Till date, I don't exactly understand what 'processed food' means. I realized this when I was trying to explain this phrase to my parents. Here is my struggle: Even with single ingredient packages (a packet of rice or even individual fruits), there are so many steps in farming, harvesting, cleaning, packaging, storage and so on. Do these steps constitute 'processing'? Now let's consider packages with 2 or more ingredients. In these cases, peeling / shelling, dicing, mashing, mixing with water, dough making, various ways of heating, cooking, fermenting, freezing, preserving, packaging, and so on are involved. As the number of ingredients grows, I find it mind-boggling to fathom what all happens. Which combinations of these steps should I consider as 'minimally processed' and which combinations of these steps should I call 'highly processed'? And how will I figure out from a food label what all steps were executed?

So how do I meet challenge 1? By sticking to {whole grains, beans, fruits, veggies, fresh herbs n spices, nuts and seeds}. This way, I don't have to think so much. My life gets simplified by following simple rules:

1. Buy organic (easy to follow: look for label 'organic').
2. Buy local and seasonal (easy to follow: buy produce from farmers' market).
3. Buy fresh (some combination of visual inspection, touch and smell suffices).

When I buy non-organic, I have to memorize many more rules! For example, almonds in California are fumigated or heat treated; perchance, I read somewhere that fumigation is not healthy for us; turns out that organic almonds are always heat treated but non-organic may or may not be! So if I would like to buy non-organic, what should i do? Luckily, it turns out that Trader Joe's website assures us that all brands of almonds that they sell are heat treated (even non-organic ones), so any brand at Trader Joe's works for me. Wonderful But I have to learn many more rules like these when I switch from organic to non-organic.

When I buy single-ingredient items {whole grains, beans, fruits, veggies, fresh herbs n spices, nuts and seeds}, I don't have to read food labels! Isn't that lovely? If I buy packages with 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 ingredients that were mixed together and partly or fully cooked, I have to learn how to read food labels. Now I have watched videos by Jeff Novick who nicely explains how to read food labels. However, I experienced two challenges:

(2a) I find these guidelines for food labels complex! In my work life, I handle a fair amount of technical complexity, so it's not due to lack of ability. I'm also comfortable doing arithmetic calculations mentally, without calculators. Still, I can't comprehend (make sense of) all the rules pertaining to food labels - I find them complex! Maybe it's just me.

(2b) Food labels introduce new vocabulary of 'invisible substances' like proteins, fats (different varieties), salts, and so on. As Michael Pollan points out in one of his books, this vocabulary got introduced to the general population when US health guidelines started using it sometime in 1950s (Michael Pollan's book explains why this change happened). Prior to this change, food guidelines used to be in terms of real foods items like grains, beans, fruits, veggies, and so on. The guidelines were not in terms of 'invisible substances'. Personally, I find it hard to understand this vocabulary -- I'm not drawn to it. I find it so much easier to understand that I need to eat {whole grains, beans, fruits, veggies, fresh herbs n spices, nuts and seeds} along with a few rules of thumbs like 'dont eat too many nuts; dont eat too many avocados' and 'eat 3 supplements: D, B12, DHA/EPA'. These are the kind of guidelines that I could tell my (proverbial) grandmother or for that matter, anybody who hasn't heard of any of the 'invisible substances' (children, for example).

'Healthy packaged foods' and 'unhealthy packaged foods' are all kept in the same section, the same aisle of a typical grocery store. Many times, they are intermingled. There are two challenges here:

(3a) We have to sift 'healthy' from 'unhealthy', for which we need the ability to read food labels and we need some personal rules for classifying a package into 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' (I understand that this is subjective; we all develop our own personal rules). Let's say that we have become skilled at such classification (I haven't become skillful due to my reasons mentioned in Challenge #2 above). But even if I were to become skillful, I face challenge (3b).

(3b) Many of us (like me) have 'food addictions' (even after 7 years of pretty good adherence of WFPB guidelines). We tend to gravitate towards the 'unhealthy packaged foods' too! They are right there, staring lovingly at me, next to the 'healthy food package'!! A friend of mine sees these food aisles and food sections as 'food mines', ready to blow us up with a single mis-step! So why even walk into these aisles? Another friend told me that books on will-power say that we have 'limited energy' in a day to keep saying 'no' to situations which promote unhealthy habit patterns, so we should invest this energy wisely. For example, if we are trying to get sober, we should not give company to a friend who is drinking at a bar. Keeping these guidelines about 'limited energy reserves to say no' in mind and keeping my propensity for gravitating towards attractive looking 'unhealthy food packages' in mind, I find it better not to step into aisles where 'healthy packaged foods' have been mixed with 'unhealthy packaged foods'.

Packaged foods like chips are dry and crunchy. They are not moist like cooked rice or soupy like beans or a stew. For me what happens with dry and crunchy foods like chips is that I tend to eat more (these are calorie dense foods) without feeling satiated. For this reason, I stay away from even dried foods like "dried fruits". Think of 5 dried apricots or a bunch of dried apple pieces. I can eat them one after another and still not feel satiated. In contrast, if I were to eat as many real apricots or real apples (which have water in them), I'd feel quite full.

