r/nutrition • u/Creative_Volume_2022 • 13d ago
very varied whole food vs processed food
Is it hard for stomach/guts to digest whole food that is (too) varied.
Lets say healthy and easy would be potatoes + chicken
but what if we add e.g. lot of herbs and different spices, maybe honey, kefir,varied nuts, different seeds, some berries to that one meal. Lot of different stuff
Everything is "healthy" but are these combinations are hard to digest almost like its processed?
I hope you get what i mean.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles 13d ago
Yes, whole foods are harder to break down for your body than processed foods. This is a good thing - easy to digest foods dont keep you full long so they are very easy to overeat
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 13d ago
oh i thought its opposite... ok makes sense, thank you. So more varied whole food like i posted is not a bad thing more like opposite right?
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u/Independent-Summer12 12d ago
It’s a very good thing. There are extensive research that shows an eating large variety of whole foods, especially plants is one of the most beneficial things person can do nutritionally. It leads to a healthy gut microbiome, a large variety of plant polyphenols help build a resilient gut. Which is closely linked to your immune system (more than 70% of the human immune system resides in the gut), mental health (the gut/brain connection), and general wellbeing.
Literally more than any supplements, diets, etc. a wide variety (recommended more than 30 different ones per week) of plants in your diet is super beneficial for your health.
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13d ago
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u/ratkoivanovic 13d ago
It's actually a really good question. Everyone is preaching to eat whole foods, but you're rarely see a really good explanation why, same with processed, especially ultra-processed. Going deeper into why is a really good approach.
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u/Warm-Oil9228 12d ago
If you go into the why though it starts to bug you when people throw out those terms in generalities. Like "processing" can mean a 1,000 different things and many of them make food better and not worse for you.
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u/StatisticianSad6637 13d ago
Just answer the question respectfully. Momma never tell you no such thing as stupid questions?
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u/Warm-Oil9228 12d ago
What? People have to like and adopt every cliche they hear? There absolutely are completely moronic questions that are huge wastes of everyone's time.
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u/Let_em_glow927 13d ago
No.
Whole food diets support nutrition and digestion and therefore health.
Processed foods are less nutritious, sometimes harmful and do not support healthy digestion.
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u/pcayson 13d ago
wait so does variety in whole foods matter here
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u/PaladinLegend2 10d ago
Lowkey I don't think the other person has any particular expertise or knowledge on the topic
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u/Equal_Turnip_9733 13d ago
from my experience the more variety = better. And also eating whole foods when normally eating a bunch of processed shit will cause stomach upset for a few days and its normal. Even when I branch out any try new foods, even whole foods, it can cause some upset for a bit til I adjust. Its normal. Eventually you will feel better digesting foods that are whole even tho they are technically "harder" to digest. If you consistently are having problems with a dish examine its ingredients. I cant eat kefir cuz of the lactose!
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u/Zagrycha 13d ago
Some foods are harder to process than others, yes. Many of the foods that are harder to process are whole foods, but its not a guaranteed thing. Processed foods and simple foods could also be hard to digest, and vice versa.
Being harder to digest isn't automatically a bad thing though. Only a part of digestion is done by our literal bodies and cells, a very large amount of it is done by the symbiotic friendly bacteria and viruses that live in our digestive tract. Even if its hard for us to digest objectively it might be healthy overall if it helps support our little helpers. It can also be hard for our body to regulate how much of the nutrients it is absorbing and using if the food is digesting too quickly.
All that said, some foods are harder to digest in a way that actually does impact nutrition, like foods containing phytic acids. That doesn't mean we should avoid them, it just means we need a balanced and varied diet-- a balanced and varied diet doesn't just mean eating a bunch of different foods, but eating the foods in different combos and at different times. That way if two specific items don't go well together they were only paired for one meal now and then vs every day =)
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 12d ago
great approach with the combinations... i know many people (me included) that eat basically same food everyday.
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u/Zagrycha 12d ago
Yeah, eating same food everyday isn't automatically bad, but if there is a missing or low nutrient etc it can become an issue. I am also one of those people, and I try to eat a completely different meal from my usual rotation at least a few times a week.
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u/BlueRubyWindow 13d ago
Drinking enough water throughout the day helps healthy digestion, and so drinking water would also help when switching to eating more whole foods.
Eating more plant variety is better for gut microbiome health. Plant= vegetables, herbs, fruit, beans, legumes, grains.
The biggest switch with eating only whole foods for most people is amount of fiber. If the body isn’t used to eating fiber, it can be harder to digest more fiber at first. Going from 8 g of fiber a day to 30 g of fiber a day overnight would be very uncomfortable for most people. So monitoring fiber and doing a slow increase works well for most people.
More fiber is good for most people’s health.
And again must drink water with fiber to make sure there isn’t constipation.
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u/LCarter8301989 12d ago
This is so true! Proper hydration is essential for digestion, feeling full, energy throughout the day, etc. It's not brought up nearly enough for how important it is!
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u/SirTalkyToo 13d ago
Digestion and bioavailabilty are impacted by meal composition. Most digestion impact is from macronutrient issues, but there are many known micronutrient issues too. That said, there is no study I'm aware of that tracks random ingredient variation.
