At Exercise Inc we preach to our clients that they should eat real, whole, unprocessed food like fruits, vegetables, meat and nuts. We also encourage our clients to completely avoid ultra-processed foods, which I see as the biggest threat to our health. But in reality, all food is processed in some way.

We process foods for three reasons: the first reason is to keep food safe; the second is to transport it into areas that can’t cultivate their food; and the third is to maintain the texture, flavor, and mineral and vitamin content in storage.

Meat starts to spoil if we don’t immediately cool it, cook it, or salt it, which are all forms of processing. Vegetables and grains are often treated with pesticides, cleaned, cut, flash frozen, or blanched to maintain their freshness. Processing food is an essential part of civilization. Hunting for and growing food is pretty easy. The hard part is keeping it for seasons when it can’t be grown—that’s what processing allows us to do.

But food manufacturers have taken processing farther than they should have. And why wouldn’t they? There’s a lot of money to be made if you can produce ultra-processed foods as highly addictive as cocaine and cigarettes. I’m not making that at up. An article published last year in Scientific America revealed research proving that to be the case.

Ultra-processed foods are formulations of ingredients typically created by a series of industrial techniques and processes. They are what Micheal Pollan calls “edible food-like substances”—products of science, not nature.

Unless you are either incredibly self-disciplined or living completely off the land, avoiding processed foods completely is nearly impossible. Thankfully, food manufactures are starting to become wise to the fact that many of us want processed foods like chips or snack foods that taste great but contain real ingredients. I call these Simple Processed Foods. They contain a handful of familiar, pronounceable ingredients. They are foods that are made from unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients (like olive oil or spices).

In my house, we buy several simple processed foods that work well if you are following The Simple 9^©. I want to share a list of a few of my favorites:

Siete Tortillas and Chips

I’m so thankful for this company. They make a line of grain-free tortillas and chips whose main ingredients are casava flour and avocado oil. We do Mexican night at least once a week in my house. Siete chips are a staple. They have several different flavors, but the lime are my favorite.

Larabars

Larabar makes great tasting snack bars whose main ingredients are fruit and nuts. These are my favorite snack bars. They have several different flavors, and the bars contain anywhere from two to six real ingredients. My favorite, the Cashew Cookie Bar, is made of just dates and cashews.

Jackson’s Avocado Oil Sweet Potato Chips

The Reamer family set out to make their own snack foods when their son Jackson was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder. They started cooking thinly sliced sweet potatoes in avocado oil and wow are they good. These are a perfect snack for a kid on the go. They are also great to serve at a backyard barbeque.

Banza Chickpea Pasta

The folks at Banza make pasta out of chickpeas. I think it actually tastes better and has a better texture than pasta made from wheat flour. This pasta has no grains, 50% more protein than regular pasta, three times the fiber, and 25% fewer carbs. Hey, if you’re following the Simple 9^© and you want some pasta once in a while, this is a great option.

As a disclaimer, Banza pasta contains only four ingredients, chick peas, pea starch, tapioca, and xanthum gum. Chickpeas are legumes, which can be problematic for some folks, but certainly not as bad as grains. Also, xanthum gum is an emulsifier that’s used in a lot of processed foods. It’s just one ingredient that could be a little questionable. Most ultra-processed foods contain about 15 questionable ingredients.

That’s It Fruit Bars

Okay these are my second favorite snack bar. We keep these around because the kids like them. These great-tasting snack bars are made of nothing but fruit. In fact, you could count them as a serving of fruit on our Simple 9^© plans.

Any Dressings or Dips Made by Primal Kitchen

Traditional salad dressings are loaded with industrial seed oils. So many of us put together a salad thinking we are eating something healthy, then we cover it with and an extremely offensive industrialized food. Mark Sisson at Primal Kitchen set out to change that by creating salad dressings and mayonnaise made from avocado oil and real, whole ingredients and spices. Primal Kitchen salad dressings are the only thing I put on my salads at home.

This list is just a start. I plan on putting together a more comprehensive list of Simple Processed Foods. But you can put together your own list as well. Look for foods made from a handful of real, whole, pronounceable ingredients. You’ll probably find that these simple foods often taste better than their ultra-processed counterparts. And they will certainly make you feel better.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey