Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard an all-or-nothing nutrition statement from a friend, coworker, sensational headline, or social media that sounds like this:
“Red wine is better than white wine!” “Spinach is better than romaine!” "Eat eggs!" DON'T eat eggs!!" “GRAINS ARE EVIL!!”
Okay, we can all put our hands down.
If you’re like most people, navigating the world of nutrition can feel like wandering through a never-ending maze of conflicting advice and hype. One day, you hear that red wine is great for heart health, and the next, you’re told it’s absolutely not. And by the way, your coworker says potatoes are bad for you too.
Wait, what? No wonder it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all.
With the constant flood of studies, diet trends, and well-meaning (but often conflicting) advice, it’s easy to get lost in the confusion and wonder if you’re doing anything right. Finding the path to good nutrition shouldn’t be this complicated. If this sounds like your daily struggle, you’re not alone—but maybe I can help.
How to Simplify Your Nutrition:
Here’s one habit that works with most diets—vegan, paleo, heart-healthy, diabetic, pescatarian, gluten-free, Low FODMAP, omnivore, and many in between: eat mostly (or at least more) minimally-processed foods.
Here’s why this matters:
- Nutrient loss and additives: The more processed a food is, the more likely it has lost important nutrients (like fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals) while gaining unhealthy additives (like sugar, refined starch, unhealthy fats, sodium, preservatives, and fillers).
- Better health outcomes: Diets rich in minimally-processed foods are linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, depression, and type 2 diabetes.
- Easier appetite and calorie control: Minimally-processed foods tend to be higher in fiber and protein and lower in calories per volume, helping you manage your calorie intake and regulate your appetite.
How to put it into practice:
- Choose foods closer to their natural state: Opt for things like sweet potatoes, broccoli, chicken, and apples. The closer the food is to how it’s found in nature, the better.
- Understand that some processing is necessary: Cooking, chopping, and blending are all forms of processing. We need to process foods to make them safe and edible—just aim for less processing when possible.
- Limit ultra-processed foods: These include things like star-shaped cereal puffs and neon-colored energy drinks, which are engineered to be so delicious that they’re hard to stop eating.
- Think of food processing on a continuum: It’s not all or nothing. Most foods fall somewhere between fresh-from-the-dirt and highly processed. Your goal is to move a little further toward the "minimally-processed" side of the spectrum.
Bringing it Home:
Eating ONLY whole foods is tough, so again, think of food processing as a continuum.
Look at what you’re eating now and aim to make small shifts. Choose foods that are slightly less processed than your usual options. And remember, some processed foods—like whey protein, canned fish, or nut butter packets—can still be healthy and convenient.
The goal is progress, not perfection. You don’t need to cut out processed foods entirely, but by making them the exception, you’ll support your health, feel better, and take control of what you’re eating.
You got this.
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