Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Hello, fabulous. Dr. Stephanie Fein here with weight loss for fertility. Today we are talking about whole foods versus processed foods versus ultra processed foods. Now, I don't talk about which particular foods to eat all that often. I talked about it a little bit in episode 19, and we're at 146, so that's a big space in between. That one's called what Should I Eat? And you can listen to that after you listen to this or before, whatever you like. But today I'm going to talk about it a little more because I do think it's an interesting topic and it supports what you already know.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:44]:
That's the main thing I want to say. And what I always think about this is you already know what to eat. So when people ask me, it's always interesting because you've gotten so much information about that you know what to eat. And what I mean by that is you've heard things that sound right to you. And the shortcut is they probably are. Especially if they say that whole foods are best, they're pretty darn good. Whole foods are unprocessed foods that retain their natural nutrients and fiber. The packaging is as important as the proportions that come naturally are very good for us.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:25]:
They're good for our gut, they're good for our nutrition. They're good. So whole foods is amazing. And then there's. In our society, in our culture, there's lots of levels of processed foods. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods vs.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:44]:
Ultra Processed Foods. So we started already with whole foods. And that's foods that look the way they come from the ground or walk around the planet or whatever it is they are in their natural form, and we eat them that way. Now, you can get technical and say that we process foods by cooking them. It's sort of true, right? Chopping them, cooking them, all of that, that's processing. And that's actually one of the points I want to make. Processing in and of itself is not an issue because the second definition. So we did whole foods.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:23]:
The second definition is processed foods. They're altered in some way. If it's minimally, clearly that's not a problem. Chopping up some fruit so that you can eat it is not an issue. You obviously have to bite it. So we have to make it edible. Cooking makes things edible, heating them, you know, all that sort of stuff. So processing isn't the problem necessarily.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:49]:
And then there's ultra processed foods. There's a few definitions. And truly, in terms of the study of ultra processed foods. It's a newish research base, you know, new thing to study relatively. And so they're just coming up with the definitions that can work for research now, but sort of colloquially, the way that we think about it, it's foods that have a long ingredients list and are highly processed in factories. So foods that have undergone extensive processing, so not just chopping it up, not just heating it or sauteing it, or mixing it with an oil necessarily, but extensive processing and again, usually in factories, and then ingredients not used by a home cook. That's one definition that I kind of like. Ultra processed foods are often in a package.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:44]:
And so if you look in the ingredients, there's a long list, and they're not used by a home cook. So they're preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial flavors like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified starches, and hydrolyzed proteins. Those aren't things you reach up and sprinkle if you're at home. Also, and not part of the definition, but just to bring to attention, in terms of ultra processed foods, they're usually energy dense, meaning high calories. That's what energy dense means. Low fiber and not as nutritious as whole foods or minimally processed foods. They're highly palatable on purpose. They're designed to make you want more, and they're very easy to break down.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:32]:
So you're not using all the parts of the gut that are needed. You know, when you start chewing, you release enzymes from your salivary glands, and all that is not needed. Very little chewing is necessary. And that impacts digestion because you're not getting as much of the triggered processes as is helpful for breaking down food that is more fibrous. And I want to say better for us because it uses all of the systems in place. All of the systems in place have a. There's a reason for them. And ultimately it has to do with our gut and our gut lining and shoring up the lining so that we aren't having breakdowns in the lining, which then can get things from our gut into our bloodstream and increase inflammation.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:36]:
A lot of this whole food versus processed food versus ultra processed food has to do with the inflammatory reaction in our body to this food. This is why fertility diets, or when people talk about nutrition for fertility, they want to talk about things that decrease inflammation. And really, very simply, it's more whole foods than ultra processed foods, and it's because of the inflammation piece. Now, the other piece about this is that stored fat also contributes to inflammation, but also has more to do with insulin sensitivity. So there's always the two parts, reducing fat, which will decrease inflammation and help increase insulin sensitivity, which is what we want. And then we have the inflammatory processes that are kicked off by having ultra processed foods. But if I'm picking one, I will pick fat loss over the ultra processed foods. Now, in an ideal world, we have both, right? We're going more towards whole foods and we're losing weight.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:00]:
But this piece is a really important piece, and it's the reason I don't often talk about this, because it's so nuanced. When we're used to diet culture, which most of us are, we're used to all or nothing thinking. So if we decide we want to lose weight or we want to change our diet right away, we want rules, and we want to hit ourselves over the head with them. We force ourselves into them, black and white thinking, all or nothing. All whole foods, kale, all the time, raw food. That or we're driving through for every single meal. And that kind of thinking does not work. You may have experienced that yourself with diets, you know, Whole 30, where you're just eliminating things.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:51]:
And we can do it for a little while, but we can't do it forever. And the worst part about it is the beating ourselves up. The reason why that's the worst part about it is because we lose trust with ourselves. We're gaslighting ourselves, telling us, no, it's okay, this is good, but it feels terrible. So we always have to change the way we think about food, the way we eat in a way that's okay with us. And what I mean by that is what? We're not forcing ourselves to do it. We think it's a good idea. We're deciding to do it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:30]:
