Processed Food
Did you ever play the game where someone makes a few statements and you have to figure out what is true and what is a lie? Here is a dietitian version of that game:
1) I eat mostly processed food.
2) I eat gluten.
3) I eat in a 12-hour window.
4) I eat a high-protein, low-carb diet.
Confession: I eat processed foods – so that’s not the lie, which I will get to in a bit. In fact, when I look at what’s on my plate, most of it is processed.
When the FDA and HHS unveiled the new - inverted! - food guide pyramid this year, one of the key points was to eat whole foods, versus processed, refined foods. I completely agreed! But I’m starting to rethink it a little. Not the concept, exactly, but how I talk about it.
We all eat a lot of processed foods. Unless you are just picking berries from a bush and popping them in your mouth, you are likely eating processed food too. Washing, coring and slicing an apple is a simple form of processing. Frying an egg is processing. Drying or fermenting foods to preserve them both fall under processing. I don’t want to get too in the weeds about this, but maybe the way we talk about processed food needs to be a little more nuanced - honest, even - so that we don’t vilify perfectly good, processed foods, while educating on how bad refined, ultra-processed foods have become.
Recently, when I was chatting with some colleagues they pointed out that with certain conditions (in this case, forms of artery compression syndrome called MALS, or Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome) doctors recommend processed food. I wanted to respond that refined, processed food isn’t the answer, because the word “processed” brought an image to my mind of all of the over-processed, packaged, chemical-laden, refined, store-bought food out there that’s completely gotten away from us. It’s often just barely food anymore! Not the home-processed, or minimally processed, foods that we have eaten for centuries. That kind of processed food still has a place on our plates.
A really big place, actually.
And when digestion is compromised—whether we’re sick, recovering from a round of antibiotics, or even when we are anxious or depressed— our gut often doesn’t work as well. Cooked, bland, or blended foods can be better tolerated. Think healing bone broths and soups. Sometimes processed food just goes down more easily.
So back to the three truths and a lie – I do eat processed foods. Mostly processed foods, in fact, but I try hard to be the one doing a lot of that processing so I know what I’m eating. I also do eat gluten, but mostly from my niece, a baker, who makes fresh-milled, organic sourdough. And I do eat in a roughly 12-hour window allowing for a natural overnight fast. What I don’t eat is a low carb diet. That is the lie. Maybe since I’m trying to eat a little more high-quality protein I have incidentally reduced carbs a bit, but there’s no limit I impose on myself, and I enjoy baked goods and fruit and starchy vegetables.
But de-vilifying carbs is a blog post for another day, and I’ll leave you today with the concept that you can enjoy wholesome, nourishing, (carefully) processed foods.