Myth-Busting Processed Foods: Not All Processed Foods Are Junk
The following article was written by Heinen’s Chief Dietitian, Melanie Jatsek RD, LD.
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True or False: The following foods are unhealthy:
- Heinen’s organic triple-washed super energy salad greens
- Heinen’s frozen blueberries
- Heinen’s single-ingredient fresh ground walnut butter
- Heinen’s organic ground flaxseed
If I was a gambler, I would bet $100 that you answered false for every food. Am I right?
For the record, you are correct, there is nothing unhealthy about these foods. In fact, not only are they all Fx™-approved, but they are also some of the healthiest foods you could put in your cart!
So why did I start with such a piece-of-cake quiz? Because I wanted to challenge the commonly held belief that all processed foods are junk. Yes, these are all examples of processed foods!
Levels of Processed Foods
The truth is that a food is considered “processed” whenever it’s taken from its natural state and altered in any way. This includes:
- Grinding: As in grinding walnuts for walnut butter.
- Freezing: As in freezing fruits and vegetables after harvesting.
- Washing: As in washing fresh produce before packaging. (i.e. Heinen’s triple-washed salad greens)
- Chopping: As in cubing butternut squash for soups or roasting. (available in Heinen’s fresh cut produce case)
As ingredients are added to food— and/or removed through refining— the level of processing increases. To give you an idea of how this hierarchy works, let’s start with whole food and work our way up.
- Whole Food: Foods in their purest unadulterated state.
- Examples: Fresh apples, broccoli, kale, and turmeric root
- Minimally Processed: Foods close to their natural state with no major ingredients added.
- Examples: Heinen’s fresh ground walnut butter, frozen plain vegetables, pre-washed packaged salad greens, Heinen’s pasture-raised eggs, fresh Verlasso salmon, and Pasturebird fresh poultry
- Moderately Processed but Healthy: Foods that have been altered from their natural state but retain most of their basic structure and nutrition. They generally have short ingredient lists of recognizable foods.
- Examples: Heinen’s canned pinto beans, Ezekiel sprouted bread, One Degree sprouted steel cut oats, Forager unsweetened Greek yogurt, and Tonnino yellowfin tuna fillets
- Highly Processed but Healthy: Contain multiple ingredients and undergo processing, but in a way that enables them to remain nutritious.
- Examples: Just Ingredients protein powder, Tosi crunchy nutrition bars, Blue Zones Kitchen frozen bowls, and Plantstrong black bean chili
You may be wondering at what point a processed food turns unhealthy. Congratulations! Your curiosity means you are paying attention. After all, if processed food isn’t inherently bad, why is it always made out to be the bad guy? To answer this, we must return to the ingredients and compare them to the standards for Club Fx-approved foods.
When Processed Food Turns into Ultra-Processed
Ultra-processed is the term commonly used for packaged foods containing ingredients not found in nature (or in Fx-approved foods), like artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and fake food dyes. They are typically formulated with excess salt, sugar, and/or oil to make them hyper-palatable so that you’ll eat more! In short, when eaten on a regular basis, ultra-processed foods weaken your health.
Key Takeaway
If you’re debating whether a food is processed but healthy or ultra-processed, thoughtfully read each ingredient on the label and then ask yourself, “Will this food weaken my health or strengthen it?” If you’re unsure, it’s probably the former.
