PROCESS 10: Processed Food and "Natural" Food

Do you know the difference?

This is the final instalment of my PROCESS series of essays about processed food. Thank you so much for reading and for subscribing to this newsletter. There will be no paid-only posts for the foreseeable future after this week, so if you would like to cancel your paid subscription once you’re finished reading these pieces, please do so! No hard feelings, I promise. Thanks again, Katie.

The processed food we eat today was invented for convenience. Rather than equalise the home workload among the whole family once women entered the workforce post-war, food was created to make cooking a more efficient process for them. Products were marketed towards women, who were told these processed foods and ready meals would make their lives easier. I don’t doubt that Angel Delight makes a super-rapid and delicious dessert, but I also don’t see why more of the family unit pitching in to make their own meals wasn’t as widely promoted. Can men not cook? Of course they can—as we know, they are some of the world’s top chefs. For some reason, processed foods were seen as the main and often the only option for the busy, working mother trying to have it all. God forbid someone else boil some water and peel some spuds.