What Is Ultra-Processed Food? How Can I Eat Less of It?

The term ultra-processed refers to food that has been processed in a specific way. Generally, ultra-processed foods are those that have gone through several stages of processing (such as extrusion, milling, and grinding) before they reach the grocery store.

Why Are Ultra-Processed Foods So Bad?

Ultra processed foods are high in calories, sugar, saturated fat, and salt. Popular examples of ultra-processed foods include candy, chocolate bars, chips, ice cream, ready meals, breakfast cereals, hot dogs, fries, soft drinks and more.

The modern-day western diet is becoming increasingly abundant in ultra-processed foods with over 50% of the American diet consisting of ultra-processed food.  If you currently consume large amounts of ultra-processed foods in your diet, you’re putting yourself at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cancer.

How to Reduce Your Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods?

Making positive changes to your diet by slowly reducing the amount of ultra-processed food will improve your health and reduce your disease risk. However, you might find it difficult to cut out all of the ultra-processed items that you eat in one go.

Instead, try removing just one or two ultra-processed foods from your diet every week. Slower is always better and leads to sustainable lifestyle changes.

For example, if you tend to eat a chocolate bar for dessert each night after dinner, switch this out for a fresh fruit salad with yogurt. If you like to get breakfast at a fast food restaurant every Monday to motivate yourself for a new week, prepare a healthy breakfast on Sunday night so that you have something nutritious to eat on Monday morning before work.

There are lots of healthy, unprocessed foods that you can eat for your main meals and snacks. Try to buy as many raw foods (including lots of fruits and veggies) as you can when you head to the grocery store and make a conscious effort to cook from scratch as often as possible.

This will reduce your impulse to order takeout or eat ready meals for dinner, and ensures that you’re getting a range of micronutrients in your diet.