Real Food vs. Ultra-Processed Food - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

BRITNI: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's “Ask a Nutritionist” podcast brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. I am Britni Vincent, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. We are thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air, discussing the connection between what you eat and how you feel while sharing practical, real life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

We want to thank you so much for your listenership and support over the years. We received a question from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners, and the question today is, “What is the difference between real food and ultra processed food?”

Whether you are a longtime listener or brand new to us, you have heard about our message of eating real food, I'm sure. And you may be wondering, like this listener, what do we mean by that? So I wanted to spend some time explaining the difference between real food and ultra processed food and why it matters.

The reality is in today's fast paced world, our food choices often come down to convenience over nutrition quality. On one side, we have real food, whole, minimally processed items that are as close to their natural state as possible. Usually these are only one ingredient foods and don't even need a nutrition label. Think foods that you could get straight out of a farmer's field and not a processing plant.

On the other side, there's ultra processed food, industrial formulations with a long list of ingredients you can barely pronounce. In today's world, we're not all able to live on a farm and grow our own food, unfortunately. Often we're busy with careers and family and the never ending to do list. So, there has to be a happy medium here that works in our modern lives. That's what I want to talk more about today and answer our listener's question.

What do we mean by real food?

Let's talk a little bit more about what we mean when we say real food. Real food, often referred to as whole food or unprocessed food, includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, clean animal protein, and natural fats and oils. These foods are in their natural form and free from artificial additives, preservatives, and excessive amounts of sugar and salt.

These foods are rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, which are all so crucial to maintaining good health or improving your health. But at the same time, a lot of these foods we still need to buy maybe in a package from the grocery store. And most of us, again, aren't growing everything ourselves or buying all of our food from a farmer's market. If it comes in a package, that means that technically it's been through a manufacturing plant and therefore can be described as having been processed.

Does that necessarily mean that it's a worse choice? No, not necessarily. We need some of these foods to be packaged to increase shelf life, preserve nutrients. And I want to give you an example of this. Frozen fruit and vegetables are often found to be more nutrient dense than fresh fruits and vegetables.

And this is because they are picked at peak ripeness and flash frozen to preserve their nutrients before getting packaged and shipped. So the fresh produce at the supermarket may get picked days or weeks ahead of their peak ripeness and ripens while being shipped from sometimes thousands of miles away. This way, it doesn't get to its peak nutrient density because it was harvested so prematurely.

So the frozen produce has technically been through processing from freezing and being put into a package, but oftentimes, especially during the winter here in Minnesota or other states in the northern climate, it is often a more nutritious choice. And that's just one example of how processing could be a good thing, actually.

But I want to clarify that there is a big difference between that example of processed, which still only has one ingredient in the ingredient list, and ultra processed food, or sometimes we like to call these ultra processed foods Frankenfoods because they're mostly man-made foods from a lab.

What’s an ultra processed food?

So what's an ultra processed food? Ultra processed foods are industrial creations designed to be convenient, tasty, and shelf stable. They typically contain a long laundry list of ingredients, often including artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, preservatives, and other additives. These foods are often high in unhealthy fats like seed oils, added sugar, while being low in essential nutrients.

Here's a startling fact: ultra processed foods make up the majority of the foods we consume in the United States. And what's even scarier is that children eat even a larger percentage of ultra processed foods in their diets than adults do. Now when you think about the grocery store, and I'm sure that you've heard this. For the most part, you only need to shop the perimeter. So, thinking about all of those processed foods that are found in those middle aisles, and for the most part, those are all ultra processed foods.

Let me share some common examples of ultra processed food. Soft drinks or other sugary beverages, sugary snacks, instant noodles, ready to eat meals, packaged snacks like chips and cookies, processed meat with added nitrates, fast food items.

We know that diets high in these ultra processed foods are linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases, digestive issues, and weight gain. It is time for me to take a really quick break. And when I come back, I'll give you a couple examples of quick real food meals.

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How can you tell if a food is real or ultra processed?

Welcome back. I have been talking about the difference between real food and ultra processed food. A good question is how can you tell if it is a real food or ultra processed food? First, read the ingredients. The ingredient list is going to tell you a lot. When looking at a nutrition label, ingredients are the most important thing, and the ingredients are listed in order of abundance. And it's more important to look at this than the number of calories or grams of fat or carbs or etc.

Real food contains simple recognizable ingredients. Even if it is packaged, the ingredients will be simple. And again, you're going to know what the ingredients are. On the flip side, ultra processed foods contain complex industrial ingredients. Oftentimes they're unrecognizable and really difficult to pronounce.

Cook more food at home instead of eating out

And just thinking about, do you really want to put that ingredient in your body? One big tip on how to eat more real foods instead of ultra processed food is to cook more at home instead of eating out. Preparing your own meals allows you to control the ingredients and avoid those unnecessary additives.

Easy healthy meal ideas

And this doesn't mean that every meal has to be from scratch and it needs to take you hours to make. So here's a quick weeknight meal. In an air fryer or on the stovetop, you could heat up some nitrite free chicken sausages with some precut frozen vegetables. Top that with some butter, some seasonings, and that's delicious and doesn't take any prep time, and not long to actually heat up.

Yesterday I made a super quick meal. I took the shortcut and bought shaved Brussels sprouts instead of whole Brussels sprouts, put those on a sheet pan with some avocado oil, seasonings, a little balsamic vinegar. At the same time those were roasting in the oven, I also baked sweet potatoes.

And then I cooked some steak on the stovetop that we had from our freezer from part of a cow. And all of those were cooking at the same time. I also made sure to make extra to have for leftovers. This was a super quick meal, delicious, and the whole family loved it.

And then we have leftovers so we can have them for future meals. That is key. If you're cooking something, try to always make extra, so then you're not having to cook every single meal that you have. And all these foods that I suggested, they're convenient, minimally processed, but they use real food ingredients with no preservatives or artificial additives.

And we have lots of simple recipes on our website, weightandwellness.com. We have some sheet pan meals. Those are favorites with our clients. And again, they don't take much time, but they are still delicious and real food.

I hope this helped clarify the difference between real food and ultra processed foods. The most important thing is getting you and your family to eat good quality nutrient dense foods and some minimally processed foods isn't always a bad thing if it means taking a shortcut and saving you some time. Choosing between real food and ultra processed food is a decision that significantly impacts your health and well-being.

Real food provides the nutrients your body needs to thrive, while ultra processed food can lead to a host of health problems. By prioritizing whole natural foods and minimizing your intake of ultra processed food, you can improve your overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and maintain a healthy weight.

Real food truly does matter, and with all of this being said, changing your diet to eating more real food, it takes time, and that's okay that it takes time. Every day, just trying to incorporate more real food into your diet, and then soon, all of this becomes more habitual, and it's just how you live your life. Your lifestyle is Eating more real food.

Before I go today, I encourage you to join our Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook community. If you haven't already, search Dishing Up Nutrition on Facebook.

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