Tag Archive for: processed foods

How to Limit Your Processed Food

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There are two strategies that you can use to control your intake of processed foods.

The first is the simplest yet the most difficult, especially if it’s something you really love to eat: Don’t buy it. If it’s not in the house, you can’t eat it. Whenever I tell that to someone, the next words out of their mouth are usually something like “That’s not going to happen!”

I understand completely, but for me, it’s the only way I can reduce my intake of chips and peanuts. If they’re in the house, I will eat them and I won’t stop. Some types of nuts such as almonds or walnuts are easier to control. I have yet to find something to substitute for any type of chip. You can put salt on carrots and celery, but it isn’t the same. You can dip broccoli or cauliflower in olive oil or balsamic vinegar and it doesn’t come close. It’s the combination of processing combined with the fat and salt that makes these foods difficult to resist for me.

Can you walk away from the pantry as you let one square of chocolate dissolve in your mouth? Can you eat two Oreos and put the package away? We all have our Achilles heel of foods; Paula almost finished a box of deluxe ice cream sandwiches the day we bought them, so we never bought them again. For you, it may be bread or donuts or chocolate or jelly beans. If you can’t walk away, just don’t buy it.

The second approach, and one that may be more reasonable for some, is to portion out a serving and don’t eat any more. In my opinion, there are no foods that you can never eat as long as you control the amount and the frequency. If you can control your portions, that works just fine. If you can’t, you have no alternative other than to not purchase them.

Here is a bonus third way: Eat your vegetables first. Research shows that vegetables contribute to satiety. If you eat them first, it may be easier to control the processed foods you desire. Drinking a glass of tomato juice instead of a milkshake may not be as rewarding emotionally, but it may satisfy you physically.

This is something to work on at home with your children. Based on recent changes to the guidelines for school lunches, the upper levels of sodium may be suspended for school districts that request it. It seems innocent enough but in effect, your kids probably will be exposed to high levels of salt, learning to become dependent on the same nutritionally deficient foods we have problems with today. Schools can also opt out of the whole-grain requirement, so expect to see cheaper white bread. Best bet is to fix healthy lunches for your children every day and teach the kids to fix them, too.

I hope this helps. For me, it’s a never-ending battle and I know it is for others as well. Find which strategy works best for you—abstinence or control—and stick to it.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

What’s Wrong with Processed Foods

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If you do an Internet search for processed foods, you’ll get a whole lot of opinions on why they’re a bad thing. There isn’t a substantial amount of research behind the opinions when you look closely. In fact, there isn’t a substantial amount of research on processed foods at all and why they’re difficult to resist. Keep in mind that I’m talking about extensive processing; fruits and vegetables that are frozen immediately have been shown to have more nutrients than fresh produce that’s been sitting in the grocery display case for a while, and canned fruits and vegetables are a close second.

What’s the problem with processed foods, other than the fat, sugar, and salt? Two things stick out in my mind. First, the act of processing alters the vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient content of the foods. Whether we’re talking about grains such as wheat or corn, beans such as soy, or dairy such as milk, some if not most nutrients are lost in the processing.

Second, you lose the fiber, and given how little fiber adults get, that might be the most serious loss of a nutrient. Fiber acts as a prebiotic to feed the microbes in our gut and helps with satiety and digestion. Breads, pastas, rolls, bagels, and every other processed food that uses grains come up short.

I’ll add one more to the list: probiotics. Processing destroys the good bacteria and other microbes that are valuable to our health. It isn’t just what we are getting in processed foods that harmful; it’s what we’re not getting that compounds the problem.

What’s the solution? I’ll finish this up on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Why Can’t I Stop?

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If there’s one question that frustrates all of us, including myself at times, it’s “Why can’t I stop eating ____?” For me, it’s salty and crunchy such as nuts and chips. For others, it’s refined carbohydrates such as baked goods, or sweets such as chocolate or cookies. Why can’t we just stop eating them? Why are we not able to say “Enough!” once we’ve started eating?

The reasons appear to be simple. The common denominators in every processed food appear to be salt (sodium), sugar, or fat, or some combination of the three. You don’t really ever hear someone saying they went on a kale-eating binge, do you? It’s always some processed or refined food. I’ll add fast foods to that list because the foods are cooked and assembled in a way that makes us want more.

I’ll examine a couple of reasons why these foods are so problematic on Thursday. For some insight on the food industry and how the food industry manufactures foods we can’t resist, get a copy of Michael Moss’s book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Industry Hooked Us. It’s a revealing look at how companies spend a lot of money on research to put together the flavors we can’t resist.

Dr. Chet