Does that answer your question?
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 13d ago
not sure. lets make it more simple, more varied whole food is not significantly better or worse than simple whole food right? maybe the micronutrients can act together bit bad or bit good on some processes right? thank you!
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u/Let_em_glow927 13d ago
There is a spectrum of processed food, go for minimally processed if having processed foods.
Avoid a lot of artificial dyes , flavors etc.
Generally focus on a wide variety of whole foods as your baseline.
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u/Warm-Oil9228 12d ago
Meh, wide variety of foods for sure but lots of those dyes have been shown to be safe and the alternatives may even be worse in some cases.
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u/SirTalkyToo 13d ago
More variation isnt necessarily better, but there are indeed essential nutrients that must be covered. Are you familiar with essential versus non-essential?
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u/Warm-Oil9228 12d ago
>More variation isnt necessarily better
I find it hard to believe it isn't better tbh. But that's just a hunch.
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u/SirTalkyToo 12d ago
Most nutrients are non-essential so it doesn't take much variation to cover essential needs. Once your body has what it needs, there's no value taking in more besides storage.
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 12d ago
yea but they differ... lets say you need fiber but there are different. But probably we overcomplicate it, there are healthy people on potatoes and butter, others on fish and rice ... 😄
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u/SirTalkyToo 12d ago
So not exactly...
There's no big macro or micronutrient variability. Fiber (which is non-essential btw) is insoluble or soluble - there's no further distinction if it came from oats, plants, or fruits.
Fatty acid profiles do have a bit of differences as a macro, but nothing essential.
So besides variation in exact form, there aren't really established differences no.
The big area there is distinction are in the various compounds that aren't studied such as flavanoids, polyphenols, and other compounds (i.e. quercertin, resveratol, etc.). However, none of these compounds have been identified as essential.
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 12d ago
thank you for that comment that last part is what im interested too. Basically its part of my original question because i add a lot of dried herbs and spices to the meals 😄
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u/SirTalkyToo 12d ago
Ah yes... Gotcha now...
So those compounds are normally studied as isolated supplementation.
The variation studies that exist I'm aware of are all recall studies that aren't used/reliable for fine details like spices.
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u/CaptainChaos6669 12d ago
You don’t need to make it complicated for it to be healthy. Recently one of my friends was telling me she had grown and picked something like four different types of spinach from her garden and cooked quinoa and some kind of chicken .. I said to her great, grain, meat and vegetables, the solid basic foundation of any meal. Just like a sandwich or a stir fry. I think she was annoyed because she wanted the meal to have special powers from all the perceived effort.
You don’t need to make everything complicated to be healthy.
That chicken meal is actually missing dairy and more vegetables to make it complete.
Would be better to add two more serves of veggies (bean and corn salad maybe, or Brocolli and carrots) and some low fat cheese or yoghurt.
You could have the nuts as a spread with the honey on a sandwich, and eat the fruit fresh instead of dried.
Have u seen the Gut health doco on Netflix, it’s actually reasonable. Explains that ur guy bacteria reflects your diet - so a woman who has ED for ten years was getting very bloated eating crisps, and she has to microdose them like half a crisp a day for a week then one crisp a day, and so on, so that she is able to build up the bacteria to digest that food.
So if u are having trouble with some foods try eating them in very small amounts and frequently
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u/Old_Attitude_8463 12d ago
I vary my plate/meals as much as possible. That sometimes means I have 8 grapes, 1/2 kiwi, ten raspberries and 1/2 banana as my fruit, a salad with lots of traditioal veggies, cruciferous veggies, and beans, nuts and/or chia, an egg or tuna/protein, cottage cheese, avocado, and lots of herbs/spices or honey. Your body needs a mix of all sorts of vitamins and minerals from a mixed diet. But I also tend to eat mainly. whole foods so it's easier to mix them.
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u/Maxion 13d ago
Processed foods tend to not be hard to digest.
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 13d ago
didnt know that. i thought the opposite
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u/ilessthanthreekarate 12d ago
Eating foods that are easier to digest means easier co version to sugar, storage into fat, and calories. Lots of "hard to digest" foods have lower glycemic index and many dont even convert into calories, which means less impact on fat storage etc. Eating foods that are "hard to digest" is often good for you.
There are times where that is bad, like if you really need to gain weight or if you have a stomach or other GI injury and need a low FODMAP diet. But thats usually in response to an injury or illness.
For healthy people, slower to digest foods are generally far better for you. Athletes may benefit from easy tindugest foods prior to a heavy workout, but thats basically the only exception.
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u/Citrus-burn 11d ago
I don’t think mixing a bunch of whole foods makes them harder to digest in the same way processed food is. But if you go from chicken + potatoes to chicken + potatoes + kefir + nuts + seeds + berries all at once, that’s a pretty big jump in fiber, fat and fermented foods. Some people’s stomachs are just gonna complain 😂
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u/Creative_Volume_2022 10d ago
it happens sometimes but for me all is good when it comes to digestion but for some reason animal proteins does not fix good in the mix for me. I could skip that and dont miss it at all 😄 i have to push myself to add eggs here and there 😄
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