Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods - What’s the deal?

As a health coach, exercising and moving your body is my expertise. Immediately following the start of my career as a strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer, I realized movement and strength training was not enough for my athletes and clients. After diving more into my education from college concerning nutrition, and my own personal education of foods, diet, and their correlation to being behavioral habits, it soon became my favorite part of health and wellness for many personal reasons. We’ll get into my personal nutrition behavior journey in blogs to follow.

I am not an registered dietitian. I am a certified nutritionist. What's to follow are my own thoughts and findings. I do not prescribe meal plans to people. My goal is to simply educate the every day individual on how to make better choices, and create better habits nutritionally.

When I am consulting a client I like to discuss what their habits look like, more intentionally, their food habits.

How does your diet link to your emotions - if at all?

Explain.

What’s your go-to breakfast, or your go-to caffeine drink?

What times of day do you eat? Do you plan ahead?

Explain.

Are you a sweet tooth or a savory kind of person?

Do you snack a lot?

Why?

Write me a daily diary entry for 3 days telling me about the foods you eat, authentically.

This is a no-judgment zone. The 3-day journal entries give me a great idea of a client's habits, and more importantly, how to structure a plan of action to progress them towards a healthier lifestyle.

Now, focusing on whole vs. processed foods, what's the big deal? Why should we care about anything other than macros and calories?

Nutrients. Nutrients are the reason. Macros and calories matter, don't get me wrong, but nutrients are underrated. Fiber, probiotics, vitamins and minerals are a HUGE part of our health.

What’s in Processed Foods?

“Studies have found that persistent disturbance of nutrient metabolism and/or energy homeostasis, caused by either nutrient deficiency or excess, induces cellular stress leading to metabolic dysregulation and tissue damage, and eventually to development of acquired metabolic syndromes.” Chen Y, Michalak M, Agellon LB. Importance of Nutrients and Nutrient Metabolism on Human Health. Yale J Biol Med. 2018 Jun 28;91(2):95-103. PMID: 29955217; PMCID: PMC6020734.

Piggy Backing off of this excerpt from an article, ask yourself

“What do the foods you’re consuming, provide to you beneficially and wholefully, other than calories?”

“What have manufacturers added to these foods and why?”

Let’s dive into some common content benefits of whole foods:

• Iodine - helps regulate hormone levels, especially thyroid hormones

• Vitamin A - vital for skin and eye health

• Vitamin D - bone growth and cardiovascular and nervous(nerves) health

• Zinc - provides your immune system with a much-needed boost to help fight off disease

• Folate - also referred to as vitamin B9, encourages healthy pregnancies and overall wellness in most adults

• Iron - contribute significantly to a healthy bloodstream, but it also encourages mental and physical development for young children and healthy births for expectant mothers

• Fiber - gut health promotion

• Probiotics - IBS resolution & gut health promotion

The processing of foods is measured on a spectrum. There are levels of processing from highly processed to minimally processed foods (1). Processed Foods aren’t something that you HAVE to avoid all the time, but you should not be consuming them more than 15-20% of the time on average. Processed foods are considered “bad” for you because they are typically high in(2):

• Sugar or High fructose corn syrup

• Artificial ingredients

• Artificial sugar

• Refined carbohydrates

• Trans fats

• MSG (monosodium glutamate)

• Artificial food coloring

• sodium nitrate

• Guar gum (emulsifier/thickener)

• Xanthan gum (emulsifier/thickener)

• Carrageenan (emulsifier/thickener)

• Sodium benzoate

and are typically LOW in:

• nutrients*

• fiber

It’s often common knowledge that proteins, carbs, and fats are important. Along with the balance of all 3. The game changer is however, what else are we taking in? How do our bodies break those ingredients/chemicals down? Do our bodies use those ingredients/chemicals? How do our bodies dispose of the waste from those ingredients?

Best Practices

How do we adapt with our best interest in mind, in a culture saturated with unhealthy processed foods?

Simple. Follow these guidelines:

Whole Food

/ˈhōl fo͞od/

noun

plural noun: whole foods

1. food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances. "a whole food diet"

Processed Food

/ˈpräˌsesed,ˈprōˌsesed/ - /fo͞od/

noun

plural noun: processed foods

1. a food item that has had a series of mechanical or chemical operations performed on it to change or preserve it.

"Eating processed food"