Cutting back on ultra-processed foods might not be as hard as you think. Try these less processed swaps:

-Plant-Based Magic 101- High Quality Foods

📷@ruthreyer

Cutting back on ultra-processed foods could be as simple as switching out ultra-processed for a similar type of food in a less processed form. According to the NOVA food processing classification system, here are some possible upgrades:

Ultra-processed—> Processed—> Unprocessed or Minimally Processed

*Some foods, like bread and pasta, need so much processing to be created that there is no minimally processed equivalent. The minimally processed from of bread is flour, which isn’t eaten in its raw form.

Drinks:

• Canned or bottled sweet green tea drink—>  Green Tea sweetened with Honey/Sugar/Syrup at home—> Unsweetened Green Tea

• Orange gatorade or Orange soda—> Orange Juice from concentrate —> Orange  or Freshly squeezed Orange juice

Snacks:

• Chocolate covered nuts or fruit—> Dried Fruit and Nut mix: Salted, sweetened and roasted in oil—> Dried Fruit and Nut mix with Unsalted, Unsweetened, No oil added

• Store-bought yogurt with fruit on the bottom —> Unsweetened Yogurt + fresh fruit with honey that you added—> Unsweetened Yogurt with fresh fruit added at home

• Packaged fruit jelly/jam—> Canned fruit salad with syrup —> Fresh Fruit salad without extra sweetener

Meals:

• French fries—> Homemade scalloped potatoes (oil and salt added) —> Baked Potato without oil or salt

• Frozen pasta dinner—> Pasta—> no unprocessed/minimally processed equivalent*

• Fast food pizza/Frozen pizza—> homemade flatbread pizza with all whole ingredients—> no unprocessed/minimally processed equivalent*

• Canned or frozen creamed spinach—> Steamed spinach with salt and oil added—> Fresh or frozen spinach steamed without salt or oil added

• Turkey sausage—> Turkey bacon—> Baked turkey breast without added  salt/oil

• Store-bought packaged hamburger buns—> Freshly baked/unpackaged bread slices—> no unprocessed/minimally processed equivalent*

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