The Truth on Your Plate - Processed vs. Ultra-Processed Foods

Today, we're demystifying the labels in your pantry. We've all been told to avoid "ultra-processed foods" (UPFs), but what does that actually mean? Almost all food is processed for safety, but there's a massive difference between a bag of frozen strawberries and a chemistry project masquerading as a protein bar.

In this episode, we explore:

• The Four Categories: From minimally processed whole foods to the industrial formulations designed for profit, not health.
• The Bliss Point: How food scientists override your brain's full signal to create hyper-palatable addiction.
• Systemic Inflammation: Why your stiff joints might actually start in the middle aisles of the grocery store.
• Simple Lifestyle Shifts: My favorite strategies, like the Five-Ingredient Rule and the Swap, Don't Stop method, to reclaim your energy.

Your refrigerator should be your medicine cabinet. This week, I challenge you to swap just one UPF for a whole-food alternative. You have the power to influence the inflammation in your body. You can do this! Stay Healthy California 

References:

1. Monteiro, C. A., et al. (2019). The UN FAO report on Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health. 2. Cell Metabolism. (2019). Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain. (The Hall et al. Study).
2. British Medical Journal (BMJ). (2024). Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes.
3. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Distinguishing between processed and ultra-processed.

Thank you for listening to Healthy California.

If you have tried all my suggestions and are still having trouble with your health, and would like an appointment with me, please email me, text, or call me via the contact information below.

My contact:

Linda Brown, MPT, Doctoral Candidate Functional Nutrition

916-426-2543

linda@heal-throughfood.com

www.heal-throughfood.com

Transcript

Hello, and welcome back, everyone. This is Linda Brown. I am your physical therapist, functional nutritionist, educator, coach, and host of Healthy California. Thank you for joining me today.

00:01:27

With over 20 years as a PT and functional nutritionist, I see health a little differently than most. I see how your health is affected by how you move, how you eat, how you hydrate, breathe, sleep, and manage stress. Everything is connected. It's all connected. That's really the most important takeaway from my podcast, and that's why I'm so passionate about it, because it's all connected. 

00:01:54

I come to you from the standpoint of a physical therapist and a functional nutritionist. And so today, we are going to talk about a topic that shows up on our plates every single day, or rather not our plate, but it shows up in our food. And it can be kind of a confusing topic, but I want to talk about the difference between processed and ultra-processed foods. It's part of the new food pyramid. They say not to eat ultra-processed foods.

00:02:22

So what's the difference? What's the difference between processed and ultra-processed foods? So by the end of this episode, I want you to know exactly how to tell the difference, why your body reacts to them so differently, and how to make better life choices or better life decisions without feeling like you have to live on a farm or eat right off of a tree just to be healthy. So grab some water or a cup of tea and let's get into it.

00:02:51

First, let's be clear about something. Almost all food is processed to some degree, unless you literally walk out your door and grab something off of a tree, or you pick an egg out of your backyard or gather milk. If you don't walk out your back door to get your food, then you are probably getting some sort of a processed food.

00:03:12

If you cook it, chop it, freeze it, then you've processed it, right? If you bought it, it's probably processed. But there is a massive difference between processing for safety and ultra-processing for profit. The key is avoiding processing altogether. And it's understanding the scale, the difference between them. So to make better decisions, I like to think of food in four types of categories, 4 categories.

00:03:37

 There is minimally processed, and this is like the base. This is, think of like whole foods, the produce section, vegetables, eggs, milk. The processing in milk is just there to make it safe for you and easier for you to get it straight from the cow to your refrigerator. So it's minimally processed, but there is, there has to be some sort of processing to get it from the farm to fork, right?

00:04:07

And then there's processed for culinary ingredients. It's still minimally processed. These are things we don't usually eat by themselves. So like olive oil, butter, sugar, salt. They're pressed or ground or refined to help things taste better, but still everyday ingredients you would find in your kitchen. So they are ingredients you would normally find in a kitchen. Think of it that way. That's culinary ingredients.

