The first question I get when I say I’m doing a “no-processed food challenge” is “What do you mean by processed?”. There are millions of definitions of “processed”. If you want to be a truest, “processing” altering a food from it’s natural state. Therefore, cutting an onion or peeling a banana, or cooking meat would be “processing”. Using that definition, non-processed, essentially = raw food. I’ve done raw food challenges before… for a short period of time, but I’m not down for one of those now, especially with soup season so close!
Our challenge was based off of this website. She doesn’t really have a “definition” for “real food”, she just has guidelines for things you should eat and things you absolutely can’t eat. Instead of trying to define processed, we decided to follow these guidelines and discuss/make decisions as a group when questionable foods come up.
What’s out…
1- No refined grains: no white flour (or anything that contains white flour). No white rice.
2- No refined sweeteners: no white sugar (yes this includes “sugar in the raw… ), No corn syrup (or anything with corn syrup in it). No cane juice. No artificial sweeteners like splenda, truvia, etc.
3- Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has anything on the label that is NOT a whole food. So putting something in a bag or box does not automatically make it processed. If you can’t pronounce something on the label, or if anyone on the label does not exist in nature; it’s out.
4- No deep fried foods: I personally think this is an illogical rule… if you are at home and cut a potato and throw it in oil, it doesn’t become any less of a potato… But I don’t really eat fried foods, so I won’t contest this.
5- No “fast foods”: Fast foods are a black hole. The people serving them don’t know what’s in them. There are no “cooks” in the back that can tell you how they were prepared. Most likely no human hands go into creating fast foods. Even a “healthy” option at McDonalds (like the grilled chicken out of the sandwich… you can’t eat the bred b/c of rules 1 and 2) is probably filled with preservatives and shelf stabilizers. I guarantee if you look at the label it’s not just “chicken breast and spices”.
What you CAN Eat!!
1. Whole foods! – Food that grow, walk, or fly on this earth (fruits, veggies, meats, seafood, whole grains and were not made or altered in a laboratory or factory.)
2. Dairy products like milk, butter, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and natural cheeses: Dairy products should essentially be milk/cream and maybe natural enzymes for cheese, salt, or live yogurt cultures. “Cheese products” like American cheese, and velveeta, are out. Most store bought cheese have a bunch of preservatives in them, so labels are very important here.
3- 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains: This means grains that have not been refined. “Refining” is the process of removing the bran and germ (i.e. the nutrition) and then adding a bunch of preservatives, fake “nutrients”, and stabilizers to make them able to sit for years on a shelf and more soft and fluffy for the western palate. Non-refined flours, and things made of non-refined flours, are fine. If you want to eat “whole grain” products (breads, pastas, etc), labels are VERY important. It must say “WHOLE” wheat, not just wheat, and must not include any sugars or preservatives. It’s really hard to find something like this on a grocery shelf. If you absolutely need to eat bread, A local bakery or health food store is probably your best bet.
4- Meat and Seafood (wild caught and local is optimal over commercially farmed): Your best bet is to stick to whole meats. These can be prepared anyway you like (as long as the other ingredients meet the rules!). Processed deli meats are out. Cured meats could be good or bad. In their pureset form cured meats (proscuitto, salumi, etc) is just meat that is brined, salted and dried… but factory produced cured meats have a ton of stablizers and other crap in them. If you’re going to eat a cured meat, just read the label carefully. It should say, meat, salt, spices. That’s it. For any kind of canned meat, just read the label. A can of tuna that says “Tuna, salt, water” is fine.
5- Beverages limited to water, milk, all natural juices, coffee & tea, and, to help the adults keep their sanity, wine and beer! (NEWS FLASH!!! the ladies said grain alcohols (vodka, bourbon, gin, etc), are fine. You just can’t add any juices, sugars, or mixers to them… woot!. Labels are also very important here. The first ingredient on most juice is actually not fruit, but corn syrup, so most juices would be out.
6- All natural sweeteners including honey, 100% maple syrup, and fruit juice concentrates are acceptable in moderation. We also agreed that sucanant is fine.
So there you have it! Not so bad, right?
100 Days Delicious 