The #1 Nutrition Principle
“Red wine is better than white wine!”
“Spinach is better than romaine!”
“GRAINS ARE EVIL!!”
Ever feel like good nutrition is just too complicated?
If you’re overwhelmed, try this ONE habit:
Make unprocessed or minimally-processed foods the center of your diet.
Most people would define this as choosing foods close to how they’re found in nature. Whole foods—sweet potatoes, broccoli, chicken, an apple—are a great example of this. Minimally-processed foods are more nutritious, improve health outcomes, and help you regulate your appetite.
But Why?
Reason #1: The greater the degree of processing, the more likely a food has:
👉 Lost fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients
👉 Gained additives such as sugar and/or refined starch, unhealthy fats, sodium, preservatives, and fillers
Reason #2: Diets rich in minimally-processed foods are linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, depression, and type 2 diabetes.
Reason #3: Because minimally-processed foods also tend to be richer in fiber and protein, and lower in calories per volume, these foods make it easier for you to manage your calorie intake.
There’s just one caveat:
It’s REALLY hard to eat ONLY whole foods.
So, think of foods on a continuum.
As with most things, processing isn’t binary. Most are somewhere in between 100 percent fake and fresh-from-the-dirt (or animal). Look at the foods you’re currently eating, and just try to move along the continuum, choosing foods that are slightly less processed than what you’d usually eat.
Plus, some processed foods are awesome.
Whey protein powder. (This is what we use.)
Canned/packaged fish. (I had this tuna last week and it was great.)
Those little emergency to-go packets of nut butter you keep in your glove compartment. (Because avoiding the “hanger” is a MUST.)
So it’s not that processing is “bad.” Cooking, chopping, and blending are all forms of processing. It’s just that ultra processed foods—star-shaped cereal puffs, electric blue energy drinks, and pretty much anything that’s shelf-stable for over a year—are usually specifically engineered to make these foods too delicious, and thus easy to overeat.
And just remember, progress is more important than perfection!
Email me for a “Truth About Processed Foods” infographic.
