You can swap ingredients, eat out less often, and prep meals in advance. Choosing foods with less sugar, more legumes, and natural ingredients may work for you.
Processed food is any food item that has been canned, cooked, frozen, pasteurized, or packaged.
Many processed foods, including canned vegetables, frozen fruits, and pasteurized dairy products, can be enjoyed as part of a healthy diet. However, some highly processed items are loaded with salt, sugar, additives, and preservatives, which can harm your health.
Reducing your intake of these highly processed foods is one of the most effective ways to improve your health and enhance the quality of your eating habits.
Here are some simple steps you can take each day or week to help you limit processed foods in favor of healthier, heart-friendly choices.
Keep Healthy Snacks On Hand
If you’re running short on time, grabbing a packaged snack on your way out the door may be tempting.
However, keeping your kitchen stocked with plenty of portable, nutritious snacks can make it much easier to make healthy choices on the go.
Some of my favorite healthy snacks include fresh fruit, mixed nuts, edamame, and veggies with hummus.
If you have extra time, you can also prep some simple snacks in advance. Hard-boiled eggs, turkey roll-ups, homemade kale chips, and overnight oats are a few great treats that you can whip up quickly and keep on hand for later.
Swap Refined Grains For Whole Grains
One of the simplest ways to reduce your intake of processed foods is to start trading them for healthier whole foods.
In particular, you can swap refined grains like white pasta, rice, bread, and tortillas for whole grain alternatives, such as brown rice and whole grain pasta, bread, and tortillas.
Not only are whole grains higher in important nutrients like fiber, but research also shows they can protect against conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
Use Healthier Ingredients
If you’re feeling adventurous, give your favorite processed foods a healthy twist by recreating them in your kitchen. This gives you complete control of what you’re putting on your plate while letting you experiment with interesting new ingredients.
For example, you can make veggie chips by tossing potato, zucchini, turnip, or carrot slices with olive oil and salt and baking them until crispy.
Other healthy alternatives to processed foods that you can whip up at home include chia pudding, air-popped popcorn, granola bars, and fruit leather.
Some other ideas:
- Trade your sugary breakfast cereal for a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit.
- Pop your own popcorn on the stove in place of microwave popcorn.
- Whip up a homemade vinaigrette with olive oil and vinegar to drizzle over salads in place of processed dressings.
- Make trail mix using nuts, seeds, and dried fruit for a healthy alternative to store-bought varieties.
- Top your salads with nuts or seeds instead of croutons.
Drink More Water
Sugary beverages like soda, sweet tea, fruit juice, and sports drinks are high in sugar and calories but low in essential nutrients.
Gradually trading these drinks for water throughout the day is a great way to reduce your intake of processed foods and improve the quality of your diet.
If plain water isn’t your favorite beverage, sparkling or flavored water are two great options. Alternatively, infusing water with fresh fruit or herbs for added flavor.
Try Prepping Meals Ahead
Preparing meals in large batches once or twice a week ensures plenty of nutritious meals are ready in your fridge even when you’re too busy to cook.
It can also make it much less tempting to hit the drive-through on your way home or turn to frozen convenience meals when you’re pressed for time.
To get started, pick a few recipes to make each week and set aside a specific time to prepare your meals. You may also choose recipes with similar ingredients, so you rotate those out more than once, making food prepping a bit easier.
Eat More Vegetables
When you’re preparing meals at home, include at least one serving of vegetables to increase your intake of healthy, unprocessed foods.
This can be as easy as adding spinach to your scrambled eggs, sautéing broccoli for a simple side dish, or tossing carrots or cauliflower into soups or casseroles.
Vegetables are highly nutritious and great sources of fiber, which keeps you feeling full between meals, helping decrease your appetite and curb cravings.
Change Your Shopping Routine
It’s much easier to limit your intake of processed foods when you don’t have any on hand.
Next time you go to the grocery store, fill your cart up with healthy, minimally processed ingredients like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
You can also try changing which aisles you shop in most, staying in the store’s perimeter, or focusing on the middle aisles where you may find beans, vegetables, canned fruit, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta.
Be sure to read labels on your favorite food products when you’re shopping. Whenever possible, avoid foods with lots of sodium, trans fat, or added sugar.
Eat Less Processed Meat
Processed meats like bacon, sausage, lunch meat, and hot dogs are associated with several downsides and are even classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
You’ll be glad to hear that there are plenty of easy ways to cut back on processed meat.
You can swap these foods for less processed meats like chicken, salmon, or turkey.
You can also substitute packaged lunch meats for other sandwich fillings, such as tuna salad, chicken breast, or hard-boiled eggs.
Alternatively, you can eat more plant-based proteins like beans, lentils, tofu, or tempeh.
Make Changes Slowly
There’s no need to completely eliminate processed foods from your diet all at once.
In fact, making changes slowly is often more effective and sustainable in the long run. Some research suggests that minor lifestyle changes help form long-lasting habits and make initially difficult actions much easier over time.
Try experimenting with one or two of the strategies listed above each week, then gradually implement more.
Remember that you can still enjoy dining out or eating processed foods in moderation as part of a healthy, balanced diet.
The Takeaway
Processed foods are any food that has been cooked, canned, frozen, or packaged.
Although you can eat numerous processed foods as part of a healthy diet, you should limit those that are high in sodium, sugar, additives, and preservatives.
Try a few of the tips outlined in this article to find what works for you. Remember to make changes slowly for the best results.
Sources:
- Adams J, et al. (2020). Public health response to ultra-processed food and drinks.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7318879/ - Gonçalves Albuquerque T, et al. (2022). Processed food: Nutrition, safety, and public health.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9778909/ - Lane M, et al. (2024). Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.
https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310 - Processed vs ultra-processed food and why it matters. (2020).
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/01/29/processed-vs-ultra-processed-food-and-why-it-matters-to-your-health - Singh B, et al. (2024). Time to form a habit: A systematic review and meta-analysis of health behaviour habit formation and its determinants.
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/23/2488 - Vitale M, et al. (2023). Ultra-Processed foods and human health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10831891/ - Wei X, et al. (2022). Health effects of whole grains: A bibliometric analysis.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9777732/
Important Notice: This article was originally published at www.healthline.com by The Healthline Editorial Team where all credits are due. Medically reviewed by Jerlyn Jones, MS MPA RDN LD CLT
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