Food Babe Family - Header

There’s Proof: Processed Foods are Harder to Digest

I recently came across a video released earlier this year, that shows what happens in your digestive system when you eat processed foods vs. homemade foods.  I found this film simply fascinating to say the least.

The video shows two similar meals eaten by 2 subjects  –

Meal #1 (Processed) –  blue gatorade, Top ramen noodles, and gummi bears

Meal #2 (Homemade) – hibiscus drink, homemade broth with noodles and gummi bears made of juice

Here’s the video – I don’t recommend watching it while eating 🙂

Two points in the film really jumped out at me.

#1 – Blue gatorade – Watching the inside of your digestive system turn blue and not dissolve immediately even with all that stomach acid was really alarming, just as alarming as the other the secrets I recently found out about gatorade. Now I fully understand why the human body doesn’t enjoy products made out of petroleum. Sheesh.

#2 – The ingredient list of the Top ramen noodles includes TBHQ and MSG, which are also 2 ingredients found in Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

Since it’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation day…I thought it would only be appropriate to highlight this point. Politics and human rights issues aside, if you haven’t considered what ingredients Chick-fil-A uses in their products, maybe it’s time.

(And if you are just catching up – You can read Chick-Fil-A or Chemical-Fil-A? and Food Babe Investigates: Why Chick-Fil-A? to find out more.)

Not only is processed food making people fat, it’s causing disease. Energy is lost when your body cannot extract the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food you eat in an efficient manner, when it becomes weighed down by preservatives and chemicals it must cipher through, and digest substances that provide zero nutrition to the body. This energy is critical for our vital functions, organs and hormones to work at their optimal level. Without this energy people will feel sick, tired and unhappy and continue to be prescribed drugs to make them feel better instead of addressing the root cause – what they put in their mouth.

Thank goodness for Stephani Bardin and Harvard for producing this film. Hopefully it will open the eyes of people who still consume food like Chick-fil-A that is meant to survive Armageddon.

Cheers,

Food Babe

Food Babe Family - Book
Food Babe Grocery Guide

Sign Up For Updates

And Get A FREE Healthy Grocery Guide Sent To You Now!

Find out what to buy and where at the top grocery stores near you

Posts may contain affiliate, sponsorship and/or partnership links for products Food Babe has approved and researched herself. If you purchase a product through an affiliate, sponsorship or partnership link, your cost will be the same (or at a discount if a special code is offered) and Food Babe will benefit from the purchase. Your support is crucial because it helps fund this blog and helps us continue to spread the word. Thank you.

31 responses to “There’s Proof: Processed Foods are Harder to Digest

  1. Everyone in my office today is getting Chic-fil-A. I absolutely will not eat it. Especially after reading all of the ingredients. However, that is not the only reason. I am still very livid with Chemical-fil-A about the attack they made to that small business “Eat More Kale.” I absolutely love your blog and it is such a relief to know that there are people who care out there. 🙂

    1. Thank you Courtney… I’m delighted to hear that you didn’t join the people in your office.

  2. Oh my gosh I watched this same thing on Detoxinista’s site last week!! I agree the whole Gatorade thing was disturbing. I couldn’t figure out at 1st why that side seemed green, then I realized it was the Gatorade!! I can’t figure out what to substitute for sports drinks. My kids are not so fond of the coconut water, even fresh! Thanks for posting this. I think more people should see it!!

  3. Wouldn’t a slowing or lack of digestion lead to weight loss when eating processed foods though? Sorry if this is a stupid question.. I’m just a bit confused. I’m all for whole-foods but with this logic, wouldn’t poor digestion lead to the body not digesting the calories as efficiently?

    1. Hi Sarah,
      That’s a little strange in the video – processed foods are usually much more digestible than raw foods, so the fact that the Ramen noodles were broken down slower (apparently) would seem to go against that concept. In fact, if Ramen noodles resist upper GI digestion, and are fermented in the lower GI, that would indeed by healthier.
      This is the problem with this type of “snapshot” research. What happens in the entire gut is what matters…..

  4. So glad I found your blog. Love ALL the work you do to inform us of all the gross stuff people are trying to feed us. I have learned sooo much and want to thank you for actually caring to inform people about what we’re putting into our bodies! The time you have put into it is priceless!