00:04:34

And then the third category is processed foods. And this is kind of where it starts to get interesting. These are usually whole foods with a few added ingredients. So think canned beans with just salt and water or freshly baked bread from a store. So these are still great staples, but still had to have a machine to put it together. They weren't prepared in a kitchen, let's just say.

00:05:02

And they're packaged to have a shelf life. So they do have an expiration date. That's kind of confusing because milk and butter also have an expiration date. The difference is milk is prepared to get from cow to refrigerator. But canned beans aren't prepared, they're manufactured. So there's machines putting that whole thing together. Same thing with Wonder Bread or packaged breads that have a lot of ingredients. So that's processed foods.

00:05:32

And then the ultra-processed foods, this is what we have to watch out for. These aren't just modified foods, they're industrial formulations. If you look at the label, you'll see ingredients you don't find in your kitchen. You wouldn't find these ingredients in your kitchen, like emulsifiers, or hydrogenated oils, or high fructose corn syrup, or flavor enhancers, disodium sulfate. I mean, does anyone know where you would buy that at the store and why you would have it in your kitchen? No, probably not.

00:06:02

Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations and they are made to taste good. They're formulated to taste good so that they can sell for profit. So let's get into that a little bit more. So why does all that matter? The reason you should start shifting away from ultra-processed options isn't just about calories. I don't want you to think about calories because it's not about calories, it's about health. 

00:06:31

Calories is something you have to worry about when you're eating processed or ultra-processed foods. If you're eating unprocessed or minimally processed foods, you usually don't worry about calories. You can pretty much eat like salads and apples and nuts without worrying about calories because they're filling. And we don't count those calories unless you are counting calories because you have other processed foods in your diet.

00:06:58

So it's really about how these ultra-processed foods interact with our bodies. Ultra-processed foods are designed to be hyper-palatable, meaning they hit our brain's reward centers in a way that really makes it hard to stop eating. It's a reward center. Every time we eat it, just is so good. So they're designed that way. They also tend to be lower in fiber and protein, and I have had podcasts on fiber and protein and why it's so important, so go back and look at those.

00:07:28

And fiber and protein are foods that make us feel full and actually make us healthy and make our gut healthy. Ultra-processed foods do not. There's no nutritional value to them, even if they say healthy on the package. If anything has to say that it's healthy, that has to tell you that they're healthy, it's probably not healthy. Does an egg say that it's healthy? Does a broccoli have to have the word healthy on it? 

00:07:55

No. So if it has to convince you somehow that it's healthy, it's probably not healthy. You shouldn't have to be convinced. So scientists in the food industry use something called the bliss point, and that's the perfect ratio of salt, sugar, and fat. And that overrides your brain's signal saying that you're full. When you eat an apple, your body registers the fiber and the nutrients, and that's a good thing.

00:08:24

When you eat fruit leather, which is an ultra-processed food, your blood sugar spikes, your insulin goes up, and your brain says it tastes good and wants more. Fruit leather and an apple might still have the same types of vitamins and minerals. I don't know about fruit leather, but fruit leather is ultra-processed, so you're not going to get the same fiber content from it.

00:08:48

and it's going to spike your blood sugar. So that's a good example of how something might say healthy or might seem healthy because it's fruit, right? It's just dehydrated fruit rolled up into a little leather thing, but it's not going to be healthy for you. So, and I see the results of this every day. Systemic inflammation. That's the result of eating ultra-processed food. Systemic inflammation.

00:09:14

I mention inflammation a lot because it is the cause of most chronic diseases, if not all chronic diseases. So ultra-processed foods are often loaded with industrial seed oils, such as soybean or canola oil. They're all high in omega-6 fatty acids, and we want more omega-3 fatty acids in our diets, like what you would get from fish.

