20 Processed Foods That Can Help You Eat Healthier

In this article: 

• Whole foods may seem like the gold standard for healthy eating, but processed foods can play a role in improving health and supporting weight loss.
• Processed foods can help ensure your kitchen is stocked with nutritious options at all times, and they can help you prepare healthy meals and snacks more easily. 
• These 20 foods, including peanut butter, canned tuna, meatless burgers and sausages, and whole-grain bread and cereal, can support healthier eating with less effort. 
• Look for processed foods with nutritious ingredients and clear benefits. 
• Your Lark coach is available 24/7 to help you make healthy choices around nutrition, activity, and more.

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Eating healthier can help you achieve weight and health goals, but time and energy are common challenges. While ultra-processed foods are linked to obesity and other health problems, less processed foods can support healthier eating. 

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Here are some reasons why.

• They can save time, offering a realistic alternative to eating out or ordering in on busy days
• They can be easier to prepare, allowing you to skip steps like cutting, washing, or cooking, so you can prepare a meal or snack even if you’re tired
• They may be more shelf-stable than wholly unprocessed foods, allowing you to use pantry staples to create healthy meals and snacks even if you haven’t gone grocery shopping recently 

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Look for processed foods without some of the harmful ingredients in ultra-processed foods like excess sodium, sugar, starches, calories, and artificial ingredients. Remember that cutting, washing, cooking, fermenting, and packaging are all forms of processing, and they’re not inherently unhealthy.

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Here are 20 processed foods that can help you eat healthier. 

1. Canned or dried beans

Beans have protein, fiber, antioxidants, and iron, and they’re linked to health benefits like lower risk for certain types of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Canned beans can save hours of prep work compared to dried beans, and either one can be your protein source for plant-based meals. Options include chickpeas or garbanzo, black, kidney, pinto, and navy beans. Choose low-sodium or rinse canned beans if you’re cutting back on sodium. Try them in chili, soup, burritos, salads, or any of these recipes. 

2. Canned tomatoes

Canned tomatoes can easily boost your vegetable consumption. Try them plain, in chili, or in tomato soup. They’re also helpful for making a healthy pasta sauce instead of turning to creamy Alfredo sauce. Tomato paste is another pantry staple to consider.

3. Canned or pouch tuna

Canned or pouch tuna is a few steps away from fresh fish, but is a healthier option than processed meat in sandwiches or salads. 

4. Veggie burgers and soy hot dogs

Meatless products can be highly processed, but they often have components like fiber, protein, and healthy fats. They’re cholesterol-free, often low in saturated fat, and free from cancer-causing nitrates, making them convenient and healthier alternatives to meat-based options. Hot dogs, sausage, ground beef or pork patties, and bacon can be high in calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol.

5. Rotisserie chicken

A rotisserie chicken from your local supermarket isn’t the same as getting a fresh chicken from a local organic farm, but it’s a better choice than picking up a bucket of fried chicken on the way home when you’re tired, especially when you choose salad instead of coleslaw as a side. Just take off the skin when you eat it. Ground turkey patties are another processed option that can keep you on track when time is tight.

6. Liquid eggs

Liquid egg whites go through separation, filtering, and pasteurization, but the product is high in complete protein, cholesterol-free, and convenient. You don’t even have to throw away an eggshell. Here are recipes for easy egg muffin cups or scrambled eggs. 

7. Cheese and cottage cheese

Cheese may be a milk product, but it’s several steps away from the animal it came from. Manufacturers pasteurize the milk under heat, add acid to curdle it, add a bacterial product called rennet, strain the curds from the whey, add salt, shape the cheese, age it, and package it. Still, most cheese is high in protein and calcium, low in carbohydrates, and a better choice for sandwiches, salads, and snacks than options like processed meats. 

8. Yogurt 

Yogurt is another milk product that’s pasteurized, acidified, and filtered. It has live and active cultures (probiotics) added before it’s packaged and shipped. Still, yogurt is usually high in protein and calcium, and it’s ready to eat for any meal or snack. It usually keeps in the fridge for weeks.

9. Olives

Olives that you find in stores are cured and brined, making them high in sodium and far from olives you see on trees, but they’re sources of healthy fats and fiber. They can help you eat healthier by adding flavor to foods like salads and sandwiches while also adding nutrients, and possibly by allowing you to reduce the amount of salt or other fats you add.

