I am busy and do not have time to prepare and cook, so I often buy processed foods to eat, but I wonder if processed foods lose their nutrients? (Ngan, 33 years old, Hanoi).
Reply:
In fact, no single food can provide enough nutrients for the body’s needs. Therefore, you need to combine eating many types of food and regularly change dishes to provide enough nutrients, meeting the body’s complex nutritional needs.
Every day, each person needs to eat at least 15 types of food representing 4 groups: starch, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals.
Processed and packaged foods are increasingly becoming a trend in meals because of their convenience, especially among young people.
The nutritional content of processed foods certainly changes during processing and storage. Specifically, this content will decrease compared to the original raw materials. For example, foods containing vitamins A and C can lose these vitamins just by being exposed to light. The heating process (taking food from cold temperatures to the outside) also loses vitamin content. In addition, depending on the processing method, the nutritional content will also gradually decrease over time.
However, the manufacturer of processed foods will evaluate and monitor the nutritional content of the food after processing, thereby announcing the storage and use time along with the nutritional content. That is, users can recognize the nutritional content of the food through the information printed on the product packaging, and preserve it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Opened food does not have a shelf life as stated on the packaging label, but should be used within one week of opening.
You should choose processed foods from reputable brands, fully labeled on the packaging, reduce sugar and salt. In your meals, you should combine raw foods, minimal processing and increase fiber.