    1. Kelly I absolutely agree with you on that!!! Thank goodness for this site and all the hard work she does. I would never be this informed, much less have the time to be able to research it for others to know!

    2. You are welcome Kelly. Thanks for following and allowing me a platform to share this information 🙂

  5. There are so many gross “food” products out there. Thanks for the awesome information you put out there for all of us 🙂 This information needs to be more mainstream and should be headline news!!!!

  6. Yikes. So glad to have seen this video. I think about all the “crap” I have eaten in my life and this makes me never want to eat that stuff again. With 2 young children who are relatively picky, I find it so difficult to cook whole food meals for them, knowing they won’t eat it. But then I see something like this and think, they might as well not eat if they are going to be ingesting that garbage. It’s so scary. I wish I had someone like you close to me so that they could come and give my kitchen an overhaul!!
    Thanks!

  7. Hey Food Babe. I work full time and volunteer a lot at the kids school. My husband coaches all their teams so we are out a lot.. but we don’t eat out (hardly ever!) we grow our own veggies and spices and (Some) fruit. We even pre-plan our meals we have to eat in the car on the way to games by doing home made healthy stuff… so we are AIMING for 70% all real food (100% is impossible unless I get a sugar daddy to support me staying home.) 🙂 We pack all the kids lunches, use Non-GMO/organic snacks in addition to fruits and veggies and roll ups in their lunches- but one thing my little daughter LOVES is Ramen noodles 🙁
    Could you PLEASE offer a solution (here, or inbox me, or write a post ASAP!) 😉 to tell me what I could do at least better- in the regard of the Ramen soup? She likes to have it once a week and since she eats REALLY well MOST of the time, it isn’t a battle I want at the table.. So I would rather make something more healthy. We add corn and peas or edamame sometimes that we grow, but I still would like to stay away from the MSG…

    1. One thing that I do to make top ramen a LITTLE better is to use homemade broth, boil it and add the noodles. And I throw away the seasoning packet. I know the noodles are not super good for you, they have some bad stuff, too, but at least you are avoiding the MSG and other yucky natural flavorings.

  8. Every post is a push in the right direction as I try to change my household over to real foods. As gross as that video was (lol!) it really is an eye opener.

  9. It makes me sad (and angry) that there are laws governing so many aspects of our lives, yet so few for food vital for sustenance.

  10. Hi Vani! I love your page, your information and your passion! However my son and I were reading your blog and watching the above video where he noticed that you had a Kroger ad off to the right of the page selling Kellogs cereal and with free milk. I wouldn’t think you would want that on your page and just thought I would point it out. I realize ads are part of making your research accessible to the masses but , again, I just wanted to point that out. You are AWESOME! Thx, Kristi and Conner

  11. Magnificent video!! I’d like to share some pictures I have collected as part of the research studies I collect. I don’t see a way to post them, so I will just link to them

    Blue colon: http://feingold.org/images/bluecolon.jpg Found at autopsy, this is the colon of someone sick enough to need tube feeding back when blue was added to the food that they were by tube. These people died and it was determined that they did not die from their illnesses but from the Blue #1 used in their feedings which caused refractory hypotension and metabolic acidosis ….

    Blue boy: http://feingold.org/Research/graphics/blueboy.jpg This is a picture of a baby given tube feedings with blue color added. It is no longer supposed to be added since the FDA sent out a warning letter to doctors in 2003.

    Blue rat: http://feingold.org/images/bluerat200.jpg A study shows that rats with damaged spines will not be paralyzed if given enough blue 1 to turn their ears, toes, nose, & eyes blue. The Blue 1 is toxic to the cells that normally swell when the spine is injured. Dr. Feingold always said the food dyes were similar to drugs. Here it IS a drug and may soon be very useful for preventing paralysis. But maybe we ordinary people don’t need it for breakfast?

  12. I have been working on research for a persuasive essay in my AP English class about why we should only eat organic foods, and the results I have found from digesting processed foods is truly disturbing. I have learned more from my own research than from the multiples of doctors and GI specialists I have seen. Thank you so much for the extra research!!! Maybe consider publishing an article on the Candida parasite? So common, yet so unknown to MANY people, and extremely harmful!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

food babe with grocery cart - footer image