The more moral constraints, health restrictions or calorie restriction you require (let’s face it, most of us do), the more you need to rely on processed foods to get all the nutrients you need without eating too much or spending too much. 


When I say processing, it’s not Cheetos, Lotus Biscoff and flavoured milk

Sensible processing could result in a few of the options below:

Dairy with reduced or without fat and carbohydrate content. In powder, curd or beverage form

Egg whites out of a box

Nuts such as almonds or peanuts with reduced fat content 

Protein isolated from peas, rice, milk, eggs, soy 

Cheese made with milk that has had the carbohydrate and fat content removed or dramatically lowered

Meat or poultry that has had the fat trimmed off

Sweeteners that even when used sparingly contain much fewer or no calories 

Soy with reduced fat content and processed into flour or tofu 

Oil and fat extracted from fruits, plants, fish, algae or dairy. 


If enough constraints are introduced, it is going to be impossible to get all the nutrients we need from 1800-2000 calories a day eating just whole foods. 

Processing is not a bad word. 

The only bad words in the nutrition dictionary is ‘loss of context’.