Food is one of the most important things we give our bodies, yet in our busy modern lives it can be very easy to lose our connection with it. Many of us are rushing from one thing to another, grabbing breakfast on the way to work, eating lunch at our desks and picking up something ready-made for dinner because we simply don’t have the time or energy to cook. Convenience has become an important part of everyday life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing something quick when life is busy. The problem is not one ready meal, one packet of biscuits or the occasional takeaway. The concern is when highly processed foods become a large part of what we eat, day after day, and begin to replace the natural foods our bodies need.
Perhaps it is time to slow down and think about what we are putting into our bodies, where our food comes from and how we might begin to bring more natural ingredients back into our everyday lives. This isn’t about dieting, restriction or giving up everything we enjoy. It isn’t about being perfect. It is about becoming more aware of what we eat and making small, realistic changes that can help us feel better nourished and more connected to our food.
It is important to understand what Ultra-Processed Foods are and that not all processed food is unhealthy. Processing can simply mean changing a food in some way to make it safer, easier to store or easier to use. Frozen vegetables, tinned beans, natural yoghurt, pasteurised milk and wholegrain bread have all been processed in some way, but they can still form an important part of a healthy diet.
Ultra-processed foods are different. They are generally made on an industrial scale using a combination of ingredients, some of which we would not normally have in our kitchens. They may contain added sugars, refined oils, flavourings, colourings, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other additives. Many are designed to taste very appealing, have a long shelf life and require very little preparation. They can include some packaged snacks, sweets, biscuits, sugary breakfast cereals, fizzy drinks, instant noodles, some ready meals and many highly processed meat products.
This doesn’t mean that every packaged food is unhealthy or that we need to examine every ingredient on every packet. Nutrition is much more complicated than simply deciding that something is either “good” or “bad”. A more useful question is to look at our overall diet and ask ourselves how much of the food we eat each day comes from natural or minimally processed ingredients and how much comes from highly processed products.
Our bodies are remarkably clever, but what does happen inside our body? Every moment of every day, our digestive system is breaking down food, absorbing nutrients and removing what we don’t need. But our bodies need much more than calories. They need protein, healthy fats, fibre, vitamins, minerals and a wide range of other nutrients to support all the processes taking place inside us.
Natural and minimally processed foods often provide many of these nutrients together. Take something as simple as an apple. An apple contains water, fibre, vitamins and naturally occurring plant compounds. It also has a structure that takes time to chew and digest. Compare this with a highly processed snack that may contain large amounts of sugar, fat or salt but much less fibre and nutritional variety. Both foods provide energy, but they are very different foods and can have very different effects on how we eat and how satisfied we feel.
Many ultra-processed foods are also very easy to eat quickly. We can eat a packet of crisps, biscuits or another snack without really noticing how much we have consumed. We might eat them while watching television, working, driving or scrolling through our phones. Because these foods are often soft, highly flavoured and easy to consume, it can be harder for us to notice when we have had enough. This doesn’t mean our bodies are incapable of processing these foods. Our digestive systems are remarkably adaptable. Rather, the concern is that a diet heavily based on highly processed foods can make it easier to consume large amounts of energy while getting less of the fibre and nutritional variety that whole foods can provide.
One of the most interesting areas of nutrition is our understanding of the gut microbiome. Inside our digestive system lives a huge community of microorganisms that interact with the food we eat. While research into the gut microbiome is still developing, we know that a varied diet containing plenty of fibre is important for supporting a healthy gut environment.
Fibre is naturally found in foods such as vegetables, fruit, beans, lentils, oats, whole grains, nuts and seeds. These foods provide different types of fibre and a wide variety of nutrients and plant compounds. When we eat a broad range of plant foods, we are giving our bodies a much wider range of nutrients to work with and providing food for the microorganisms living within our gut.
Unfortunately, many modern diets contain much less variety and fibre than they could. It is easy for a day of eating to become centred around toast, cereal, sandwiches, packaged snacks and ready-made meals, with very few vegetables, fruit, beans, lentils, nuts or seeds. Bringing more of these foods into our diets doesn’t need to involve a dramatic change. Even small additions can gradually increase the variety of food we are eating.
Adding berries to breakfast, putting lentils into a soup, having an extra portion of vegetables with dinner or choosing a piece of fruit and some nuts as a snack can all be simple ways of moving towards a more varied diet.
Why Is It So Difficult to Change? Well, knowing what we should eat doesn’t always make it easy to eat that way. Food is connected to almost every part of our lives. We eat when we are hungry, but we also eat when we are tired, stressed, celebrating, socialising or simply because something looks and smells appealing.
Modern life can make this even harder. We may have demanding jobs, children to care for, long journeys, household responsibilities and very little time left at the end of the day. When we arrive home exhausted, preparing vegetables, chopping ingredients and cooking a meal can feel like another job that needs to be done. A ready meal that can be put into the oven in a few minutes can seem like the obvious choice. It is important not to blame ourselves. Changing the way, we eat isn’t simply about having more willpower, so, instead of asking ourselves, “Why can’t I make better choices?”, it may be more useful to ask ourselves, “How can I make healthier choices easier for myself?”. That small change in thinking can make a big difference.
One of the easiest ways to reduce ultra-processed food is to think about what we can add rather than everything we need to remove. If we tell ourselves that we can never eat biscuits, chocolate, crisps or takeaway food again, it can immediately create a feeling of restriction. Food then becomes something we have to be “good” or “bad” around, which isn’t a particularly healthy relationship with eating.
