Healthy vs. Highly Processed Food: What to Know
- Coach ❤️Theah
- Feb 20, 2023
- 4 min read
A checklist to help you discover the difference between processed and ultra-processed foods for better health:
Navigating the noise around processed and ultra-processed food makes eating a healthy meal
feel almost too stressful to bother. But nearly 58% of calories eaten in the US come from Ultra-processed foods, making them the primary energy source of those countries. The worse news is that higher consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with a 79% and 30% substantial risk of obesity and abdominal obesity, increasing the risk factor for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal conditions and cancer.
Knowing what foods get grouped as ultra-processed can help us prioritize our focus for better nutrition and overall health.
The four groups are:
1. Unprocessed and minimally processed
2. Processed culinary ingredients
3. Processed
4. Ultra-processed
Use this checklist to spot the difference between minimally processed, processed, and ultra-processed foods and discover a calming sense of understanding around food labeling.
Group #1 - Unprocessed & Minimally Processed
Target 80% of your diet in this area
Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are whole-foods with intact vitamins and nutrients, often in natural or nearly natural conditions.
Unprocessed or natural foods are taken directly from plants or animals and do not get altered following their removal from nature.
Minimally processed foods get modified by removing inedible parts, drying, fermentation, crushing, roasting, boiling, freezing, or pasteurizing to make them appropriate to store and safe to ingest. That process does not add oils, fats, sugar, salt, or other substances to the original food.
❤️Fruit ❤️Fish (wild caught)
❤️Vegetables ❤️Dairy (Organic / full fat)
❤️Nuts ❤️Meat (prefer grass-fed/grass finished)
❤️Seeds
❤️Eggs (Pasture Raised Organic)
❤️Tea (all types) ❤️Coffee
❤️Spices ❤️Dried herbs
❤️Tap, spring, and mineral water
Group #2 - Processed Culinary Ingredients
Consider this group "In Moderation" 10% of diet
Processed culinary ingredients are products extracted from natural foods or nature by
pressing, grinding, crushing, pulverizing, and refining. As long as they get used in moderation in culinary preparations based on natural or minimally processed foods, they can contribute
to eclectic and delicious diets without rendering them nutritionally unbalanced. But some can be highly processed, such as rancid vegetable oil, or derived from low-quality sources, damaging our health. Try and choose high-quality culinary ingredients.
❤️Olive oil ❤️Avocado Oil
❤️Coconut OIl ❤️Coconut Butter
❤️Nut Butters ❤️Seed Butters (sunflower /tahini)
❤️Vinegar (Red Wine, Coconut, Apple Cider)
❤️Butter ❤️Ghee
What to avoid
🚫Seed Oils
🚫Sugar
Group #3 - Processed
Consider this group "limit"
Processed foods change from their natural state by adding salt, oil, sugar, or other enhancer substances. Processed foods often have two or three ingredients. It can be easy to forget that freshly made, crusty artisan sourdough and canned chickpeas are still processed, containing multiple ingredients.
❤️Canned Fruit in Syrup ❤️Canned fish, with added preservatives
❤️Cured meats ❤️Canned or bottled legumes or vegetables
❤️Nut Butters ❤️Beer
❤️Bread
❤️Condiments with added sugar
When Shopping Look For:
❤️Non GMO ❤️Gluten Free
❤️No Added Nitrates
❤️No added sugar
When reading ingredients avoid:
🚫Dextrose
🚫added Sugar
🚫Sucralose
🚫MSG
Ingredients you don't know
Group #4 - Ultra - Processed
Consider this group "avoid"
Ultra-processed foods include substances extracted from other foods, such as fats, starches, added sugars, and hydrogenated fats. They may also contain synthetic additives like artificial colors and flavors or stabilizers. These foods include soft drinks, frozen meals, processed meat, fast food, packaged cookies, cakes, and salty snacks. Studies show that nutrient availability in the small intestine is affected when food is ultra-processed because the food's plant properties and animal cells get altered. Destructive health issues arise when ultra-processed foods replace unprocessed and minimally processed foods that contain vital nutrients for your health. It can be easy to spot ultra-processed foods because they usually contain numerous ingredients you'd never use in your kitchen. But repeatedly, ultra-processed foods get disguised in everyday foods we take for granted.
🚫 Fatty, sweet, savory, or salty packaged snacks
🚫 Biscuits (cookies)
🚫 Ice creams and frozen desserts
🚫 Chocolates, candies, & confectionery in general
🚫 Cola, soda, and other carbonated soft drinks
🚫 'Energy' and sports drinks
🚫 Canned or packaged or dehydrated (powdered), & other 'instant' soups, noodles, sauces, desserts, drink mixes, and seasonings
🚫 Sweetened & flavored yogurts, including fruit yogurts
🚫 Dairy drinks, including chocolate milk
🚫 Sweetened juices
🚫 Margarine & spreads
🚫 Pre-prepared pizza and pasta dishes
🚫 Pre-prepared burgers, hot dogs, sausages
🚫 Pre-prepared poultry & fish 'nuggets' & 'sticks'
🚫 Other animal products made from remnants
🚫 Packaged bread, hamburgers, & hot dog buns,
🚫 Baked products containing ingredients such as hydrogenated vegetable fat, sugar, yeast, whey, emulsifiers, and other additives
🚫 Breakfast cereals and bars
🚫 Infant formulas and adult meal replacement shake (e.g., 'slim fast.')
🚫 Pastries, cakes, and cake mixes
For items in this category - make them at home with healthy ingredients:
❤️Homemade ice cream with organic milk and natural sweatener
❤️Homemade pizza with gluten free crust or low carb cauliflower crust
❤️Dark Chocolate with stevia or monk fruit
❤️Baked good with heart healthy fats
How To Quickly Identify Ultra-Processed Food
❓ Does it list salt or sugar as the second ingredient in a long list of unrecognizable ingredients?
❓Does it contain high-fructose corn syrup?
❓Does it contain hydrogenated oils?
❓Does it have aggressive branding and marketing throughout the store?
❓Does it contain additives designed to make the final product palatable or more appealing (such as flavors, flavor enhancers, colors, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners, and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling, and glazing agents)?
Coach Theah healthy SWAP list
💞Swap sugary breakfast cereals for bacon & eggs
💞Swap sweetened yogurt for plain or Greek yogurt - sweeten with stevia or monk fruit or fresh berries
💞Swap frozen pizza for homemade pizza
💞Swap chicken nuggets for homemade crumbed chicken - check out my chicken finger recipe
💞Swap frozen sweet potato wedges for fresh sweet potato cut into wedges, sprinkled with paprika, and baked in the oven or my zucchini fries
💞Swap potato chips for plain air-popped popcorn (orgnaic non-gmo) - brand: Lesser Evil
💞Swap soft drink for mineral water infused with a squeeze of lime, lemon or crushed strawberries, raspberries or added electrolytes
💞Swap mayonnaise for avocado with a squeeze of lemon or mayo made with avocado oil
💞Swap energy snack bars for mixed unsalted nuts.
Other posts that you might find helpful:
Aim to consume mostly natural and or minimally processed foods (group one) and freshly made meals. Be wary but not fearful of processed foods (groups two and three), and always read food labels now that you know the dynamic range of good and bad foods in that group.
Avoid or limit ultra-processed foods (group four) when possible to have the most positive impact on your health and longevity.
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