Why Food Quality Matters
Food is Medicine
“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”
— Ann Wigmore
Most of my clients come to me after trying every diet under the sun. They read labels. They spend more on “clean” foods. And yet…
They’re still exhausted.
Inflamed.
Stuck.
Their waistline won’t budge. Their mood is off. Their body feels like it’s working against them.
Could the very foods they believe are nourishing them actually be slowly wearing them down?
Let’s talk about why food quality matters—and how to tell if what you’re eating is truly working for you.
Food Isn’t Neutral
Every bite we take is either moving us closer to healing or quietly fueling the inflammation, fatigue, and imbalance that so many of us are struggling with.
And it’s not just what we eat. It’s how our food is grown, processed, and packaged that makes the difference.
The good news? It’s surprisingly simple to tell whether a food aligns with your biology—whether it will promote resilience or drain your vitality.
How Processed Is Your Diet?
My clients are intentional about their health. They prioritize quality. They invest in organic, grass-fed, and “natural” foods.
And yet, ultra-processed foods still sneak in.
Why? Because the food industry is brilliant at marketing.
We’re led to believe that food in a package—even when labeled as “healthy”—is either beneficial or at worst, harmless. But here’s the truth:
These packaged, processed foods—yes, even the ones marketed as “clean”—fuel weight gain, insulin resistance, and chronic disease.
And perhaps the biggest problem? What we don’t know.
Most of these industrial ingredients are novel and untested in the long term. Every time we eat them, we’re essentially volunteering in an experiment on human health—without informed consent.
So How Do We Cut Through the Noise?
How do we navigate the grocery store, the check-out aisle, and the endless food marketing claims?
It’s actually simpler than you think.
There are two simple questions that can help us instantly determine whether a food is nourishing us—or simply benefiting a food manufacturer.
Two Questions to Identify Ultra-Processed Foods
1️⃣ Would a reasonable person have these ingredients in their kitchen?
A simple rule of thumb: if an ingredient list contains items you wouldn’t cook with at home, it’s likely ultra-processed.
Would you keep sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate, or maltodextrin in your pantry? What about artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, or “natural” sweeteners that don’t exist in nature?
Real food consists of ingredients that your grandmother would recognize. If the list reads more like a chemistry experiment than a recipe, it’s not truly food—it’s a food product.
2️⃣ Is this food designed for overconsumption?
Ultra-processed foods are intentionally engineered to override your natural hunger signals.
Ever notice how hard it is to stop at just one chip, cookie, or handful of crackers? That’s by design. Food manufacturers carefully craft flavors, textures, and even how food breaks down in your mouth to keep you reaching for more.
Real food—like a steak, an apple, or a handful of nuts—naturally satisfies. It provides nutrients, fiber, and proteins that signal to your brain: “I’m full.”
Ultra-processed foods hijack this system. They’re made to be hyper-palatable, lighting up reward centers in the brain while leaving your body undernourished and craving more.
The example I like to use here are avocado-oil potato chips. Have you noticed these popping up in your grocery store? They’re marketed as healthy. After all, they only have three ingredients: potato, avocado oil, and salt. You probably have all of these ingredients in your kitchen right now, so they’re healthy, right? Not so fast. When we ask ourselves whether it’s easy to eat just one serving of a food, we uncover a disturbing fact. This food was deliberately designed for over-consumption. Not that these are the worst choice, especially compared to other chips on the aisle. And if you’re headed to a party and are looking for a healthier alternative to other processed foods, they’re a great option. But they may not be the wisest choice for your kitchen pantry.
When you ask these two questions before buying or eating a food, you’ll quickly see through the marketing tactics and make choices that truly fuel your body.
The Problem With Processed Foods
The Connection Between Ultra-Processed Foods & Weight Gain
In 2019, a groundbreaking study at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) shed light on the real impact of ultra-processed foods. It was the first randomized, controlled trial of its kind—and the findings were stunning.
The Study
Researchers followed 20 participants who lived in a controlled facility for one month, ensuring every variable—from diet to activity—was meticulously tracked.
For two weeks, participants ate either:
✅ A whole-food diet
❌ Or a diet made up primarily of ultra-processed foods (as defined by the NOVA classification system)
Then, they switched.
Both diets were matched for calories, sugar, salt, and fat. Participants could eat as much or as little as they wanted.
The Results
🔴 On the ultra-processed diet:
- Participants ate about 500 more calories per day, leading to a weight gain of 2 pounds in just two weeks.
- They also ate faster, a behavior linked to lower satiety and overeating.
🟢 On the whole-food diet:
- Participants lost an average of 2 pounds—without restricting calories.
This wasn’t about willpower. It wasn’t about counting calories.
It was about food quality.
And here’s the kicker: The “processed” diet wasn’t junk food. It was things like bagels with cream cheese and turkey bacon. Compare that to the “whole-food” breakfast of oatmeal, banana, and milk—real food in its simplest form.
Real-Life Proof
This mirrors what I see with my clients every day.
I once coached a middle-aged couple who shifted to a minimally processed, paleo-style diet—eliminating refined grains and ultra-processed foods while focusing on whole, nutrient-dense meals.
The result?
🚀 He lost 20 pounds. She lost 17.
💡 Their brain fog lifted.
⚡️ Energy levels soared.
And they weren’t eating less—they were just eating differently.
They were shocked and confused about why this happened. They wondered if they were allergic to something they’d been eating, if they were having a reaction to it. They wondered what it was about them that they couldn’t eat the way typical Americans eat. The truth is none of us is designed to eat processed foods. It confuses our biology. When they asked me why they saw such a dramatic change, my answer was simple:
“It’s not you. It’s the food.”
For decades, we’ve been taught that health is about calories in, calories out. That weight is about willpower. That it’s about exercise.
But the truth is, the quality of our food is the foundation of everything.
And once we start fueling our bodies with what they’re designed to thrive on—everything changes.
Want to learn more about how to live in line with your biology?
I can’t recommend Casey Mean’s book, Good Energy enough. It’s a valuable resource on how we can optimize our nutrition, movement, sleep, light exposure, and stress management in practical ways to live more in alignment with how our bodies are made.
