If you could only make 1 healthy change, what would it be?

If you could only make 1 healthy change, what would it be? Avoid highly processed foods as much as you can. By making this one change I believe that you will see a lot of health benefits especially if you eat a lot of highly processed foods. I believe they are the main cause of a lot of our health and obesity problems that we have today. They are chemically engineered to taste delicious and hard to put down. Who can open a bag of potato chips, eat one single chip, close the bag, and then put it back in the pantry? I’ve never met anyone like that. They are also packed full of preservatives, so they keep a long shelf life, this isn’t for the benefit of the consumer. It’s so the company can keep a product on the shelf longer hoping that it will sell and not get thrown away because it expired. It’s cheap to make because most of the product is food-like products, artificial sweeteners, and flavoring. Real food is expensive, and it doesn’t do well in mass production. Highly processed foods are also easy for the consumer. Most of the products are made ready to eat or heat up in the microwave within minutes. Cooking a meal from scratch takes time and effort as well as kitchen skills. There’s been studies that show when you eat highly processed foods you generally eat about 500 more calories a day than a diet made up of whole natural foods. If most of your diet consists of highly processed foods, you can see how this adds up quickly overtime. There’s 3,500 calories in one pound, if you divide the additional 500 calories a day from a diet of highly processed foods then you will add 1 additional pound of body weight every 7 days if you do not burn those extra calories off through daily movement. You also lack all of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that you get with whole natural foods. Companies have to add these components back into food because they become stripped during manufacturing and it’s never as good as the real thing. I realize all of this is a lot easier said than done, I’m not saying to completely eliminate highly processed foods from your diet, because I love them myself. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying these foods on occasion, but it should be just that, only on occasion. The majority of your diet should consist of whole nutritious minimally processed foods.