Written By James Costa, Chief Operating Officer, Sneakz Organic

I’ve spent most of my career in and around food manufacturing plants—walking production lines, reviewing formulations, solving problems when a product doesn’t behave the way it should. So when we talk about “processed food,” I don’t think in slogans. I think in unit operations: grinding, mixing, heating, cooling, extruding, drying, packaging.

Processing itself isn’t the villain. In many cases, it’s what keeps your family safe.

The real issue is how far we push the process—and what we add along the way.

A Simple “Processing Ladder”

In the industry, we often think about foods along a spectrum. For parents, it helps to imagine a four-step “processing ladder”:

1. Whole / Minimally Processed
   Washed, peeled, chopped, frozen, cooked, or canned for safety and convenience, but still recognizably the original food.

   • Examples: apples, frozen peas, plain oats, canned beans in water, plain yogurt, milk.

2. Processed Ingredients
   Foods used in cooking that are made by pressing, grinding, or purifying a natural source.

   • Examples: olive oil, butter, sugar, salt, flour.

3. Processed Foods
   A few ingredients combined, but still close to homemade.

   • Examples: cheese, simple sourdough bread, canned tomatoes, unsweetened nut butters.

4. Ultra-Processed Foods
   This is where the original food has been broken down and rebuilt with multiple additives to create a highly convenient, long-shelf-life, “hyper-palatable” product.

   • Examples: sugary drinks, many boxed breakfast cereals, chips, candy, instant noodles, many packaged snacks, flavored yogurts, some frozen “kid foods” like nuggets and fries.

The further we climb up that ladder, the more the product stops behaving like food in the body—and starts behaving like a chemistry experiment.

What Actually Happens in a Factory

Let me walk you through the difference in practical terms.

Minimally Processed

Think of a simple frozen vegetable. In a manufacturing facility that might look like:

• Wash → sort → cut → quick-blanch for safety → flash-freeze → bag.

We’re not changing the basic structure of the food. The fiber is intact. The nutrients are largely preserved. The ingredient list is short and recognizable: “peas.”

Ultra-Processed

Now compare that to a typical sweetened breakfast cereal or snack puff:

• Refined grains are milled into fine flour. (lots of fiber removed)

• Sugars, starches, oils, flavorings, colors, and emulsifiers are blended in a large mixer. (designed for taste and longer expiration dates not for nutrition)

• The dough is pushed through an extruder under heat and pressure, then puffed, shaped, and dried.

• A sugar or flavor coating may be sprayed on in a drum.

• Finally, it’s cooled, bagged, and flushed with gas to extend shelf life.

By the time that product hits the box, the original grain has been broken down, its fiber removed or reduced, and its structure replaced by something that digests very quickly and lights up the brain’s reward pathways. The label now reads more like a chemistry set: multiple sugars, oils, emulsifiers, colors, flavors.

From a manufacturing perspective, this is brilliant engineering. From a health perspective—especially for kids—we have to be cautious.

How This Shows Up in the Body

1. Blood Sugar and “Empty” Calories

When we grind grains very finely, extrude them, and combine them with added sugars and fats, we create foods that digest extremely fast. That means:

• Rapid blood sugar spikes and crashes

• More hunger sooner, even after a high-calorie snack

• Extra calories with very few vitamins, minerals, or fiber to show for it

Minimally processed foods—like beans, whole oats, nuts, and vegetables—still have their natural structure. They take more work to break down, release energy more slowly, and carry along the nutrients kids’ bodies and brains actually need.

2. Liver Load

Your liver is the plant manager of your metabolism. Everything you eat eventually shows up there.

Diets high in sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods are strongly associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), now increasingly seen in children and teens. In simple terms:

• When kids take in more sugar than they can use, the liver converts that excess into fat.

• Over time, fat builds up inside liver cells.

• That buildup can drive inflammation and raise the risk of metabolic diseases later on.

Minimally processed foods—especially those rich in fiber and antioxidants like fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains—put less strain on the liver and provide nutrients that support its natural detoxification work.

3. Gut Health and the Microbiome

From a manufacturing standpoint, many ultra-processed foods are designed to be soft, smooth, and easy to eat. From a gut-health standpoint, that’s not usually a good thing.