00:09:37

And I've mentioned this before, too much omega-6 without enough omega-3 creates an inflammatory environment. And that includes, you know, the achy joints and the gut dysbiosis. So we need to have more omega-3s, less omega-6s, and in ultra-processed foods, there are more omega-6. If your knees ache and your back is stiff,

00:10:03

The first place I look as a physical therapist and a functional nutritionist is your pantry, not necessarily your movement. And I talked about arthritis last week, I think. So go back to that episode if you want to know more about aches and pains in your body. A lot of times it's controlled by your pantry and you should think of your refrigerator as your medicine cabinet. So how do you make better decisions?

00:10:30

So I don't believe in diets. I believe in lifestyle shifts. If I told you today to never eat another ultra-processed food, well, you'd probably stop listening to me. It's nearly impossible in the modern world to stop eating ultra-processed foods. And I'm not expecting that 100%. Making changes doesn't have to happen overnight.

00:10:53

When you rid yourself of sugar, your body will get used to not having sugar. And foods actually end up tasting better. When you take sugar out of your diet, your taste buds actually get heightened and things actually taste better. I know it's hard to believe. And then when you have that dessert again, everything, it's like all that sweetness, it doesn't really taste that good. It tastes too sweet. Once you get sugar out of your diet, then things start to almost taste too sweet. It's amazing.

00:11:22

So here are four easy strategies to help you make better decisions if that's what you are trying to do. Here is the first strategy, and I call it the five ingredient rule. You've probably heard this before. I try to look for labels with short ingredient lists. If a loaf of bread has 20 ingredients, many of which sound like a chemistry project, I look for the version of bread that just has flour, yeast, and salt and water. 

00:11:51

And if you have, Ezekiel bread might have sprouts and seeds, and that can add up to a lot of ingredients, and that's fine, because you know what a sprout is, you understand that ingredient, and it's natural. But if there are ingredients in there that you don't get, then don't get it. And then another strategy, #2, is shop the perimeter.

00:12:16

You may have heard this one before as well, in a store, the healthier foods are on the outside of the store, the perimeter, and all the packaged foods are in the middle. So most ultra-processed foods live in those middle aisles. They're produce like the butcher, the eggs, the produce, they're all on the edges. It's amazing how much of the store is actually in the middle. And then the third strategy would be swap don't stop. 

00:12:45

So instead of cutting out snacks, just swap them. For instance, instead of flavored ultra-processed yogurt with artificial sweeteners, grab plain Greek yogurt and add your own berries, organic berries, and a small amount of local honey. That's going to be healthier for you. Or instead of chips, they're ultra-processed and highly palatable, they're designed to make you grab another one.

00:13:13

I mean, I think Lay's actually has it in their commercials. You can never eat just one, right? And that's because that's the way it was designed. So instead of chips, try a carrot stick with hummus or a boiled egg, which is a great form of protein, or a handful of mixed nuts or fruit. The chips, don't even have it in your house. Anything that is in a package, just don't even buy it.

00:13:41

Start getting used to not even having it in the house. And I actually challenge you to do that. The next time you go to the store, don't buy anything processed. And then the 4th strategy is cook in batches. The biggest reason most people reach for ultra-processed heat and eat type of meals is convenience. So I found that spending a Sunday afternoon making a big pot of chili or try making overnight grains.

00:14:08

Having it in your refrigerator for breakfast, salad in a jar, just start making salads in a jar. You put the olive oil at the bottom and then some veggies in the salad. And so when you take it out of the jar, you just flip it over and then the salad is in your bowl and it gets covered with the dressing, the olive oil or whatever it is you have for dressing.

00:14:32

So salad in a jar, overnight grains, hard-boiled eggs in a bowl in the refrigerator that's easy to grab. Those type of things are easier. Even just take carrots and cut them up and just have them there because they're going to be convenient and easy to grab. And you'd be surprised that you're just going to grab for it because it is convenient. So those are four strategies. The 5 ingredient rule, shop the perimeter, swap, don't stop, and cook in batches.

