Serious question....I've googled this and have gotten so many different answers. I want to try to eliminate processed foods but I honestly don't know what falls under this category. For example, would deli meat be considered processed? I love rotisserie chicken from a local store...is that processed? What about skinless/boneless frozen chicken breasts and fruit cups?

Any advice would be WONDERFUL.

We have a whole section dedicated to whole (or unprocessed foods) http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/whol...tyle-209/]HERE.

Read the labels - as a general rule, if there are a lot of ingredients listed that you don't recognize as food, it's usually not a whole food.

The more meals that you can make from products that are in their natural state (ie, fruit, meat, vegetables) the better.

Some deli meat is formed and then cut (processed) and others are just cooked and sliced thinly (whole).

I consider rotisserie to be a whole food, also chicken breasts even if they're frozen, and fruit that you buy and cut (though most fruit cups are processed with added sugars and unnecessary ingredients).

The closer to found in nature with minimal steps = whole. Not processed or refined. Perhaps think of it like whole foods are the "ingredients" (apple) to make the thing. Rather than the thing. (apple cake)

Apples are whole.

Applesauce, apple juice, apple cake -- not. They've been refined/processed.

However within that bracket, natural no sugar added applesauce is less processed/refined than frosted apple cake!

It's a spectrum, and you probably want to lean in the whole food direction. But you don't have to obsess over each little thing.

There's a balance.


A.