10. Frozen vegetables

Frozen vegetables can be cost-effective because you can stock up when they’re on sale. They have fiber and other nutrients, just like fresh ones, and you can use them just like you use cooked vegetables, such as in pasta sauces, egg dishes, soups, and side dishes. Frozen vegetable mixes like stir-fry and fajita vegetable mixes can also help you get a greater variety of vegetables and nutrients without effort. 

11. Frozen fruit

Frozen fruit lets you enjoy out-of-season fruit year-round, with blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, pineapples, and melon being common options. They can also help you eat healthier by serving as natural sweeteners instead of adding sugar to foods like yogurt, oatmeal, and cottage cheese. Look for unsweetened varieties of frozen fruit. 

12. Precut vegetables

Precut vegetables, baby carrots, and bagged salad mixes may be more expensive and have a shorter shelf life than whole options, but they can help you eat better. You may be more likely to eat a salad or snack on vegetables when they’re prepared and ready to eat as soon as you purchase them. They can also help inspire healthy cooking, like using precut combinations of carrots, celery, and onions as a base for chicken vegetable soup. 

13. Whole-grain bread

Wheat and other grains may come from the ground, but before bread gets on your table, it goes through harvesting, milling, mixing with ingredients like salt and yeast, kneading, baking, slicing, and packaging. Bread is one of the greatest contributors to dietary sodium, but it’s easy and convenient, and whole-grain bread offers benefits like fiber and antioxidants. 

14. Whole-grain cereal and pasta

Like bread, cereal and pasta go through several steps before they get onto supermarket shelves. To make cereal, for example, grains may be separated, ground, cooked, dried, shaped, toasted, and usually mixed with other ingredients like salt, sugar, and vitamin and mineral mixes. High-fiber cereals and pasta can be nutritious additions to your diet, especially if you swap for refined versions.

15. Mustard

Mustard seed, vinegar, and salt combine to make mustard, but mustard can be a great choice compared to other options. Use it on sandwiches, chicken,  burgers, and in salad dressings and prepared salads instead of fatty or high-sodium condiments like mayonnaise or relish. Choose yellow, deli, spicy brown, or dijon mustard to keep fat and sugar down. If you really want a sweet and tangy condiment, try honey mustard that’s not creamy. Each teaspoon has 10 calories and 2 grams of sugar, which is far less than 130 calories and 6 grams of sugar in honey mustard dressing or dip.

16. Bottled salad dressing

Bottled salad dressing may be the most heavily processed food on this list, but it can encourage you to select nutritious foods. For example, a favorite salad dressing can help you eat more salads with lettuce, other vegetables like tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers, and lean proteins like tuna or garbanzo beans. Or, you can use salad dressing as quick and easy marinades or sauces for cooked vegetables, fish, chicken, or tofu. Look for vinaigrette and light dressings that are low in sugar, and watch portion sizes. 

17. Olive oil

Press olives and filter the oil that comes from them to get olive oil, which is a processed food and one of the healthiest sources of fat in the world. Canola, sunflower, flaxseed, peanut, and other vegetable oils are also healthy options that can help you reduce your use of saturated fat sources like butter and shortening. 

18. Peanut butter

Peanut butter can swap for less healthy options like processed meat for sandwiches. It can also add plant-based protein to snacks like apple slices, celery sticks, and baby carrots. Look for options free from added sugars, hydrogenated oils, and added salt. 

19. Hummus 

You can make your own hummus with chickpeas, tahini or olive oil, spices, lemon juice, garlic, and sea salt, but store-bought hummus is more realistic for most people. It may contain ingredients like guar gum and potassium sorbate for texture and freshness, but it may still help you eat healthier. For example, you may use it as a dip or spread instead of a cream cheese or mayo-based option with more calories and fewer nutrients.  

20. Almond milk

Almond milk has little obvious resemblance to almonds, but it can be a valuable source of calcium, which is a nutrient of concern in the US. With 30 calories per cup, it can also help save calories when you use it in coffee or cereal, or as a beverage on its own, instead of whole milk with160 calories per cup. If you follow a plant-based diet, check for almond milk that’s fortified with vitamin B12 to help you meet your daily requirements. 

How Lark Can Help

Willpower is just a tiny piece of the puzzle, while making smart choices easier on a routine basis can make for sustainable progress towards your goals. Lark can help you make small changes to improve heart health, lose weight, and manage or prevent chronic conditions. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

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Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today

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