How to Identify the Good Processed Foods

Listen to any health-oriented podcasts or read the myriad diet-related books available and you’ll likely learn that you should stay away from processed foods. These are typically viewed as undesirable, having no place in a healthy eating plan. We are being issued warnings that if you eat too many of them, it’s just a matter of time before you see a downward spiral in health, no matter how many miles you are cranking out.

But too often, our understanding of processed foods is overly simplistic. They shouldn’t necessarily be demonized. Not all processed foods are created equal. Not even close. And there is no need to eliminate them from your kitchen or musette. Doing so could hurt your health and performance, not help.

Here’s how to decipher the difference between the types of processed foods and why that matters.

What are processed foods?

Technically speaking, any time you alter a food, it can be considered processed. A so-called “processed food” has been changed from its natural state using one or more of these processing methods: washing, freezing, chopping, milling, heating, pasteurizing, dehydrating, fermenting and packaging. In other words, almost anything that isn’t eaten raw or straight from a garden is processed to some degree. A bag of frozen mango, a can of diced tomatoes, a fillet of salmon, and a tub of Greek yogurt are considered processed foods. Peanut butter? You bet. Yet most of us should feel pretty good about including all of these as part of an overall healthy diet.

We, as health-conscious cyclists, shouldn’t forget that processed foods can still be dense in nutrition. For instance, a bag of processed frozen raspberries or broccoli florets—where the fruit and vegetable were frozen quickly to lock in the nutrition after being harvested—is jam-packed with important vitamins and antioxidants that hard-charging cyclists need. Processed packaged whole grain bread can deliver useful amounts of fibre. Convenient canned fish (definitely processed) is where you can help yourself to muscle-building protein and heart-benefiting omega fats.

Also, processed foods can help people lacking in culinary wizardry—or possibly the time to cook from scratch—to still eat well. If packaged, processed foods, such as frozen vegetables and canned beans, help you put healthy meals on the table consistently without overtaxing your time, energy and capability in the kitchen, that’s to be celebrated not disparaged.

What are ultra-processed foods?

Those bags of greasy chips, strips of maple bacon, sugary boxed cereals and coffee drinks and calorie-bomb fast-food burgers are what we can consider ultra-processed. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) undergo multiple steps in their production and are combined with any number of substances including sweeteners, fats, salt, artificial flavours and colours, and emulsifiers to alter taste, texture and shelf life. All this processing is the reason why the foods taste so good, and why we keep coming back for more. Overall, these are items that can contain a high ratio of calories to nutrients. Many packaged foods that are being marketed as “healthy,” like vegetable chips, meatless meats and energy bars are, in fact, ultra-processed. An ingredient list that reads like a chemistry quiz is a tip off that something is a UPF.

Concerningly, when the amount of UPFs in a diet increases, it crowds out more nutritious processed foods resulting in a net loss of nutrition including fibre, vitamins and minerals from the diet. Let’s just say that eating high amounts of UPFs is not in an athlete’s best interest.

The crossover effect

Where it can get a bit tricky is that some types of foods can fall into more than one processing category. Plain yogurt is minimally processed, but fruit-flavoured yogurt with added sweeteners and thickeners could be labelled as ultra-processed. Crackers can go from processed to ultra-processed when whole grains are replaced with refined grains and flavourings are added. Kale is certainly not processed, but bake it into kale chips with added fats and seasonings—then you are venturing into UPF territory. You see the pattern here?

The UPF health impact

Some degree of processing is nothing to fret about, but too much manipulation by manufacturers has its drawbacks. A 2023 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine associated the highest consumption amounts of ultra-processed foods with a 17 per cent increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease-related mortality and a 16 per cent increase in the risk for all-cause mortality. Other research data links greater intakes of UPFs to a larger risk for certain cancers and the development of Type 2 diabetes and even depression.

Oh, and all that extra processing, including the foods’ packaging, gives UPFs a higher carbon impact on the environment. It’s something to think about the next time you are riding in a heat wave in May.

To be fair, ultra-processed foods aren’t the devil. There is room for a modicum of these items in any well-balanced diet. It’s just the sheer volume found in the standard North American diet that is so concerning. Nearly half of the calories in the typical diet of a Canadian adult are now made up of UPFs, which is a troubling figure.

The items that many of us use to power our rides—gels, chews and bars—are considered UPFs. Still, it’s easy to make a strong argument that getting a wackload of sugar from ultra-processed gels and drinks during a century ride is better than not getting fuel at all and that consuming these items in this arena will not be detrimental to health. It’s only problematic if you start leaning on bars and sugary sports drinks too heavily when you’re off the saddle. No amount of riding should warrant spiking oatmeal with chocolate flavoured gels.

The take-home message is that you should say yes to the frozen blueberries and no to the blueberry muffins—at least most of the time.

The Best Processed Foods

It’s almost impossible to list all the packaged processed foods that can be considered beneficial to health and performance, but here are some options that deserve a spot in your pantry or freezer.

Canned beans
Canned fish
Canned tomatoes
Canned unsweetened fruits and vegetables
Dried fruit
Extra virgin olive oil
Frozen fish, unbattered
Frozen fruits
Frozen vegetables
Low-sugar cereals and granola
Milk
Unsweetened nut and seed butters
Unsweetened yogurt
Whole-grain bread
Whole-grain pasta

Matthew Kadey is a registered dietician and the designer of Ontario’s BT 700 bikepacking route.