Limit Processed Foods

Nutrition | 02.15.21 | By Braeden Ostepchuk

Humans have spent millennia eating whole foods, with most highly processed foods only becoming widely available within the last century. There is substantial evidence linking processed foods to modern day illness, with breakouts of disease and a seemingly endless list of health issues.

Despite being high in calories, processed foods have a very low nutritional profile, meaning that there are very few micronutrients (essential vitamins and minerals) available to fuel your body and brain. Therefore, despite eating large amounts of food, you may actually still be nutritionally malnourished.

A diet full of a wide spectrum of whole foods including healthy fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and quality meat products can significantly reduce brain fog, increase energy, and lift your mood.

Here are some tips to help you out:

• Reduce processed sugars

  • Sugars ending in “-ose” (fructose, dextrose, sucrose, etc.), syrups (corn syrup, agave syrup, etc.), and common sugars (brown sugar, cane sugar, etc.)

• Reduce processed vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, peanut, vegetable, etc.)

  • Instead, use virgin olive, avocado, and coconut oils or alternatively, cook with ghee, butter, or lard

• Follow the perimeter shopping rule: Most of your shopping should be on the perimeter of the store. Most packaged processed foods are in the middle of the store because they have a long shelf life (aka they are highly processed)

• Read ingredient labels: If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, you probably shouldn’t eat it

  • If there are more than six ingredients, it is likely highly-processed

Interested in learning more from Braeden? Check out his website and podcast, Learn II Perform, here!