• Less texture and less fiber means less food for beneficial gut bacteria.

• Certain additives commonly used in ultra-processed products—like some emulsifiers and sweeteners—may alter gut bacteria and the gut lining in ways that promote inflammation in susceptible individuals.

• Low-fiber, highly processed diets are linked with constipation, bloating, and a less diverse microbiome.

Minimally processed foods do the opposite: they bring fiber and natural plant compounds that feed good bacteria and help keep digestion moving.

4. Kids’ Brains and Behavior

In plants, we engineer products to be “craveable”—the right crunch, the right level of sweetness and salt, the right aroma. That’s part art, part science.

The challenge is that kids’ brains are still under construction. When a large portion of their diet comes from ultra-processed foods:

• Blood sugar swings can show up as mood swings, energy crashes, and trouble focusing.

• Diets low in key nutrients and high in additives are linked with more emotional and behavioral difficulties over time.

• Early patterns become habits. A child who grows up on ultra-processed foods tends to carry those preferences into adulthood.

On the other hand, diets that emphasize minimally processed foods—especially protein, healthy fats, and fiber—support steadier energy, better mood regulation, and stronger learning.

A Day on Two Plates

Here’s a simple comparison:

Ultra-Processed Day

• Breakfast: Colored cereal + sugary drink (juice from a box)

• Snack: Fruit snacks

• Lunch: Chicken nuggets + fries + soda

• Snack: Chips

• Dinner: Frozen entrée + dessert bar

Minimally Processed Day (Still Realistic)

• Breakfast: Oats cooked in milk with berries and a drizzle of honey

• Snack: Apple slices with peanut butter

• Lunch: Baked chicken, brown rice, and steamed carrots

• Snack: Popcorn popped in oil with a little salt

• Dinner: Bean and veggie soup with whole-grain bread

Same basic categories (breakfast, snack, lunch), completely different impact on liver, gut, and brain.

How to Read Labels Like an Insider

You don’t need my job title to think like a product developer. Here are a few simple checks:

1. Ingredient list length

   • Fewer ingredients isn’t always better—but a very long list with many items you wouldn’t cook with at home is a red flag. If you need a dictionary to understand an ingredient it probably not healthy.

2. Sugar search

   • Look for “sugar,” “corn syrup,” “fructose,” “dextrose,” “maltodextrin,” etc. If sugar shows up early and often, it’s closer to a dessert than a staple.

3. Additive scan

   • Colors, flavors, emulsifiers, and sweeteners are tools that are used in manufacturing. In small amounts they’re approved as safe, but when most of a child’s diet comes from products full of them, it’s a sign their eating pattern is too far up the processing ladder.

Claims on the front (“low-fat,” “sugar-free,” “high protein”) are marketing. The ingredient list and nutrition facts panel are the truth.

Practical Steps for Families

You don’t have to throw out your pantry. Start with small, sustainable shifts:

1. Prioritize whole and minimally processed foods
   Make fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, eggs, and plain dairy the base of most meals.

2. Cook simple, not fancy
   A pot of beans, a tray of roasted vegetables, or a basic soup counts as “processing”—the good kind.

3. Upgrade one snack at a time

   • Chips → popcorn

   • Soda → sparkling water with fruit

   • Candy → dates and nuts or fruit and yogurt

4. Make label reading a kid game
   Ask your child: “Can you find the first sugar word? How many ingredients can you recognize? Is this closer to an apple—or a science project?”

5. Watch the “super white and ultra-processed” rule
   Not all white foods are bad—cauliflower and onions are great. But when you see very white, very refined products (white bread, white crackers, white sugary cereal), pause and look for a more colorful, less processed option.

As someone who has spent years designing and running food processes, I can tell you this: processing is a powerful tool. It can make food safer, more accessible, and more affordable. But when we push it too far—breaking foods down, rebuilding them, and layering in sugar, fat, and additives—we shift from nourishing the body to simply exciting the palate.

Our goal at Sneakz is to lean on the good side of processing: using it to protect nutrients, support gut and liver health, and help families build eating habits that last.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to move, one choice at a time, up the ladder—from ultra-processed toward real food your grandparents would recognize. That’s where kids’ bodies, and their futures, do best.

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