Two points:

(5a) Moderation doesn't work for me. It's a slippery slope. In the past, I have not been able to limit my consumption to limited quantities of 'healthy snacks' / 'healthy sweets' — I start eating them in large quantities.

Moderation doesn't work for many other people. Here are some articles:

• Does Everything in Moderation Really Work? (ForksOverKnives, 2016).
• Moderation Kills (NutritionFacts, written by Dr Michael Greger, 2018).
• Everything in Moderation? Even Heart Disease? (NutritionFacts, written by Dr Michael Greger, 2015).
• The Myth Of 'Moderation'; Here's Why The Emperor Is Naked (written by Corinne Nijjer, 2018).
• Moderation Kills (2014, Dr Esselstyn has a large slide with only these words: "Moderation Kills"; this video doesn't have good audio quality)
• At offset 7:07 of this video, Dr Steven Lome explains how a single meal affects our blood. He shows two vials: one drawn from somebody who consumed a low-fat plant-baed meal, and another drawn from somebody who consumed a high-fat animal-based meal. Blood drawn from the latter person was viscous.

  At offset 8:10 of this video (the same video as above), a funny experiment is described — the experiment was showcased in the documentary The Game Changers (88 mins, 2018). Three healthy young men, elite college athletes, agreed to put their manhood to test. They weren't vegan but agreed to eat a plant-based meal for one night. On one night, they consumed grass fed beef. On another night, they ate beans. They experienced 400% increase of time of erection and 8% increase in circumference of penis. The reason is that penile arteries are tiny — a single meal causes constriction.

  The video has further examples of how a single high-fat meal influences other biological markers, for example, a reduction in endothelial function.

… so people like me need hard boundaries: black and white. This is very similar to the first limb of Ashtanga Yoga: 'yama' :) We should simply not do certain things, ever.

(5b) While I may be able to execute 'moderation' when I'm in a joyful and calm state of mind; my ability to execute 'moderation' diminishes when I'm facing stressful situations.

Stress could be triggered by friction with loved ones; stress at work; unexpected events that cause us grief or anxiety or anger or fear or other negative emotions. It's exactly during such situations that our boundaries play an important role. During these times, it's easy to eat 2.0 servings of a 'healthy packaged food' instead of 1.0 and we kick off a negative cycle of 'over-eating → stress → over-eating → stress → …'

With a support person (spouse, siblings or parents), it's easier to practice moderation (the support person helps us). But what happens to those who are single or without supportive partners? It's considerably difficult for them because it requires a lot of self discipline.

For reasons outlined above, I find it easier to have strict boundaries like 'no sugar ever, no matter what happens'. In stressful times, when our will power is being tested, strict boundaries are difficult to break; on the other hand, practicing 'moderation' is difficult.

Michael Moss has traced the history of modern foods in his book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us". (2013). I haven't read this book but I hear that this book tells us how market forces make food manufacturers gravitate towards 'addictive foods'. Why? One reason is this simple fact: the more food gets sold, the more revenue it generates. With addictive foods, we don't feel full and we start over-eating. Also, we start missing these foods on a daily basis (we feel that we "can't live without them"). Now I don't understand the whole picture, so I have more questions than answers. Here are some of my concerns:

(a) When a 'healthy packaged food company' competes with another 'healthy packaged food company' for the same shelf space and market share, what considerations go into their decision making? How are these considerations different from two 'unhealthy packaged food companies' competing for their shelf space and market share? Is it true that 'healthy packaged food companies' also gravitate towards addictive compositions (to increase sales and to make people miss their 'healthy packaged foods' so that they reach out for it every other day)? I don't have these answers; I only have questions and concerns.

(b) In the supermarket, we see hundreds of brands of packaged foods but there are infographics informing us that these hundreds of brands are actually owned by only a handful of large companies. Now when a small-sized 'healthy packaged food company' is acquired by a large sized company that also produces 'unhealthy packaged foods', then what happens to the overall company culture of the acquired company? Do these different subsidiaries or acquired companies operate differently? Again, I don't have the answers; I only have questions and concerns.

With packaged foods, I've noticed that my garbage can fills up faster. With {whole grains, beans, fruits, veggies, fresh herbs n spices, nuts and seeds}, my garbage can fills up slowly. And I remember that when I was growing up in India, we had zero packaged foods and reusable bags at home, so our daily garbage was very little! When I look at a 'healthy packaged food' with chips or tortillas, I wonder, 'how many pounds of rice or beans would have filled the same plastic bag that's filled with these fluffy, dry and crunchy chips or tortillas.

Also note that the garbage produced by consuming 'healthy packaged food' is different from the garbage produced by natural whole foods; the latter kind of garbage can actually be composted, thereby paving way for generating new life.

Another thought that comes to my mind is: with every meal, we 'vote' for the companies whose foods we consume. By purchasing a 'healthy packaged food', we cast a vote in favor of companies who help us fill up our garbage cans faster.

Wouldn't it be nice to extend love and gratitude towards 'Mother Earth' by simply choosing {whole grains, beans, fruits, veggies, fresh herbs n spices, nuts and seeds}?