Hey Reader

Stop me if you've ever heard these...

“Red wine is better than white wine!”

“Spinach is better than romaine!”

“Carbs are the problem!”

If you listen to the onslaught of articles and experts giving their latest and greatest advice, good nutrition gets complicated fast!

If you’re overwhelmed, try this ONE habit:

Eat mostly (or at least more) minimally processed foods.

Most people would define this as choosing foods close to how they're found in nature. Whole foods — broccoli, chicken, apples, nuts, fish —are a great example of this. And don't overcomplicate it! I eat white rice aplenty!

Why?

Reason #1: The greater the degree of processing, the more likely a food has:

👉Lost nutrition (fibre, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients)

👉Gained additives (sugar and/or refined starch, unhealthy fats, sodium, preservatives, and fillers, often to put back some of the lost nutrition!)

Reason #2: Diets rich in minimally processed foods are linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, depression, and type 2 diabetes.

Reason #3: Minimally processed foods also tend to be richer in fibre and protein, and lower in calories per volume, these foods make it easier for you to manage your calorie intake.

Minimally-processed foods are more nutritious, improve health outcomes, and help you regulate your appetite...

There’s just one caveat:

It’s both hard and unpleasant to eat ONLY whole foods.

So, think of foods on a continuum.

As with most things, processing isn’t binary: Foods aren’t 100% garbage or 100% pure.

Most are somewhere in between.

This is why we encourage minimally processed foods versus only limiting yourself to whole foods. It's the scary depths of ultra-processing that you should be limiting.

Look at the foods you’re currently eating, and just try to move along the continuum, choosing foods that are slightly less processed than what you’d usually eat.

Plus, some processed foods are awesome.

Protein powder.

Tinned fish.

Rice cakes topped with 100% peanut butter...

Cooking, chopping, and blending are all forms of processing, as are pickling, fermenting and smoking.

So it’s not that processing is “bad.”

It’s just that ultra-processed foods—star-shaped cereal puffs, electric blue energy drinks, and pretty much anything that’s shelf-stable for over a year—are usually specifically engineered to make these foods too delicious, and thus easy to overeat.

Moments to Savour

• Something I loved: Playing the new Sonic game with my 9-year-old on the Xbox. Never underestimate the importance of "play", especially as an adult!
• Something I learnt: A study published in Sports Medicine found that, for more than 28,000 adults of all ages, every 1,000 daily step increase was associated with a 12 percent lower risk of death from all causes. It does top out at 17k, but for most of us, it's time to get those trainers on!
• Something I ate: Plenty of curries! After a nasty bug doing the rounds in our house, we all had subpar-tasting powers. A few curries were just what the doctor ordered, giving us a powerful boost of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories and at the same time, tasting great. (If you live in the UK, you'll find the curry brand I use at home in Food Labelling Deciphered)

Have a wonderful week,

Zoey Nutrition & Health Coach

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Garden Avenue, Portstewart, BT55 7AW
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