Yes, exactly!

canned veggies often contain more than just the veggies... that's why they add to 'some' people heart problems (like mine)

Is the word not out on transfats? I thought they were to be avoided, but interestingly enough, what I recall from the warnings was that transfats were "worse than saturated fats," and we all know which camp that line is coming from.

But my understanding of transfats is that they are to be avoided, that the recommended amount is zero, and that this is because the chemical design of transfats causes regulation problems in our bodies so that it is read as cholesterol. (I'm flailing here, folks. Somebody help me out.) Anyway, it's something like that.

This has been an interesting thread. I'm going to quit while I'm behind.

I avoid the man'made transfats because they increase the small particle size LDL.

I honestly admit I don't know if they are good or bad for you. Maybe they're just neutral. After all, all the evidence was in on butter and eggs forty years ago. They were killers - no doubt about it. The word is now out - even in the mainstream media - that eggs might not be as bad for you as we were told, but nobody's yet willing to bite the bullet and redeem butter. However, how many people here believe that butter and eggs are bad for you?

Okay, I can get behind this assertion. It was in fact reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and I take it that is a peer-reviewed journal, which gives it credibility.

The study contrasted the findings between what transfats did to LDL and what butter fat did to LDL - the butterfat made LDL particles larger, and the transfats made them smaller.

Well I actually appreciate anyone going against the grain (so to speak) of established thought; I've learned a lot from people with that kind of different perspective. But I consider 'highly processed junk food' to be descriptive; obviously it just can only be applied as appropriate.

There are highly processed foods that are not junk food. Protein powder is a good example.

And there are barely-processed foods that are junk food; e.g. you could make homemade ice cream with sugar cane and raw milk and it'd still be junk food IMO. For that matter I consider modern ultra-hybrid ultra-sugar corn to be verging on junk food and that's as unprocessed as you get, unless we can move the bar on "processing" back to botanical genetics. ;-)

The body is designed to deal with toxins, if treated right, and some degree of additives and junk, if the person is otherwise healthy, ought to not be a major problem.

Except of course that there is such a % of the population that is sensitive to various additives, preservatives, not to count the foodstuffs themselves such as grains. Now one could fairly say that does not make something junk food, just because "some" people respond to it. But to put it in a different light, let's say there is a spider and a substantial chunk of the population 'reacts' to its venom. So is it a poisonous spider? We would call it that, even if there is some % of the population that does NOT react to the venom. So I figure if there is a really substantial number of the population that are likely to react to at least one of the elements in a given food (let's say a mcD's big mac and french fries and soft drink meal), whether it is from grain, gluten, sodium, trans-fats, sugar, something else, or some combination, then it seems fair to consider it 'junk food' to me.

Maybe more relevant though, food's purpose is to provide nutrition. If we measured junk food NOT by how processed something is but by its "nutrition vs. harm or sugar" contrast, that might be a better review. By that rating, sweet corn isn't real healthy and protein powder is, even though one is unprocessed and one is highly processed.

There's also the question of the point of processing. I wrote a blog post about it (homemade processed food) saying, ok I could eat some eggs, some cream, some flax seed meal, a protein drink, and allegedly that's all healthy, so if I add all that stuff together with a couple other things and bake it, now it's a "processed" food; it certainly didn't start as a cocoa muffin. ;-) People's response to that varied. Most in my journal thought the foods pre-muffin were better for you, most on my blog either said it didn't matter or said hey whatever keeps you on plan. But I think it's a serious question because why is it ok for us to process something but not for someone prior to us to do so? Sure, if there are 14 additives and preservatives and questionable ingredients in flavorings and more being added, then I can see the concern, but if really the only thing added is a gum or something that we might use ourselves even, then what's the diff?

Not that fast food or packaged mini-donuts can fit into this category, obviously. But maybe a few foods can.

So I guess in the end I've talked myself around to agreeing with you about the 'processing' part -- I don't think processing something necessarily makes it junk food. But I do think that most foods referred to as 'highly processed junk food' -- chips and cheetos, fast food, Lil' Debbies cakes or whatever -- pretty much ARE junk food, not by nature of processing but by nature of either containing a lot of crap or not containing enough nutrition to make them worth the sugar/additive load the body takes on for it.

the movie is master of the obvious IF YOU EAT MCDONALDS EVERYDAY, UNRESTRICTED, FOR EVERY MEAL--YOUR GONNA GET SICK AND BE IN POOR HEALTH---OMG SURPRISING!!!!!!!
TO ME THE MOVIE IS STUPID----EVERYONE IN THE WORLD KNEW THIS ALREADY

Well yeah, everyone knew it, sure. But no one really saw exactly what could happen if you ate that much of it. Its pretty interesting really that fast food can give you fatty liver, something that usually only happens to obese people or people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol. The man in the movie was neither obese or an alcoholic, so it was pretty strange. The movie was about more than eating McDonald's and getting sick, it was about how our country has become so dependent on places like McDonald's because of their stupid busy lives and they can't go home and cook a meal, and that they are actually feeding their children this food. That's what it was truly about, what we are putting our bodies through. I never, EVER, went to McDonald's or any other fast food joint and thought "Hey I bet if I ate a lot of this, I'd get fatty liver and die soon!".. No, I thought "Man, I'm a little late for work, I need to pick up something" but instead of getting a salad like I should have, I'd get a few double cheeseburgers. So yeah, we knew what would happen, but there was a little more to the story.

ur not gonna get sick if u EAT mccdonald's once a month--or every once in a great while---the dude in the movie ate it every day for every meal for 30 days straight-----------of course noone knew exactly what the results would be---(EVERYONE KNEW IT WASNT GONNA BE GOOD THOUGH) BECAUSE NOONE IS THAT STUPID AS TO EAT IT EVERYDAY FOR EVERY MEAL--------EVEN THE FATTEST PIG IN THE WORLD DOESNT GO TO MCCDONALD'S EVERYDAY FOR EVERY MEAL-----CMON THE MOVIE IS STUPID---

There really are people that eat McDonalds.. every single day. Maybe not for all three meals, but my fiance eats some sort of fast food every day when he works, which is 5 days a week. Whether its McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc. He eats it every day. Of course, he hasn't gained any weight because he's one of the 'lucky ones' I guess, but people do eat it every day, just not every meal, thank goodness.

Yep, I know a lot of people at work who eat it every day, too. Not always Mcdonald's, but EVERYDAY they do eat fast food... sometimes twice a day. I know my husband eats it 3 or 4 times a week STILL!

few people eat it everyday---(my opinion)---maybe a couple times a week---but few every single day-----BUT these people know full well that this is very bad for them----they dont need some dope to produce a movie to know this-

ITS OBVIOUS EVERYONE KNEW THIS BEFORE AND THEY KNOW IT NOW!!!!---

Okay.. lets cut down on the all caps here. No one knew you could get a fatty liver from eating McDonald's. Sure people knew you could get fat, but fatty liver? No. People were surprised because of that and because he got so unhealthy in such a short amount of time. Not only that, but what about the McDonald's burgers and fries (and mostly the fries) that stayed mold free longer than the other burgers and fries.

A fatty liver!!!!!!!!!! damn that has awakened everyones eyes------now everyone realizes how bad mccdonald's is--------please----if you asked anyone in the world "do u think its possible, to get a fatty liver if u ate Mccdonald's everyday for every meal for 30 days straight?"-------UM I'M SURE YOU WOULD GET MANY YESES------people just dont think of that everyday----my point is--the movie is stupid--people knew these things already--albeit in a general way------JUST STOP!!!! WILL YA!!