Have you ever struggled to maintain a healthy diet and clean eating? Have you ever tried to eat clean for 1 or 2 meals and then given into your cravings, feeling a complete loss of willpower? I sure have! I don’t know how many times in my life I have started on my “clean eating” lifestyle, only to fail within a few hours to a few days. Likely hundreds of times. Also, what is “clean eating?” Is it Paleo, Keto, plant-based, whole foods, etc???? I have tried most major diets over my lifetime, as I have struggled with my weight and severe gastrointestinal issues since childhood. My functional medicine doctors and nutritionist recommended eating gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, high protein, high fat/low carb, high carb/low fat, low FODMAP, low histamine, vegetarian, vegan, etc…There are so many different fad diets and I have tried most of them, but in the end, I ended up figuring out that to me, “clean eating” means a whole-foods diet with a variety of high quality foods and minimal processing. But what constitutes processed food? What does ultra-processed food mean? I can read all of the ingredients in a bag of chips (corn, oil, salt) and there’s no weird chemicals or dyes, so that’s healthy, right? Believe me, I can figure out a way to justify a lot of things so that they seem healthy in my mind, but my stomach doesn’t lie and often lets me know when I’ve made some bad choices.
I’m continuously searching for information or products that will help me to feel better and be able to digest my food, so when “Ultra-Processed People” popped up on my suggested reading list on Spotify audiobooks, I was intrigued. I’d never quite understood what all of the different “processed” food descriptions meant, so I was hopeful that I’d at least learn more about that from this book. Well, it’s safe to say that this book did a lot more than just teach me about food processing, it has officially changed my life.
The author immediately tells the reader that this book will not tell you what to eat or what not to eat and it will not give you the optimal diet plan. What???? I wanted to be given a blueprint for the best way to eat. Isn’t that what all of these kind of books do? I’ve read many of these kind of books before and they always give you a detailed outline of the best foods to eat, meal timing, recipes, shopping lists… I was a bit disappointed that none of the things I was used to reading about were going to be included in this book. But then I had a thought…did any of that information work for me in the past? Well, nope, not really. Maybe I got a few tidbits here or there, but none of the eating plans or recipes were ever lifechanging and I would always end up reverting back to whatever I could do to keep my symptoms under some semblance of control.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Lao Tsu
That quote is the ultimate description of this book. The books never gives detailed instructions of how to change your diet, how to “eat clean,” or a list of “no” foods. This book utilizes scientific studies, statistics, educates about the science behind marketing, and the author even does his own experiment that was documented and studied in order to bring more light to the effects of ultra-processed food on the human body. It doesn’t tell the reader what they should do, it gives them the information needed to make their own informed decisions with food choices. We all know that foods like Flaming Hot Cheetos, Twinkies and Oreos probably aren’t good for us, but do we all know why? I had NO idea what I didn’t know. Once the reader is armed with the information provided in this book, it makes it much harder to look at ultra-processed foods the same again. It gives our brains the power to understand why something that looks and tastes so good is not going to be helpful to our wellbeing and it drastically reduces the cravings and need for willpower. Who needs willpower when you now have the knowledge to know exactly what that food is going to do to your body?
Now I’m not going to say that I read this book and suddenly don’t have a single hankering for chips or that I’m never going to eat a french fry again in my life. But I will say that if I do decide to eat ultra-processed food, I will think twice and I will be informed and know the consequences of my decision. If I feel like it is the time and place to have a little indulgence, then I’ll go for it, but it will be a conscious decision and I’ll have the resources to be able to stop the vicious cycle that ultra-processed food creates. I will no longer have the mindset that it’s okay if “once you pop, you can’t stop” (thanks Pringles!). It’s nice knowing that if I ever do get into that vicious cycle again that this book is here and I can always return to it to give me a good reset.
Let’s get back to the life-changing part of this book. You know those stomach issues that I’ve dealt with all of my life but there was never a complete solution for? Functional medicine and nutrition have helped me sooooooo much, but I know that there are still ways that I could feel even better. Well…after reading this book I started looking at all of the foods that were obvious triggers for me. They all had something in common – seed oils. Once you read the book, you’ll never want to eat a seed oil again unless you know that it’s been cold-pressed. I can tell you pretty confidently that none of the packaged processed foods that you get at your normal grocery store are going to have cold-pressed seed oils. I removed seed oils from my diet and viola, I felt a lot better almost immediately. When you start looking at almost all processed foods, they contain some kind of seed oil – canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, soybean. Once you learn how these oils are processed, it is easy to understand how they can wreak so much havoc on your digestive system. And it’s not just processed foods, it’s almost all restaurant foods as well. I was feeling great last week and then I was out with my family and we ended up eating at a restaurant – I tried to pick out the healthiest thing that I could find, but it had meat and sauteed peppers. I immediately started having gastrointestinal symptoms and felt like I reverted back to my old self, which I hadn’t experienced in a couple of weeks! As I was thinking about what could have made me feel so horrible so fast, I thought about the meat and peppers – they were likely both cooked in oil. Most restaurants are going to be using some form of the seed oils that I described above, as they are much cheaper than extra-virgin olive oil, grass-fed butter or beef tallow. I even emailed one of my favorite restaurants that seem to have a lot of “healthy” menu options and I was so disappointed – there is not a single thing on their entire menu that doesn’t have canola oil. They said if I called ahead, they could be ready to make my choice of protein with butter and serve that with a salad, but none of their dressings were seed-oil free (not even their “olive oil” dressing!). It’s no wonder why I’ve always felt sick after eating out at restaurants. I’m super bummed, as I do enjoy the experience of eating at a restaurant with my friends and family and enjoying different foods, but the improvement that I have felt since eliminating seed oils and ultra-processed foods from my diet is far more worth it to me. I have found an app called “Seed Oil Scout” that gives restaurant options that are seed-oil free, so maybe this is just my chance to branch out and explore new restaurants that I would have likely never found before!
The things that I have learned in this book will be invaluable as I continue working to decrease inflammation and improve healing, and I hope that other people are able to find healing through this information as well! It is included in Spotify Premium Audiobooks, can be found on Audible or purchased on Amazon.
**This is not to be considered medical advice, please contact a physical therapist or other healthcare professional for more information. All content on lisawilcoxpt.com is created for informational purposes only and is not to be taken as medical advice, treatment or diagnosis.
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