Instead, we can begin by adding more nourishing choices. Perhaps we could have fruit and natural yoghurt instead of a highly processed dessert, or a handful of nuts and some fruit instead of a packet of snacks. We might choose oatcakes with hummus, a boiled egg or some berries when we need something between meals. We don’t have to make the perfect choice every time. We are simply trying to change the overall balance of what we eat.
The same approach works with meals. Rather than deciding that we will never eat another ready meal, perhaps we could start by preparing one or two simple meals ourselves each week. A large pot of vegetable and lentil soup can provide several lunches. A simple chilli made with beans, vegetables and tomatoes can be frozen in portions. A tray of roasted vegetables can be used over several meals. Cooking a little more when we have the time can make life easier when we don’t.
There is sometimes an idea that eating well means spending hours in the kitchen creating complicated recipes. It doesn’t. Some of the most nourishing meals can be incredibly simple. Porridge with berries and seeds, eggs on wholegrain toast, a baked potato with beans and vegetables, soup made from vegetables and lentils, grilled fish with potatoes and vegetables, or natural yoghurt with fruit and nuts can all provide simple ways of bringing more natural foods into our diet.
The important thing is not how complicated the recipe is. It is the quality and variety of the ingredients we are using. We can begin to think of food differently. Instead of starting with a packet and asking what we can make from it, we can start with an ingredient. Perhaps we have some vegetables that need using, some eggs in the fridge and a few potatoes in the cupboard. These simple ingredients can become an omelette, a vegetable frittata, a tray bake or a simple meal. We don’t need to become chefs. We simply need to begin bringing ingredients together ourselves.
There is something quite special about preparing food. Washing vegetables, chopping them, hearing them sizzle in a pan and smelling herbs and spices as they cook can bring us back into the present moment. Cooking doesn’t always have to be another task on our never-ending list of things to do. It can become a small ritual that gives us an opportunity to slow down.
Of course, not every meal needs to be a mindful experience. Sometimes we are hungry and simply need to eat. But perhaps we have become so used to convenience that we have forgotten the pleasure of preparing food. We have lost some of the connection between the ingredients and the meal that eventually appears on our plate.
Cooking can also bring people together. Preparing food with a partner, friend or child can turn something that feels like a chore into something enjoyable. Sharing a meal around a table, rather than eating separately while looking at a screen, can also create a sense of connection that has nothing to do with calories or nutrition. Food is nourishment, but it can also be culture, memory, pleasure, connection and comfort.
One of the biggest challenges we face in the 21st century, is time. We live in a world where almost everything is expected to happen quickly. Fast food, fast cooking, fast delivery and even fast eating have become normal parts of everyday life, but perhaps our relationship with food doesn’t always need to be fast. Taking twenty or thirty minutes to prepare a meal can feel like a lot when we are busy, but it can also provide a small opportunity to step away from work, phones and the constant demands of everyday life. We could perhaps choose one evening each week when we prepare a simple meal from scratch, put our phones away and sit down to eat properly.
It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It might be soup and homemade bread, a simple pasta dish with vegetables, roasted vegetables with chicken or fish, or a baked potato with a variety of toppings. The important thing is that we have taken a little time to prepare something using ingredients rather than simply opening a packet, over time, these small rituals can become habits.
If we know that certain days of the week are particularly busy, preparing some food in advance can make a huge difference. We don’t need to prepare every meal for the entire week. Sometimes just having a few ingredients ready can make it much easier to avoid reaching for highly processed food when we are tired. We could cook some rice or another whole grain, roast some vegetables, boil a few eggs, make a pot of soup or chilli, wash some fruit or keep frozen vegetables ready in the freezer. Having tins of beans and lentils in the cupboard can also provide a quick way of adding nutritious ingredients to meals. Healthy
Perhaps one of the most important things to remember is that reducing ultra-processed food isn’t about perfection. There will be days when we have a takeaway. There will be days when we eat biscuits with a cup of tea or reach for something from the freezer because we are simply too tired to cook. That’s life! One meal does not determine our health, just as one food doesn’t make our diet healthy or unhealthy. What matters much more is the pattern we create over time. If most of our meals contain a good variety of natural or minimally processed foods, then occasionally enjoying something highly processed doesn’t need to become a reason for guilt. Food should bring us pleasure. It should bring us comfort. It should bring people together. There is room for enjoyment, our aim is simply to gradually change the balance.
Reducing ultra-processed food isn’t really about following another set of strict rules. It is about reconnecting with something very simple: food! Real ingredients, cooking simply and eating together. Taking our time. Listening to our bodies. Becoming curious about where our food comes from and how it makes us feel.
We don’t need to completely change our lives overnight. We can start with one meal, one ingredient or one small change. Perhaps tomorrow morning we could make porridge instead of reaching for a sugary cereal. Perhaps we could add another vegetable to dinner. Perhaps we could make a soup rather than buying one. Perhaps we could choose fruit and nuts instead of a packet of snacks. Or perhaps we could simply sit down and eat our lunch without looking at our phones. Small changes can become habits, and habits can gradually change the way we eat. Our bodies work incredibly hard for us every single day. They digest, absorb, repair, regulate and adapt. Perhaps one of the simplest things we can do in return is to give them more of the foods they recognise: foods that grow, foods that nourish and foods that provide fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats. In considering doing so, we might discover something else along the way, that preparing food doesn’t always have to be another job on our list. It can be a moment to slow down, reconnected and nourish ourselves.
Because sometimes, improving our wellbeing isn’t about finding something new. Sometimes it is about coming back to something simple that we have slowly moved away from.
Real food. Simple ingredients. Time. Connection. And the pleasure of nourishing ourselves well.
