
Modern society has gifted humans with convenience. Convenience; however, is not necessarily natural or to the benefit of the human body. We live in a world where comfort foods, snack products, and pre-prepared products are now so commonplace that we call them food.
Diets high in processed foods have been linked to an increased risk in developing diabetes and chronic diseases, increases inflammation, results in poor tissue and cell quality, and can lead to general fatigue and weight gain, among other things.
As athletes these products don’t fuel our body, they end up causing long term harm because simply, they aren’t natural.
So, how do we define whole/minimally processed vs. processed culinary ingredients vs. ultra processed?
Whole foods are fruits, vegetables, and starches picked from the vines snipped off plant, or dug from the ground. Minimally processed is frozen fruit, meats, some dairy products, legumes, and fish). Pretty simple. No added b.s.
Processed culinary ingredients include oils, fats, starches, pastas, and sugars. These are derived from whole foods and help in the cooking process. Moderation is key with these.
Ultra-processed products (hint: “products”) are made from processed substances extracted or refined from whole foods—eg, oils, hydrogenated oils and fats, flours and starches, variants of sugar, and cheap parts or remnants of animal foods—with little or no whole foods.
This group dominates our diets today. Roughly 70% of an average American’s calories come from ultra-processed products. These include burgers, frozen pizza and pasta dishes, nuggets and sticks, Jimmy Dean sandwiches, biscuits, confectionery, cereal bars, carbonated and sugared drinks, and all sorts of snack products.
For athletes, think Gatorade, most protein supplements, protein bars, and any other type of product you consume that contains emulsifiers, stabilizers, “natural colors”, and any ingredient that sounds like it came from a lab.
Natural, whole food that rarely requires a nutritional label is what fuels our body as athletes and humans. Be primal and be aware. #mindstrongnutrition
Resources:
- The Healthfulness of the US Packaged Food and Beverage Supply: A Cross-Sectional Study
- Ultra Process Foods and Adverse Health Outcomes
- Nutrition and health. The issue is not food, nor nutrients, so much as processing
- Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries
- More evidence that ultra processed foods could harm health
- More Than Half of What Americans Eat is “Ultra-Processed”
- Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study