Processed Foods: The Good, the Bad and When to Break the Rules

If there’s a reliable dietary culprit, “processed food” would be it. In fact, “processed foods” has become practically synonymous with bad-for-you food. However, most of the foods we eat are “processed,” subjected to some kind of “process” from simple cooking, grinding and fermenting to complex hydrogenating, modifying and refining. So in a practical sense, how do we implement the experts’ advice to eliminate processed foods? Instead of an either/or definition, I use the far more helpful “Tree to Test Tube Continuum” to sort out good from bad and when it’s OK to break the rules.