I think the original quote is simpler: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The essay from the NYT is a good read: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t...

Now, Pollan broadly speaking does get a bit more into what constitutes "food". But I'd argue in general: this is mostly a heuristic. It's not a clear set of rules, because such a thing is likely impossible. And advice of this sort is inherently kinda hand-wavy and (in Pollan's words) "flagrantly unscientific".

That doesn't mean it's useless as a guide – everyone will have a bit of a different view on that. Bread, as something which has been consumed for tens of thousands of years, is recognisable as food. It's got perhaps three ingredients and is minimally processed. Cheese might be similar. Maybe it could be as simple as "something you can reasonably make in your own kitchen", or maybe it needs to be a bit more complex.

The point is – it's too easy to get caught up in litigating the precise meaning of a vague phrase. The intent is clear, and the focus should be more on general diet rather than the needless semantics of "does bread stop being food when I make it into crumbs".

Yes - you stated this better than I did. For me the idea of bread made with "Enriched bleached flour" is a good example of 'deceptive' food where you strip nutrients in one process and re-inject nutrients of questionable value. So bread is a great example of a food which can go from empty calorie food to dense nutrient.

That's fair. Feels like a "you know it when you see it" kind of thing. I feel guarded against the inevitable health zealots who need a much simpler model to proselytize against, and therefore bin everything into good or bad. I can get on board with "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I also really like, "try to have a variety of colours on your plate" (not sure where I heard this one from).

Real food is food that has a high nutritional value and is not a processed food.

The question that follows naturally is how do you define "processed food"? Different people have different definitions for this, so it's a rather vague term.

To some people, it means anything you can't make in your own kitchen. However sausages are commonly cited as an example of processed food, and those are relatively simple to make at home, using the exact same ingredients as the commercially-produced sausages you buy in a store.

Others consider it to mean anything made commercially, in a factory and not by hand, others would only include pre-packaged ready-to-heat box meals, others again have yet another definition, and may talk about "minimally processed foods" and "ultra-processed foods".

Without context, we may not even be talking about the same thing.

Unfortunately coming up with a concise definition of exactly what constitutes "processed food" is exceedingly hard, because all food preparation includes some amount of processing.

Slow carbs instead fast carbs. Consume way less sugar. Eat way more veggies.

Honestly if you can afford it, just start shopping at farmers markets and buy local seasonal veggies.

> Without context, we may not even be talking about the same thing.

I hear you. But maybe this is also because of the brainwashing of the American mind by advertising and corporate-funded biased studies. I've found that in the US it is hard not to buy 'processed food', because nearly everything is processed. I also believe processed foods are why average American life expectancy is so low.

> "Slow carbs instead fast carbs. Consume way less sugar. Eat way more veggies."

Decent baseline advice, but it doesn't really have anything to do with "processed" vs "unprocessed" foods.

It seems to me that a lot of people equate "processed" with "contains one or more things/processes which I consider unhealthy/undesirable", which makes it a subjective and biased term.

What is your exact definition of "processed food"? If you're a raw fruitarian, you would consider anything not plucked directly from a tree to be processed. If you follow a paleo diet, you wouldn't consider butchered and dry-aged meat to be fine, but also consider bread to be processed.

Perhaps you would find more people who would agree that ready-to-heat frozen meals are processed, based on their nutritional profile and heavy sugar/salt content, but they aren't really too different from something you could cook at home in your own kitchen. The best definition I've seen is "food that is already cooked ready to eat or requires minimal preparation", but that also covers a lot of things that would be considered healthy or at least not unhealthy, such as a pre-packaged salad.

There is a lot of dietary misinformation out there, and the marketing rush to "all natural" and "avoid all processed" foods stems is also part of it.

What's your definition of "processed"?

“Alkalinity

Thanks largely to the work of Dr. Robert O. Young, the public are becoming more widely aware of the benefits of a high alkaline diet. Most junk foods and heavily processed foods are acidic, causing a stress on the body which increases weight gain and decreases immunity. Ideally, the diet should be made up of at least 70% alkaline foods. A raw food diet high in vegetables easily satisfies this requirement. When our systems are alkalized, we feel calmer, can think more clearly, feel more on top of things, and have a stronger immune system.”

- Kate Magic, Raw Magic (you can find this book on libgen)

This Dr Robert O Young? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38650739

> The father of the alkaline diet, Robert O Young, is hailed as an inspiration by one of the UK's most popular food writers, Natasha Corrett, but he faces a jail sentence for practising medicine without a licence. One patient who believed he could cure her cancer, British army officer Naima Houder-Mohammed, paid thousands of dollars for his alkaline treatment, which consisted mainly of intravenous infusions of baking soda.

Ha! Nice find!

Is this the same "alkaline diet" that considers all citrus fruits to be alkaline?

That should be all you need to know about how silly that whole thing is.

Human blood has a normal pH range of 7.35 to 7.45, very tightly regulated by the body. The pH value of food does nothing to change this, especially since it has to go in the stomach, which as you hopefully know is full of strong acid.

So do white bread and white rice count? They're both processed and are mostly just carbs. White rice for example has to have Thiamin added, otherwise you would get Beriberi.

If you are prioritizing intake, greens and seeds would probably rank above brown rice and bread, which would rank above white rice and bread. Instead of a "I can or can't eat this" the guidelines help you choose between options in front of you, or steer your cooking towards certain dishes.