Processed Ingredients to Avoid

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Artificial ingredients

This includes both synthetic dyes (like FD&C Red No. 40, Tartrazine, or Blue No. 1) and artificial sweeteners (like saccharin, aspartame, or sucralose). When you look at the history of food, artificial ingredients haven’t been around all that long, and I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in being the guinea pig here. Plus, the fact that artificial dyes require a warning label in many countries outside of the U.S. is enough of a deal breaker for me.

Instead, look for dyes that come from natural sources (like paprika, saffron, or annatto) or forget the coloring all together (it’s only for aesthetics). When it comes to sweeteners pick those that come from natural sources (like honey, maple syrup, and even sugar) over the artificial stuff, but always consume them in moderation.

Photo: Matthew Bland/Creative Commons via Flickr

Refined Sweeteners

It’s not that refined sweeteners themselves (like sugar) are the devil. It’s the quantity in which sweeteners are consumed these days that is the honestly scary part. Sugar (or corn syrup or cane juice or brown rice syrup or whatever creative name is on the label) is no longer reserved for truly special occasions, and instead is lurking in yogurts, breads, crackers, flavored oatmeal, beverages, and even innocent-looking salad dressings.

Instead, rely on natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup since they are mostly “processed” in nature and at least contain some trace nutrients. But it’s important to remember that “sugar is sugar” no matter what you choose. So even if you go the more natural route (which is recommended!), that by no means gives you the green light to turn up the bottle. It’s also helpful to buy foods “plain” (like yogurt, oatmeal, etc.) and sparingly sweeten them yourself to make sure things don’t get out of hand.

Photo: Bekathwia/Creative Commons via Flickr

Refined Grains

This includes products made from white flour (usually labeled as enriched “wheat” flour), white rice, corn meal, etc. When grains are refined the most nutritional part of the grain (the bran and germ) is removed. This prolongs shelf life, among other things, but remember...real food should (and does!) rot, so avoid the science experiment and stick to the whole grains provided to us by nature.

Instead, give up the white stuff and rely on nutritious whole grains like whole-wheat flour, oats, brown rice, quinoa, and others.

Photo: Meijer /Creative Commons via Flickr

Factory-Farmed Meat and Seafood

Factory farms raise animals in incredibly crowded and confined quarters, so some (literally) never see the light of day. What’s more, these animals are often fed unnatural diets (for instance, cows were meant to eat grass, not corn that, by the way, is likely GMO) and given unnecessary synthetic hormones and antibiotics to ensure they produce the most abundant meat products as quickly and efficiently as possible. According to Michael Pollan, “You are what you eat eats, too,” so animals raised in such an unhealthy environment in turn produce products that are not as nutritious for you as the local, pastured (or wild caught, in regards to fish) alternatives. Not to mention the negative impact these factory farms have on our environment and the inhumane manner in which these animals are being raised and slaughtered.

Instead, shop your local farmers market for humanely raised, pastured animal products. If you are concerned about the higher cost, then just eat less meat. It’s that simple. And when selecting seafood always pick the “wild caught” variety so you know they were raised in their natural environments and eating their natural diets.

Photo: Ivanwalsh.com/Creative Commons via Flickr

Ingredients You Would Not Cook With at Home

Rather than memorizing a complicated list of chemicals to avoid in packaged foods, I am going to make this one really easy for you: Don’t buy anything packaged that’s made with ingredients you wouldn’t cook with at home (which are usually items you can’t even pronounce).

Instead, stick with simple products made from a handful of pure ingredients or make food yourself from scratch.

Photo: dmuth/Creative Commons via Flickr

Refined Oils

Olive oil and other oils have been instrumental to cooking for millennia, but refined alternatives like shortening, soybean oil (above), and even canola oil are fairly new on the scene. That’s because they are basically science experiments that were dreamed up in a lab by the food industry. These highly processed vegetable oils are cleaned with chemicals, genetically modified, and sometimes even hydrogenated—so we like to avoid them as much as possible.

Instead, stick with traditional cooking fats like butter, olive oil, ghee (refined butter), unrefined coconut oil, and, yes, even pastured lard. As Michael Pollan says, “Innovation in food is bad.”

Photo: Male Gringo/Creative Commons via Flickr

Pre-flavored Packaged Products

As I touched on before, there are a wide range of “flavored” products available these days, including everything from beverages to yogurts to oatmeal to cream cheese. Trust me, food factories are going to use a lot more sugar, salt, oil, and unrecognizable ingredients than you would use to flavor these foods at home.

Instead, buy plain items and flavor/sweeten them yourself (naturally). When it comes to drinks, squirt some lemon (or other citrus) in your water or sparkling water to kick things up a notch.

Photo: avlxyz/Creative Commons via Flickr

Imitation Foods

This includes anything that’s trying to pretend to be something it’s not. Think margarine (or vegan “butter”), processed cheese products, imitation crabmeat, pancake “syrup,” and “lemonade” powder. Believe it or not, there used to be a regulation requiring manufacturers to clearly label foods like these as an “imitation.” But of course these products were looked down upon, so it’s no surprise that the powerful food industry got that regulation thrown out the window. The bottom line is that imitation foods are a highly processed fake version of the real thing.

Instead, buy the real versions of imitation foods: real butter, real cheese, real crab, pure maple syrup, and make lemonade with real lemons (not artificial powder!).

Photo: ilovebutter/Creative Commons via Flickr

Low-fat and Fat-free Products

You are off the hook: “Diet” foods are not only more processed (to get the fat out), but they never taste that good anyway. As it turns out, according to Michael Pollan, “We’ve gotten fat on low-fat products.” And that’s because after taking the fat out of these foods, they no longer taste good, so the manufactures have to add in a bunch of sugar (see #2). Binging on sugar and other refined sweeteners is the real issue here—not eating healthy fats like our ancestors have survived on for centuries.

Instead, switch to full-fat dairy (including milk!) and avoid low-fat packaged foods all together.

Photo: Kraft

Fast Food

It’s an amazing feat, but fast food places have somehow managed to screw up the most innocent, wholesome-sounding real-food meals like oatmeal, sandwiches, and salads “Even the salads at McDonald’s are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn,” Pollan writes. So how about we all agree to “vote with our dollars” and avoid fast-food joints all together?

Instead, plan your meals ahead of time. That’s the key when it comes to avoiding fast-food restaurants while on the go. Before you leave the house each morning, be sure to have all your meals planned out in your head so you aren’t caught off-guard and empty-handed. And always have some wholesome snacks (like dried fruit or nuts) on hand just in case you get in a bind!

Photo: Happymealy/Creative Commons via Flickr

What's on your personal list of foods and ingredients to avoid? Let us know in the comments

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Lisa Leake is a wife, mother, foodie, and blogger who chronicles her family’s journey on 100daysofrealfood.com as they seek out the real food in our processed food world. What started as a simple pledge has turned into a valuable and practical resource that’s now read by millions around the globe

100 Days of Real Food: 10 Highly Processed Foods and Ingredients to Avoid