What Is Processed Food?

Eating healthy can feel hard, but if we focus on just a few areas, it can make a big difference to our health.

What Makes a Food Processed?

The world of food can be so confusing at times. There was a time when it was clear what food was - it came directly from nature - whether foraging, hunting, or farming.

Now there are so many things we eat that don't resemble a natural food.

Michael Pollan has a famous quote, he said:

"Eat Food - Not too much - Mostly Plants"

And in his famous book, In Defense of Food, he defines what food should be. He says, "Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."

And, we can all agree that some things are obviously not recognizable by our great-great-grandmothers: candy bars, fast food, and sports drinks.

We can also say that many of the common health issues we face today: heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, cavities, etc. didn't exist at anywhere near the rates before industrially processed foods became available.

But, where do we draw the line? How do we define processed? How processed is processed? And what the heck is ultra-processed?

Allow me to let you in on the internationally recognized classification system. And we’re going to go through it step-by-step with an apple.