I know that that can sound subtle, but it is such an important distinction. Forcing ourselves versus deciding to. Deciding to wins every day. Because if we make a decision, we're on board with it. We're not doing it against our will. If we're on board with it, we will do it more often. We will experiment. We will be willing to try things.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:58]:
If we force ourselves, we're counting the minutes until we don't have to do it anymore. And that is counterproductive. I am not a nutritionist. I'm a doctor. And doctors have a different lens than nutritionists. Nutritionists know if you have a vitamin deficiency, how to make sure you have that. Doctors would just supplement it with a pill. God bless us.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:20]:
Nutritionists would know the foods that are appropriate to eat. That's not how I think about this. In terms of fertility, it's not so many ounces of this or so many milligrams of that. You can use supplements to help in certain areas. Please talk to your reproductive endocrinologist about this. They have great ideas about supplements to have. My job is to help you lose fat because that impacts your fertility in a sort of bigger picture way. And if I can help you lose fat forever, I've not only changed your life and the life of your embryo, fetus, baby, but your child's life too, because they will have a different environment and in terms of food thoughts and behaviors than you had.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:16]:
And that is so important to me. I care about you and your future generations. And when we can change behavior permanently, we've really done something. And the only way we can permanently change behavior is with kindness, with buy in. And I mean our own buy in, that we think it's a good idea. We understand. And I'm not saying that you don't think whole foods is a good idea. I'm sure you do, but you've known that before and it can be hard to do.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:56]:
That's the piece I want to bridge. That's what we do here. We help you go from what you know and to actually doing it. And we do it in a way that's kind, because if there's kindness, we can change. Louise Hay's My favorite quote is changes that are loved into being last. And that's exactly it. It's 100% true. So I always hesitate to talk about which foods, but I did want to talk about it here because it is a general, important thing to know in case it was ever a question.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:35]:
Whole foods better than ultra processed foods. And you know, an ultra processed food, if it has ingredients that a home cook wouldn't normally use and it's processed highly, usually in a factory. So those would be snacks and candies and soda, hot dog cereals, that sort of thing. Now you can see I'm saying cereal. There are some cereals that are not. And so not all these foods are evil. You may enjoy a soda. I just don't think that that's an evil, terrible thing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:19]:
You can decide if you want to have less soda or not have as much soda if you know how it affects you. But. But beating ourselves up for liking and having soda is not fair. And especially if we have a lot of changes we want to make, we cannot make them all at once. And so this piece is so important is that we cannot beat ourselves up into submission. It does not work. We can know that whole foods are good for us and we can like some ultra processed foods. Both can be true.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:59]:
Whole foods can be ideal and we can still decide to eat a Dorito or a Sour Patch Kid or a Diet Coke. Finding the right balance for you and your life is what is most important because we have a long term vision in mind. This is not about 30 days. This is about forever. And the tortoise and the hare come into mind right now is that 30 days without diet Coke is very different than it taking a couple months to decrease Coke. Diet Coke if you want it and then deciding you don't like it anymore and then not having it again for years one is ultimately better for you and it's more possible to do it in a way that's kind to yourself. With the longer vision, we just can't beat ourselves up for wanting a soda. This is what I mean.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:04]:
There's a bigger picture here and that's the piece I want you to take away from this. You can know that we're heading towards whole foods, leaning into the whole foods when you have a choice, deciding that, but also not beating ourselves up for liking foods that our society has, has used its power, its significant power, marketing power to get us to like. So no beating up when we're finding the right balance in your life and how you're going through, learning to use the hunger scale, planning your food so you know where the next meal is coming from. So when you're hungry, you know what you're going to be eating and being kind to yourself as you learn the process. The weight loss for fertility process is infinitely more important for your long term health and weight. Once you have the framework down and you're comfortable in it, you can look to see where it might be easy to start incorporating more whole foods, adding vegetables, trying fruits, prepping your food or finding a place that preps it for you that you know the foods that are going into it. That all can happen once we're comfortable with the way we're eating, with the way we're thinking about eating. That's what's really the most important thing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:39]:
Okay, I'm going to recap by saying whole foods are unprocessed foods that retain their natural nutrients and fiber. Processed foods are altered in some way and that includes like frozen fruit, which is an amazing thing to have. It's very convenient. So this is why processed foods we cannot say are bad. They're very helpful minimally processed foods are very helpful. It's the ultra processed foods, the ones with the long ingredients list, with ingredients other than what home cooks would use, that are highly processed in factories. Those are the ones that, that we want to avoid as we can. But we're not going to beat ourselves up for liking those foods and for having them occasionally.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:29]:
And if we are going to change our food from ultra processed foods to whole foods, we're going to gently lean in and we're first going to work on the weight loss for fertility process, which includes the the hunger scale, some planning, kindness to ourselves. When that is in place, changing to whole foods becomes so much easier. I'm happy to help you with this. That first step is the weight Loss for fertility process and I'm happy to help you. I have 145 other podcasts here for you to learn. I also would love to work with you. So find me @Stephaniefeinmd on Instagram and LinkedIn or stephaniefeinmd.com and you can click the lose weight with me button and we will be connected. I am sending you so much love.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:33]:
Until next week.
