How Eliminating Processed Foods & Eating Whole Foods Changed Our Lives

Cutting Out Processed Foods: The First Step in Our Healing Journey

Ultra-processed foods are linked to obesity, inflammation, and chronic disease. Learn why we cut out 95% of processed foods, switched to a whole-foods-based diet, and how it transformed our health.

Continuing Our Health Journey: The First Step to Healing

If you haven’t already, be sure to read our previous blog post where we share our personal story of chronic illness, misdiagnoses, and how we finally found the path to healing.

The above pictures show me after my first baby at 21 year old, and then after my 3rd baby 13 years later. What grabs my attention more than anything is the vitality in my eyes now. I can clearly see the inflammation, brain fog, tiredness, and growing disease just in my eyes in the first picture. This is especially interesting since my 3rd baby was colicky and I had a very poor sleep postpartum, plus I am much older now. According to standard ideas I should look worse in my recent photo. But that is clearly not the case.

So what changed? What is the main factor that makes me look younger, healthier, and more energetic and vibrant now than I did 13 years ago? The simple answer is that I cut out ultra processed food and drinks and started eating real food.

This blog marks the first step in mine and my husband's healing journey: cutting out 95% of all processed foods and drinks. It was one of the most profound changes we made, and the health improvements were undeniable. In this post, we’ll break down the serious health risks of processed foods, how they hide in everyday meals, what we eat now, and why a whole-foods-based diet changed everything for us.

The Hidden Dangers of Processed Foods

The standard American diet is largely made up of highly processed, nutrient-deficient, and inflammation-causing foods, snacks, and drinks, yet many people still don’t realize just how many hidden processed ingredients they are consuming daily. Even when we try to make healthy choices, many times we are still consuming tons of processed ingredients.

Consider the ingredient list on a standard salad dressing bottle or carton of oat milk. There is a long list of inferior, highly processed ingredients, many with names we do not know. Now if we look at something like milk, beef, an egg, or spinach, they all contain 1 ingredient - a simple whole food packed with nutrient diversity and many health benefits.

Peer-Reviewed Studies on Processed Foods & Health Decline

I know from personal experience how dramatically different my body feels and behaves when I am eating a lot of processed foods, and the same goes for my husband, but to drive the point home here are some studies that give some additional information on how processed foods hurt you.

Here are just a few of the scientifically-backed dangers of processed food consumption:

• Obesity & Weight Gain: A study published in Cell Metabolism found that people consuming an ultra-processed diet ate more calories and gained more weight compared to those eating whole, unprocessed foods (source).

  
  

I can tell you from experience that part of the reason this happens is because processed

foods pack more calories into less food. Plus, the companies make the food highly

addictive so you eat more of it, and the ingredients do not support your body's ability to maintain a naturally healthy weight.

For example, A McDonald's Big Mac Meal is roughly 1120 calories. In comparison, a homemade teriyaki chicken veggie rice bowl can come in at around 800 calories if you pair it with glass of water instead of soda. Not only is the rice bowl less calories, but those calories are far higher in nutrient density and diversity and do not contain ingredients that can cause inflammation, fat storage, and illness down the line.

• Chronic Inflammation: Research in the British Medical Journal linked ultra-processed foods to increased inflammation markers, which contribute to diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders (source).

• Increased Mortality Risk: A study from JAMA Internal Medicine found that higher consumption of processed foods increases the risk of early death (source).

  
  

The food industry has designed addictive, hyper-palatable foods loaded with refined sugars, seed oils, and artificial additives—all of which hijack hunger cues and contribute to nutritional deficiencies and long-term health problems.

Where Processed Foods Hide in Your Diet

Many people think they eat "healthy" simply because they don’t eat fast food daily. However, processed ingredients sneak into common foods, including:

Salad dressings and jarred sauces (even fancy spaghetti sauce!) – Contain inflammatory seed oils, artificial flavoring, and added refined sugar.

Breakfast cereals & granola bars (yes even those claiming to be heart healthy) – Marketed as "healthy" but loaded with refined grains, seed oils, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives.

Flavored yogurts – Often contain more sugar than soda and synthetic additives.

Plant-based meat and milk alternatives, coffee creamers – Heavily processed with seed oils, soy protein isolates, and artificial flavor enhancers, not to mention a terrifyingly long list of strange ingredients. I usually recommend Lactaid Milk, Goat Milk, or A2 Milk for those with lactose intolerance instead of plant milks. Though there are some healthier plant milks they can be tricky to find and many of the labels are misleading. For our coffee creamer we just use whole milk frothed with sweetened condensed milk, it tastes like marshmallow fluff and only contains 2 ingredients!

Packaged shelf and frozen foods, even those marketed as healthy – Many are just ultra-processed junk foods in disguise. Unless they are pure frozen fruits, vegetables, or meats, we usually avoid them.

Margarine, vegetable oils - Just straight up all bad. Seed oils are one of the biggest contributors to the health decline in America which is now spreading to the rest of the world. Simply look at pictures of public locations before the heavy push of seed oils into the American Diet starting in the 1950s, versus a public location now. Obesity and nearly all disease sky rocketed after the push for seed oils and the demonizing of animal fats. A great documentary to provide more information on this topic is available for free here on Youtube. It contains medical studies to support their claims and features 2 Medical Doctors and a PhD Investigative Science Journalist.

