How to Eat “Healthy” in a World Full of Processed Foods
Our world is full of processed foods, and that’s good or bad. It would be easy for me to sit behind my keyboard and advise you to avoid them and eat foods as they naturally occur: apples, not apple pie. But just because something is “processed” (whatever that means) doesn’t automatically make it unhealthy. It’s time to let go of the guilt and acknowledge that sometimes we eat processed foods—and maybe then we’ll realize it’s not so bad after all.
Don’t get hung up on the degree of processing of a particular product.
This is where it gets tricky: defining processed foods. Doritos are processed. That’s easy. Raw potatoes with dirt on them are unprocessed. So far, so good. But if we wash those potatoes, boil them, maybe peel them too… mix them with butter and garlic (and then more butter and more garlic)—oh, oh. That’s a processed food of sorts, right? But not quite processed, you might say. There’s a whole spectrum, and if you dig a potato out of the ground and boil it in your kitchen, it’s still considered acceptable.
The problem arises when you try to draw the line between processed and unprocessed foods. Where does a beef steak fit in? Frozen vegetables? Canned beans? Bread baked by a local baker? Bread baked in a factory?
This is a complex task, and no single definition will satisfy everyone. Perhaps the most popular is the NOVA model for determining what is processed and what is “ultra-processed.” I wrote in more detail about NOVA here and why I believe it is flawed. As a tool for studying food systems, it can be useful. But it doesn’t tell us which foods are the healthiest.
Of course, processing sugar requires much more labor and equipment than harvesting and extracting honey , but that’s largely irrelevant to the question of which is healthier. There’s no significant difference in nutritional value between the two. At its most extreme, the “processed is bad” mentality would eliminate a multitude of foods from the diet that shouldn’t be off-limits. Frozen vegetables are just as healthy as fresh ones, and sometimes even healthier . Pasteurized milk is processed, and for the better . There’s no compelling reason to give up ready-made pasta sauces, packaged egg whites, or rotisserie chicken. But wait, you say. Those are healthy processed foods. What about Twinkies? Doritos? McDonald’s? Hungry Man?
Figure out what’s important to you in food and let go of the rest.
If some of the names on this list scare you, you probably have a reason: sugar, or “chemicals” (we’ll get to that later), or high-calorie portions, or high fat content. Before deciding you should avoid highly processed foods, take a moment to consider what’s truly important to achieving your health goals.
Here are the most common accusations against processed foods and tips on how to avoid them:
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They’re high in sugar, which most of us consume in excess . This is easy to spot by looking at the label. There’s a section dedicated to sugar, but more importantly, since around 2020, there’s also a section dedicated to added sugar . This is what you should pay more attention to.
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They’re high in sodium. Many of them contain: highly processed foods are a larger source of sodium in our diet than what we add during cooking or sprinkle in a salt shaker. Meats and restaurant food are major sources. (For some reason, I constantly hear people say that soda is high in sodium. This is not true—a bottle of Coke contains only 3% of the daily value.) You can find the sodium content by looking at the appropriate line in the nutrition facts table.
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They’re high in fat. This applies to fatty snacks like chips and often to restaurant meals. Fat isn’t always bad: it’s satiating and arguably less harmful than sugar. Fats are listed on the nutrition facts label, along with their subcategories: saturated fat ( probably not so bad ) and trans fat. No one likes trans fats , but they’re quickly disappearing even from processed foods.
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They spike blood sugar . High-carb foods that digest quickly can spike blood sugar, which isn’t great if you’re watching your glucose levels. (On the other hand, it’s good if you’re an athlete looking for energy for your workouts .) For example, foods like Twizzlers and pretzels fit this description. Anything high in fat, like potato chips, actually has a lower glycemic index because fat slows digestion.
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They’re addictive. I’m afraid there’s no special label for that. Companies love to make money, so they’ll do everything they can to keep you coming back for more. Some ready-to-eat fast foods, like chips and chocolate bars, are devilishly well-designed. Their signature trick is a combination of high fat and sugar, often with added salt. Basically, you can tell which ones are these by the empty wrappers you’ve got piling up in your house.
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They’re full of “chemicals.” Of course, everything is made of chemicals; chemistry is just the science of atoms and molecules. True, some products have long ingredient lists, and many of them are difficult to write or pronounce. But there’s no correlation between how difficult a name is to read and whether it refers to something dangerous. After all, ascorbic acid and tocopherols are used as preservatives and look rather cryptic on labels, but they’re just the technical names for vitamins C and E. (They’re antioxidants in your body and in food.) Dyes, flavors, and preservatives aren’t necessarily harmful. Even those that have sparked controversy are likely still safe.
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They’re bad for the environment and/or the economy. This is a situation where you have to “vote with your fork” (or, you know, your orange-juice-stained fingers). If you don’t like buying products from big companies and would rather spend your money at the bakery down the street than at Nabisco, then by all means, make that choice. Or maybe you’re outraged by the abundance of plastic packaging and the carbon footprint of all the trucks that deliver ingredients to the processing plant and from there to you. Just remember: food doesn’t automatically become bad for you just because its producer is greedy or wasteful.
With these factors in mind, you can now wander the grocery store aisles (or tally up your favorite fast food item ) with a clearer idea of what, if anything, you’re trying to avoid. For example, if you’re trying to avoid sugar, you might have to give up that super-healthy-looking fruity agave drink, but you can eat as many pork rinds as you like… if you like them.
Now that you have a plan, it’s time to figure out how to implement it. If you often find yourself hungry at work with nothing but the contents of the vending machine at hand, now you have a way to appreciate what’s in that machine instead of writing it off as bad, wrong, and awful, and then feeling guilty when you’re so hungry you give in and buy a Snickers bar.
For example, a bag of mixed nuts and spices might be a good choice at the vending machine if you’re trying to avoid sugar, but it’s high in fat. A Lunchable at the gas station might be highly processed, but it’s packed with protein and won’t give you a carb crash—unlike, say, a bag of Pop-Tarts.
Of course, the best plan is to avoid buying any processed foods at all. But how many of us can cook every meal from scratch? That’s where those processed yet still healthy foods we talked about earlier come in handy: rotisserie chicken, for example. Frozen meatballs and jarred sauce make for a quick spaghetti dinner that doubles as lunch tomorrow. You get the idea. Here I offer some tips on how to start eating healthy , and here is a meal prep guide for the average person who doesn’t want to spend all weekend cooking.
It would be great to cook every meal from scratch, using free-range and wild-harvested lentils, but not everyone has the time. Sure, at some points in history, people did, but it was part of their job as housewives or farmers. Today, cooking every meal from scratch has become more of a hobby—wonderful, but not necessary for everyone. We live in a world full of processed foods, and it’s perfectly okay to embrace them—carefully and thoughtfully.