From a blood sugar and insulin perspective (which is a large part of the inflammatory perspective), it is literally the fineness of the carbohydrate particulate, the addition of refined sugars and the extraction of fiber -- all of which raise the glycemic index. If you look at fast food, this is part of the "process" by which food is made soft and palatable and shelf life is often increased to boot.

You're correct though. The term is very unclear and doesn't help people. Generally speaking the refinement process of carbohydrates and sugars means glucose hits your blood stream faster and increases inflammation. (These refined carbs are also more addictive, reduce insulin sensitivity over time and lead to obesity)

For an anti inflammatory diet think raw foods, whole grains, high fiber, quality protein, low amounts of complex sugars, NO refined sugars. Stay low on the glycemic index.

Basically, make your body do a little work to metabolize calories. No easy street.

Also don't fry with vegetable oils. Consume plenty of olive oil and fish oil.

I find that when I try cutting out sugars and refined carbs I get quite fatigued and find it more difficult to function. That is already on top of poor quality sleep I get.

I end up with cravings for sweet foods to boost my energy and will often find an excuse to go buy a couple bags of sweets so I don't feel so drained of energy.

Do you have any recommendations I can use to cut down on my high glycemic food intake?

Taper off, retaining some daily servings of less-harmful carbs (like potatoes or rice) for a while, even after eliminating all added sugars.

As you drive carbs closer to zero, make sure you're eating plenty of fatty foods to provide an alternate, slower-burning energy source. Also, when massively lowering carb intake, drink plenty of fluids with electrolytes, as that often helps lessen the "keto flu" symptoms of your body's incremental transition to different metabolic balances.

There's a carb-craving feeling that's easy to confuse with true hunger, likely because for so long on a sugar-heavy diet your body has learned your blood-sugar levels have been correlated with actual hunger or plenty-of-energy. But you can remind your body that there's another pathway. I think it's a bit like recovery from an injury via physical therapy: you have to re-teach your muscle/joints that, yes, they can do the original/optimal movements, without pain, after they've spent a while receiving alternate signals.

Tackle sleep issues separately, with things like caffeine reduction, screen-time-at-night reduction, exhausting exercise during the day, a segregated quiet/dark sleep space, etc.

Good luck!

Might be you're just experiencing withdrawal; sugar is heinously addictive.

Have you tried just toughing it out for a couple weeks? I've found that even just a couple weeks of abstaining from sugary things drastically lowers my tolerance for sweet things. Previously edible foods start tasting way oversweetened.

Maybe you could replace the sugar with slower-acting carbohydrates like porridge? It's actually quite tasty without any additives when made with whole milk.

Delay eating until you are actually hungry in the morning and avoid sugar or carbs for as long as you can throughout the day.

Just eating sugar makes you crave sugar. Don't even add it to coffee.

Date syrup and date sugar. Both are delicious for their appropriate uses. Really though you need sleep. I’d make that priority number one, if you can?

How far from the original source is the end result? If it's packaged and has a list of 1000 ingredients that you can't pronounce, it's probably heavily processed.

Otherwise, don't overthink it.

Yep. If preparing the food requires a bachelors degree in food science, chemicals imported from China, and a home laboratory, then it's probably classified as "processed food".

As a chinese person I'd like to push back against the idea of importing ingredients to be part of processed foods. My family is from a region with a very specific style of vinegar that we import for our home cooking.

I wrote "chemicals" from China. Not "ingredients" from China. Nothing against China. It's a placeholder for <insert random source of chemicals>

Probably the best definition requires you to actively test your glucose levels after eating. Look to identify foods that spike then drop your numbers. But I know things like white rice and white flour really leave me high and dry quickly. I also try to pick foods that have relatively few, whole food type ingredients. So once we’re talking dozens of ingredients with chemical names instead of easily identifiable names. You’re right, it’s not obvious.

Heavily processed foods are stuff like deepfried and fully processed foods - basically stuff that lack micronutrients and is high in carbs and or saturated fat.

So deep fried calamari is "heavily processed"? I guess the answers proved the point the post above made...

> Please define what you mean by "heavily processed foods"

I define it as number of steps from the original food to what's on your plate.

Yeah it’s a pretty terrible term. I shop in the produce and butcher sections of the store and skip the rest. If it looks like it came from a plant or is part of an animal, then I’m happy.