Store bought bread, crackers, chips, and other snacks - finding a healthy version of these items at the store is a lot harder than you think. The organic and healthy labels make it even more confusing. We just avoid these all together and only save these items for special fun occasions.  Most brands are packed with refined grains, seed oils, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives. Allowing these items as a large part of your diet can be much more damaging to your health than you realize, especially to your insulin levels.

There is now a growing number of doctors that are offering real diet solutions that are reversing their patient's Type 2 Diabetes. A quick Google search will show many youtube videos by MD's who are doing it effectively as well as testimonies from patients who have been successful on their own with these changes such as this one here.

Type 2 Diabetes is a diet caused disease, and is a disease that can be reversed by diet as well. Many of the changes the experts suggest are related to removing many of the foods above, as they are damaging to the body's natural ability to balance insulin.

Switching to Real Food

We transitioned to a whole-food, nutrient-dense diet focused on real, time-tested foods. Instead of relying on boxed, packaged, and pre-made meals, we started cooking from scratch with simple, whole ingredients. Here’s what that looks like:

• ✅ High quality meat made at home 

• ✅ Healthy fats – We replaced seed oils with real butter, ghee, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and animal fats.

• ✅ Pure dairy and eggs 

• ✅ Homemade sauces & dressings – Avoiding processed additives by making our own.

• ✅ Rice, Potatoes, Oats, Grits, Homemade Sourdough Breads and Baked Goods, Brown Rice Noodles (we are a gluten intolerant family) - All in moderation and always paired with protein and healthy fats for balanced blood sugar.

• ✅ Our Snacks now consist of nuts, homemade granola, fruit, dried fruit, and homemade popcorn (not microwave bags) with ghee or melted butter and salt.

• ✅ No more processed junk allowed in the house including store bought cereal and granola bars. I make homemade dessert once every couple of weeks with real ingredients, and in between we limit refined sugar to our bi-weekly treat. We have pure chocolate bars on hand for the days in between when we are craving a sweet, with a strict allowance on how much is allowed per day. The rest of the time we have fruit or healthy baked goods made with maple syrup, honey, and nutritious ingredients.

• ✅ No more eating out. We are only allowed 1 meal a week to be processed or restaurant food. And super junk food is allowed about once a month. This limits our seed oils as they are in almost every single food out there including nice restaurants. This also makes it a fun occasion and we enjoy the food even more when we get to indulge! You have never tasted how good a Cheeto truly is until you limit it to only once a month, even the kids agree!

This list can go on to include pure beans, lentils, grains, and more, but I think you get the point. The closer we get to food that resembles what humans have eaten for centuries, the healthier we become.

By focusing on real food, our health started to transform rapidly. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome was the food addiction that has been programmed into our biology by these processed foods, so that is why we have rules and allowances to make sure we stay on track with our health and don't allow the addictions to vote on how our future health looks.

Packaged vs. Homemade: A Shocking Nutrition Comparison

Not all meals are created equal. Here’s how a homemade lasagna made with real ingredients stacks up against a processed, packaged option.

Packaged Frozen Lasagna (Typical Store-Bought)

• Calories: ~450 per serving

• Protein: ~18g

• Fat: ~20g (mostly from seed oils and processed cheese)

• Nutrients: Low in fiber, vitamins, and minerals; high in sodium

• Added Ingredients: Contains preservatives, artificial flavors, emulsifiers, refined grains, and seed oils

  
  

Homemade Lasagna (Ground Turkey, Real Cheese, and Traditional Noodles)

• Calories: ~500 (varies)

• Protein: 40g+ (high-quality protein from turkey and real cheese)

• Fat: Healthy fats from real cheese and olive oil (healthy fats are a game changer for your health and natural fat loss!)

• Nutrients: Higher in vitamins, minerals, and fiber from whole food ingredients

• Added Ingredients: None—made with whole, real ingredients

The packaged lasagna is the perfect recipe for inflammation, stored fat, and future disease. Even though both meals are lasagna, the homemade version provides better-quality protein, healthy fats, and no artificial additives, preservatives, or seed oils compared to the packaged one.

Final Thoughts: Processed Foods & Health Recovery

Cutting out 95% of processed foods was one of the biggest steps in our healing process. Once we replaced ultra-processed, artificial foods with whole, natural ingredients, we noticed:

✔ More energy & reduced fatigue

✔ Less inflammation & joint pain

✔ Stable blood sugar & fewer cravings

✔ Better digestion & gut health

✔ Improved mood & mental clarity

✔Body weight effortlessly balancing to a healthy level.

Healing doesn’t have to be complicated—it starts with real food.

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If any part of my story resonated with you—if you’re tired of being dismissed, frustrated with endless prescriptions, or simply looking for answers—I invite you to keep exploring. I’ve written ad continue to write other blog posts that dive deeper into the exact steps I took to heal my gut, reduce inflammation, calm my nervous system, and so much more. You can click here to explore more natural health topics and start walking the same path toward healing. New blogs added weekly!

And if you're looking for safe, gentle products to support your journey from the outside in, I create small-batch natural products for bath, body, and home right here at West Texas Soap Co. Everything I make is inspired by this journey—focusing on ingredients that don't further toxify the body and instead promote natural wellness. Visit the shop here and know that you’re not alone in this. Healing is possible.