For seven days, I encourage you to notice when you are about to eat ultra-processed food, and then replace half of those times with real food.
Real food is food from nature, or made simply from food from nature, such as fruits, vegetables, beans, eggs, meat, yogurt, and cheese. Real food can be cooked, cut, dried, frozen, canned, or fermented and still be real food. Frozen peas are still peas.
Ultra-processed food here means food changed so much, with so many added ingredients, that the original food is hard to recognize. A quick test is to read the ingredients. If you do not recognize many of the ingredients as food, the food is ultra-processed. Examples are chips, soda, packaged snacks, and boxed meals.
Processing food can remove nutrients and add more sugar, salt, and fat than the body requires. Making white flour removes most of the fiber and many of the vitamins from the wheat. Frying chips adds fat and salt. Soda is mostly sugar and water. Research has linked health problems, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, to diets high in ultra-processed food.
This challenge is about increasing the nutrients your body receives from food. Cutting out ultra-processed food completely can turn into a restrictive rule. Replacing half your ultra-processed food is a shift.
To make adding more real food convenient, have food available that you know you like and can easily and happily eat. Examples are nuts or nut butter, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, fruit, cut vegetables, and water.
I have lived with both ultra-processed food and real food. I cannot promise what this challenge will change for you, but I believe our bodies are made to run on real food.
I was raised eating some ultra-processed food because that was what was popular, and I fed my children ultra-processed food I would not feed them now. I am not upset with my parents or myself. We ate what we knew. Now I know something different, so I choose differently. Rather than sour cream, I use plain yogurt with no added sugar, because the yogurt has protein and probiotics. Rather than canned chili, I soak and cook dried beans. When I eat chocolate, I choose chocolate with more cacao and fewer ingredients.
The same input gives the same output. Different input gives a different output. Have fun noticing when you reach for ultra-processed food, and enjoy choosing a real food instead.
You are welcome to do Challenge 2 for at least seven days.
Stacy 🌺
Information in this post comes from my learning and research.
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I share my experiences and my perspective. Eating and healing look different for everyone. If you are struggling with food or your relationship with your body, please find support. You don’t have to do this alone.