What do they have in common?
They're all moderately processed, which means they undergo enough processing to be problematic for weight. However, with the right strategies, they can be included in a healthy weight diet–in limited amounts.
Let's dive in. Video three is live and less than 10 minutes.
Moderately processed foods are...
Pasta (all kinds including whole grain), white rice, homemade sweets, good-quality sourdough, potato chips (made with sliced potatoes, oil, and salt–not the composite stuff like Pringles), peanut butter, dried fruit, smoothies, coconut sugar, cold-pressed juice (regular orange juice is highly processed), and quick-cooked grains are a few examples.
Interestingly, this list looks pretty healthy, and that's not exactly wrong, but context is everything. If your diet is mainly built on these foods, with whole and unprocessed foods (vegetables, legumes, and meat) on the periphery, that can be a recipe for chronic weight gain.
Again, some people can consume many moderately processed foods and have no issues with weight. I know for certain that I am not one of them.
One great way to tell if food has undergone moderate processing is that you could make it in your kitchen. It's time-consuming, so you might not want to, but you could. White rice is the exception, but no system is perfect.
This is one reason I'm so thoroughly pro-cooking. Making these foods from scratch illustrates how altered they are from their original form, which is essential to protecting (or revealing) your healthy weight.
In the case of rice and pasta (not cold-pressed juice), people have been eating these foods for hundreds if not thousands of years, but!
- They didn't have the same kind of access we did and therefore not in the same quantity.
- These foods were developed when calories were scarce and people needed quick energy sources.
- In their cultural context, they're not overly consumed. Most heritage diets were built on legumes, vegetable, and meat with rice, bread and pasta on the periphery. That's precisely what I'm suggesting to you.
Moderately processed foods are defined by (me) as:
- The process to make them is generally one you could replicate.
- There is less fiber, but it is not generally fiberless.
- Uses ingredients you could purchase.
- Sweets are moderately sweetened using less processed sugars like coconut sugar and grade b maple syrup.
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Next week, we'll discuss heritage foods! This is getting into the good stuff. Heritage foods have a process to make them, but it's beneficial. They are real food that needs no strategy or moderation. Your body does that!
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