00:14:58

And also, don't fall for the protein bars either. Protein is a big thing right now. We all need more protein, yes, but don't reach for the protein bars. They are mostly candy bars. Look at the back of the package and you'll realize that there are more than five ingredients, most of which are that chemistry project. And the protein in those protein bars isn't even high quality protein. I'm not really sure what it is, but it's not high quality protein.

00:15:25

So instead, again, grab a hard-boiled egg or handful nuts. Ultra-processed foods are designed to make us love them, maybe even become addicted to them, or make us believe that they're healthy because they have a nice wrapper that says they're healthy. But they're not designed to make us healthy or even stay full, so we just keep eating more and more. So look at the labels and start to slowly wean yourself off of those ultra-processed foods.

00:15:53

You don't have to go into your pantry right now and throw everything out. When you're finished with whatever it is you're eating, just don't buy more of that and just wean yourself off. So ultimately, it's about awareness. Once you start recognizing the difference between food that has been prepared and food that has been manufactured or designed, you gain a lot of control over your health. When you have food, I want you to envision someone preparing that food.

00:16:22

If you can envision someone preparing that food, it's probably minimally processed. Like someone is actually cooking it and putting it in a package or wrapping it. But if you can't envision someone preparing that food, then it's probably manufactured or designed, or both. Because can you actually picture someone making Cheetos? No, you can't even really picture that. So that would be a manufactured or designed, and it is designed to sell.

00:16:52

So that means it's designed to make you addicted to it. And if you can get that out of your diet and recognize that it's designed to make you addicted to it, you actually gain a little bit more control over your health. It's empowering to say, I'm just not going to fall for that design of you taking control of my brain because these chips are so good. So I want to bring this all home for you.

00:17:20

Your body is not a trash can. It is an incredibly complex ecosystem. When you choose minimally processed foods, you are giving your cells the nutrients they need to repair your joints. They clear your brain fog, they regulate your mood. You can heal from things that are assaulting you on a daily basis. And your refrigerator should be your medicine cabinet. You've heard me say that before. When you fill it with whole, vibrant foods, you are making decisions for your future self. 

00:17:48

The version of you that wants to be hiking, playing with grandkids, or just waking up without brain fog. Try growing something, one thing. And if you fail, try it again. Try growing tomatoes or potatoes or peppers, bell peppers, which you know is great in vitamin C. Just try growing something. So your takeaway for this week is pick one ultra-processed food that you eat every day.

00:18:17

Maybe it's your morning cereal or your afternoon healthy granola bar and swap it for whole food alternative. Try oats with berries or a handful of walnuts and just make these small shifts over time. Small shifts lead to massive changes over time. You have the power to influence the inflammation in your body. So as we wrap up, I want to leave you with one thought.

00:18:46

like I do every week. And this one is a verse from Romans 15.5, says, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ. And that just reminds me that it says, may the God of endurance, that reminds me that God knows that things don't happen overnight. It takes time. It takes endurance.

00:19:12

And we're encouraged that we can just do this and live in harmony with one another and just help each other out with this because to make changes is hard. So support one another in this. Thank you for listening. Happy cooking and stay healthy, California. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you learned something new.

00:19:34

Health care and treatment should focus on being proactive and preventative, emphasizing the importance of addressing the root cause of a disease or illness. While the U.S. has an excellent trauma medicine system, no helping patients when problems arise, our goals should be to prevent disease before they happen. That's why this podcast is so important to you.

00:19:55

If you're needing further guidance or have questions on a particular matter, you can find my contact information in the show notes where you can set up a 15-minute consultation. I also recommend you adding a functional nutritionist, a functional medicine practitioner, and a physical therapist to your healthcare team. This podcast reflects my personal opinions based on extensive research and education. It is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment and should never replace the advice from your doctor or other healthcare professionals.

00:20:24

To continue providing this free information, I rely on your support.

00:20:28

Follow, subscribe, like, and share this podcast with your family and friends, or on social media.