Good afternoon!
I’m not sure the outcome you are actually searching for, because based on some of your replies to several of the other forum members below/ above, you don’t seem all that interested in learning anything about the dangers of processed foods. My wife is a Nutritionist and as such I have learned more than I could possibly share in this venue about food. I’m wondering why you haven’t offered any “facts” about the value(s) of processed foods? Instead of asking all of us to disprove your position, why don’t you convince those who have chosen to engage why they’re wrong without using meaningless labels?
Oh, one point you’ve made that seems pretty reasonable… in the context of high intensity sport, you are likely correct that processed fuel sources are probably the best option to get the most out of ourselves. But stop using that line of thinking to try and justify those choices when not exercising/ performing… it feels like the popular American political debate point… that’s “good” because it isn’t “this!” That is nonsensical thinking…
Take care!!
Hey DuncanM23,
Have you heard of Alzheimer’s being described as Type 3 Diabetes? Google it… non wikipedia!
Doesn’t seem conclusive:
In 2008, researchers from Brown University, Dr Suzanne de la Monte and Dr Jack Wands, put forward a proposal that Alzheimer’s disease could be termed type 3 diabetes.
The reasoning is based on the fact that insulin resistance within the brain was shown to be a feature of Alzheimer’s disease.
While this has been proposed, major health organisations do not recognise Alzheimer’s disease as a type of diabetes within their classifications.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/type3-diabetes.html - not wikipedia.
Risk factors for Alzheimers seem many and varied (includes, but doesn’t put any emphasis on diet). https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/types-dementia/who-gets-alzheimers-disease#content-start
A quick google couldn’t find much about the incidence of Alzheimers disconnected from the ageing population ( numbers are projected to grow significantly as the population ages).
In general, I don’t think anyone is going to disagree with Michael Pollan:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
My wife is coeliac, so we have a gluten free house. The stuff that gets put into “free from” foods to allow them to mimic regular food is amazing, yet the market is booming because people think that they are healthy. It’s part of the same process of taking something that’s quite simple for most people (Michael Pollen) and turning it into a lifestyle that you can sell (also see the number of people driving to the gym so they can run on a treadmill). This one comes free with the ability to look down on anyone feeding themselves or their kids processed food. I’m not saying that’s what people are doing here - this place seems far more concerned with fundamentals than that, but it’s part of the general and press discussion around processed food, and it really winds me up.
In summary - “Clean Eating” Bah! 
Good luck with the thread, as I’ve found that people are very fundamentalist/ evangelical when it comes to diet(s) and food, when there isn’t (or maybe because there isn’t) a whole lot of science to back their view.
So much “research” which “may” show a link between food groups is skewed by wider lifestyle and dietary factors to narrow it down just to one element of diet.
My personal view is that the only reason to totally exclude a food, or food group, from your diet is that it makes you ill or you don’t like it. It’s overall diet that matters, and yes that should be predominantly whole or unprocessed foods. It doesn’t mean you have to punish yourself by having something “bad” or being miserable due to you wanting, but not eating something - to me this is just a way towards an unhealthy relationship with food.
I like dates, have used them on the bike (and as a nice sweet treat off it - lovely frozen!), but ramming them down my throat as fuel in my n=1 experience is just as unnatural as a gel or carb mix or a jelly baby.
I literally NEVER said that, nor did I say processed foods were healthier, so don’t put words in my mouth. I asked people to post how they feel about processed foods and back it up with some science because a lot of the arguments I’d seen were based on nothing but fear mongering. And as far as asking people to “disprove my position”, again, nonsense, because I never took a position at all, rather asked people to explain theirs and back it up. And literally only 2-3 people posted actual data, others just made some wild claims about stores being stocked with poison and then said “prove me wrong”. Not sure why you bring up “American political debate point” either because this literally has nothing to with politics or being American
Lot of people came in here with the “I know so much I couldn’t begin to explain” which is a great way of disguise themselves for not knowing anything. If your wife is a nutritionist and you’ve learned so much, surely you have something of value to add.
You need to move past this point. One person said it and it was clearly hyperbole. But your continued focus on that one sentence, despite the numerous links other people have posted, is derailing any discussion you are trying to have.
My wife has Celiac as well… we also have allergies to egg/ soy/ dairy (me too on these), so processed food is basically out, period. Regarding the Alzheimer’s thing, my wife is finishing her degree as a Master Nutritionist, so frankly I don’t expect Google to outperform her education… or we’ve been had. 
Ok, despite yourself you’ve actual proved several of my points…
Not sure why you’d ask “if my wife is a nutritionist” (certainly implying I’m lying), but she is, and I have learned a bunch, and an online forum is not the place to try and regurgitate what she’s imparted on me. I’m a 25 year paramedic and have a tough time keeping up with all the microbiology and physiology she’s been sharing…
Take care!
I view nutrition very similarly to Pascal’s Wager, but change the axis whatever the specific thing is
Obviously there is a very wide variance in the amount of evidence for how certain nutrients affect your body. Alcohol has a ton of evidence where too much is bad for you (you die) and there is limited to no evidence it’s beneficial.
Since the “eternal question” for nutrition is very difficult to answer, especially from an individual response perspective, I simply want to maximize the amount of time I spent on the top half of the chart, and minimize the amount of time I spend on the bottom half of the chart.
Not sure where you are, but in the UK, there is a significant range of products that are free from gluten, dairy and nuts. I suspect finding ones that are also free from soya might be harder (or impossible if vegetarian), but if you wanted you could buy processed food here should you want to! Some of it even tastes nice (whatever you do don’t eat the gf pizza with vegetarian cheese - it’s cardboard with napalm on top!)!
When you look at the nutritional information for many products, it’s clear that they need to add sugar and fat to make the gf version resemble in any way the regular version, with the result that people think they are being healthy by doing “free from” and actually doing the opposite!
That’s a cool mug. To be fair, hawkeye literally told me to google it. 
Thanks, Duncan!
I’m in the US, Washington State, between Seattle and Portland, OR (closer to Seattle). Since my wife and I aren’t “vegetarian” or “vegan” we eat a lot of goat cheese! We joke that when we do eat out (very rarely and selective) that we are carnivorous vegans, no soy!
Looks like veggie hearts explode just as frequently as meaty hearts.
Higher adherence to a healthy plant‐based diet index was associated with a 19% and 11% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality and all‐cause mortality, respectively, but not incident cardiovascular disease ( P <0.05 for trend).
do you even take time to read, or just post willy nilly?
I don’t know who Willy Nilly is but we probably read a lot of the same stuff. 
It’s unfortunate that the discussion has sunk into the morass. Food, not unlike religion, politics, etc. is such a highly personal aspect of one’s life, it’s not surprising by the amount of passion seen on this thread. To think that wouldn’t bubble up in the discussion is naïve.
We’re like minded individuals in that we workout, train, compete/participate and try to be healthy and fitness conscious people as much as possible.
Maintain a healthy perspective, be open to various points of view, do what works for you and more importantly never take yourself too seriously.
This is true of most topics related to health - be it training (Polarized!!! Sweet spot!!! 4DP!!! FTP!!!), nutrition (No gluten!!! Keto!!! Carbs!!! No sugar!!!), philosophical/mental attitudes (Religion!!! Meditation!!!), aging (Testosterone!!! Let it happen!!! Surgery!!!), name it.
It’s simple: these topics affect us directly, so what we believe is part of who we are. It’s somewhat strange that politics end up the same - but this is really much stronger in the US than elsewhere, as far as I can see.
Ego, the deadliest man-made product.
