something usually has to be added to maintain taste and mouth-feel. That "something" is often chemicals.

[wosnes]

If you're looking to avoid pseudo- or synthetic foods, check this out:
http://blog.cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/

Also preview the introduction to his book at lulu.

[Too solid flesh]

I wasn't quite sure what organic meant in terms of milk and cheese and such. But thankfully the store had it listed on the price tag as including not eating anything with pesticides and such, as well as no artificial hormones and such.

I work on the assumption that the higher up the food chain something is, the higher the concentration of pesticides, residues etc is likely to be, and therefore the more worthwhile it is to buy organic. Therefore it is worth buying organic items like milk, cheese and eggs.

[wosnes]

Here's Culinate's Organic Top 20:
http://www.culinate.com/articles/featur ... nic_top_20

[Jammin' Jan]

Another S-word for pre-processed foods:

SuperSugarySwimminginSaturatedfatSaltyfood

[funfuture]

Another chemical that often gets overlooked is the detergent we wash our dishes, cutlery and saucepans in. Detergent just wasn't used in our grandmothers' day...

[wosnes]

Another chemical that often gets overlooked is the detergent we wash our dishes, cutlery and saucepans in. Detergent just wasn't used in our grandmothers' day...

True, but we're not eating it (or shouldn't be!!), although I'm sure the chemicals aren't good for us. I don't even remember what my mother used to wash dishes!

In Pollan's books and articles he says we shouldn't eat anything that our great-great grandmothers wouldn't recognize as food. For those of us who are baby-boomers, I really thought that eating food that we ate growing up would pretty much do it. Then I remembered a favorite recipe of mine from my mom. It came from the January 1951 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine. 5 ingredients -- 4 of which are processed foods. While I'm pretty sure that even processed foods were of better quality then (I KNOW they tasted better than they do now), it was still kind of surprising to realize how much used they were nearly 60 years ago!

So, I should look back at least to my grandmother or my great-grandmother, and my kids would need to look back to their great-grandmother or great-great grandmother. I have no idea what they cooked!

[Jammin' Jan]

My Grandma was born around 1901 in Kansas, and Grandpa in 1900 in Wisconsin. Grandma cooked oatmeal with milk, perked coffee, and squeezed oranges for juice for breakfast. Weekend breakfasts were eggs basted with bacon fat and bacon and toast alongside. For lunch we had things like meat sandwiches, Jello salad, tuna salad, more milk, etc. For dinner, she made meat (not processed), canned vegetables, mashed potatoes, maybe a Jello salad with fruit or vegetables in it. Can't really remember about the desserts. Didn't use too many processed things, although Jello, canned vegetables, bacon, maybe lunchmeats, were certainly featured pretty regularly.

[jexica]

[quote="anndelise"][quote="wosnes"]... But I think that they taste better and are better for us. And it leads us to one of Pollan's principes: Pay more. Eat less.[/quote]
Yesterday I was buying milk for my daughter's morning breakfast shake (banana, fruit/cocoa powder, milk). I saw organic milk as being one of the options, but for the boxy container it was $1 more. I wasn't quite sure what organic meant in terms of milk and cheese and such. But thankfully the store had it listed on the price tag as including not eating anything with pesticides and such, as well as no artificial hormones and such. Yeah, I'm willing to pay $1 more to keep that stuff out of our bodies.

(Surprisingly, the organic cottage cheese was only 50 cents more than nonorganic.)[/quote]

I usually keep a carton of cream or half and half in the house for cooking, whipping, cocoa, etc. I've found that organic heavy cream is much, much thicker than conventional heavy cream- It's practically at whipped topping texture right out of the carton. I'm also horrified that they make such a thing as fat-free half and half. How do you make something fat free that is half cream? I've also gotten to dislike anything with "non-dairy" in the title. It all tastes like chemicals and taints anything to which you add it.

[wosnes]

... But I think that they taste better and are better for us. And it leads us to one of Pollan's principes: Pay more. Eat less.

Yesterday I was buying milk for my daughter's morning breakfast shake (banana, fruit/cocoa powder, milk). I saw organic milk as being one of the options, but for the boxy container it was $1 more. I wasn't quite sure what organic meant in terms of milk and cheese and such. But thankfully the store had it listed on the price tag as including not eating anything with pesticides and such, as well as no artificial hormones and such. Yeah, I'm willing to pay $1 more to keep that stuff out of our bodies.

(Surprisingly, the organic cottage cheese was only 50 cents more than nonorganic.)

I usually keep a carton of cream or half and half in the house for cooking, whipping, cocoa, etc. I've found that organic heavy cream is much, much thicker than conventional heavy cream- It's practically at whipped topping texture right out of the carton. I'm also horrified that they make such a thing as fat-free half and half. How do you make something fat free that is half cream? I've also gotten to dislike anything with "non-dairy" in the title. It all tastes like chemicals and taints anything to which you add it.

Well, about the fat-free half and half, my guess is that some kind of stablilizer is used. Reduced fat cottage cheese has a lot of ingredients in it that the full-fat version doesn't. Probably the same sort of ingredients.

I'm with you on the non-dairy stuff -- as well as so many other products. I had another one bite the dust over the weekend.