Continuing our series on picking the low hanging fruit (the simpler, foundational principles) along one’s journey to restore (or improve) your overall health and wellness, here’s a companion principle to yesterday’s Dial Back the Carbs post – if you haven’t already, it’s time to dump the highly refined foods from your diet.
As noted yesterday, what follows is again primarily aimed at those who are following an approach to nutrition and food much more aligned with the Standard American Diet (the infamous SAD approach), not necessarily those thoughtful folks who have already begun to take a hard and discerning look at the healthy – and the unhealthy – aspects of their nutrition plan. That said, the more I talk to people about food and nutrition, good folks from all across the health, wellness, and fitness spectrum, the more surprised I am about how little some people care about consuming edibles that have literally been “refined to death”. (Another topic for another day perhaps…)
And of critical note, once again, your best food plan will be one that is UNIQUE TO YOU, given, for example, your current body composition, your overall metabolic health, your daily activity package, your current health, wellness, and fitness objectives, your overall general health, and where you happen to be in your “recovery” journey.
That Said, What Highly Refined Foods Do You Say Goodbye To?
When you get right down to it, some of what follows is actually just simple common sense; the further a food product is removed from its native state, the more it’s been processed, adulterated, and changed, the less likely you’ll be able to harvest the bounty of macronutrients, micronutrients, fiber and prebiotics, taste, and flavor the raw, unadulterated foods provide.
So what are some of the highly refined foods that are easier to identify and dump? (The list is longer, but let’s talk today about the easy ones…)
At least in North America, all bread, sugars, and flour products, including almost all sweets and desserts, candy and confections, and pastas (most would include the special pastas enhanced with other legume or vegetable flours).
Unnatural, highly refined seed oils, drenched in PUFAs, the poster child probably being canola oil, though soybean oil, corn oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and cottonseed oil should never make it to your pantry or kitchen, and even grape seed/flax seed oils, often touted as acceptable options, carry a fair amount of negative baggage (mainly their PUFA content).
Most baking ingredients besides flour, for example corn meal, corn starch, typical baking powders (milk, bread gluten, maltodextrin), pre-package baking mixes.
Highly refined sweeteners including of course but not limited to the abomination that is high fructose corn syrup, such as corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, lactose, malitol, and xylitol. I personally toss agave-based syrups in this pile as well.
Prepackage condiments like standard ketchup, jams, jellies, preserves, honey mustard, mayonnaise (unless you’re making your own with good oils!), salad dressings with PUFA oils, low-fat salad dressings.
Fast foods, prepared-ahead, and convenience foods (frozen and reheat) are often disasters in terms of their carb and fat content, and are often constructed from the cheapest, most highly-processed components available to the industrial manufacturer. Beware, a fair number of these sorts of products make it to the kitchens of chain restaurants (Olive Garden, I’m looking at you…).
If you’ve not purged the highly refined foods from your diet, I’d challenge to take a week, heck, even three days, and look at every item on your plate and consider how whole vs. how processed each bite or food item is. Don’t sweat this transition away from the processed food world, the more attention you pay to your food sources, the easier this becomes over time. Just get started today.
Git ‘er done.
