Eat Like a Human, Not a Machine: Whole Foods vs Processed Foods
Last updated: May 2026
“Don’t fuel your body at the same place where you fuel your car.”
—Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan continues in his book, In Defense of Food, “Gas stations have become processed-corn stations: ethanol outside for your car and high-fructose corn syrup inside for you.”
In other words, most of what's sold at a gas station is processed. They're made for a long shelf life and bad for your health. Even if you think of yourself as a finely tuned Ferrari, don’t get your food at the gas station convenience store. Eat like a human!
The best diet?
Different people can react differently to the same diet.
Even the same person can respond differently to the same diet at different times of the year or in different parts of the world.
Not everyone loses weight eating low carb. Keto can benefit many people, but may not be healthy long term.
A sure thing
We can argue all day about various diets, but health care professionals and researchers overwhelmingly agree that it's better to eat whole foods than processed foods.
Most people can benefit from eating more vegetables, though how much and which kinds could be up for further discussion.
If you do these two things, you’re already 80% of the way to eating well! And rather than trying to optimize that last 20%, how about spending your time doing other things that you enjoy?
Eat real food = Eat whole foods
Though we can have pacemakers and artificial joints, we're not machines. Human metabolism isn’t a simple matter of calories in and calories out. Nor is there a standard such as “add 1 quart of vitamin C every 50 miles” for maintaining peak performance.
Unlike automated machines, our bodies have varying abilities to absorb different nutrients. In addition, we're organisms with emotions and thoughts that can affect our physical condition.
When a computer beats a human at playing chess, it’s not necessarily because computers are smarter than people. Computers have fewer risk variables such as not getting emotional, tired, or sick.
What are whole foods?
Whole foods include vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and minimally processed animal products—grass-fed and organically raised, when possible.
To determine whether a food is whole or processed, consider how it exists in nature. Have you ever seen an energy bar tree? Or a chocolate truffle bush?
The microbiome
The gut microbiome is another differentiator between humans and machines. It makes sense that the microbiome would affect the gastrointestinal system. Yet who would have imagined that microbes in the gut could affect mood, immunity, blood pressure, weight, and insulin response?
Barely a blip on the radar 20 years ago, there is still much for us to discover about the microbiome. Yet it appears that beneficial bacteria suffer when fed processed food and thrive on prebiotics such as vegetable fiber.
Why is processed food bad?
Nature packages synergistic nutrients together. Like processed food, supplements only focus on a small part of the whole. Whole foods, in contrast, contain multiple interacting compounds. For example, nuts, which are beneficial to cardiovascular health, often include more than one form of vitamin E. In contrast, many supplements primarily contain only one out of eight known types. Some studies that supplemented with synthetic vitamin E have been associated with increased risk of heart disease and stroke, the opposite of the intended effect!
Beyond vitamins and minerals, we have yet to discover all the phytonutrients (health-benefiting compounds in plants, including antioxidants) that exist in whole foods.
Many nutrients are lost in processing. Worse, unhealthy additives may be introduced in the process. Consider processed orange juice, which lacks the fiber found in whole oranges. In the best scenario, orange juice has little to no fiber, which can cause your blood sugar to spike. In addition, 1 cup of juice contains the concentrated amount of natural sugar of 3 to 4 oranges. This is why orange juice is used as an emergency remedy for low blood sugar.
The worst processing is an orange-flavored drink with no fiber, added synthetic vitamin C, high fructose corn syrup, and citric acid to balance the sweet corn syrup and prolong shelf life.
It’s all about the money
Money is a powerful incentive for introducing processed foods into our food system. Industrialized agriculture has a surplus in monocrops such as corn and soy. The food industry then has to figure out how to unload the excess by turning these crops into increasingly processed products. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies profit from treating many of the chronic health issues associated with processed and industrially grown foods.
Superfoods gone bad
Nowadays, it can be difficult to pick out real food from processed foods. Marketers have gotten so clever.
Many disguise themselves as healthy through small substitutions—whole grain flour instead of refined flour, air-fried instead of deep-fried. Yet they’re still far removed from whole foods.
Fried kale chips?
Many store-bought versions are still oxidized snacks fried in refined oils. Even homemade baked or air-fried kale chips lose some heat-sensitive nutrients like vitamin C and certain phytonutrients.
Dulce de leche frozen yogurt?
It’s marketed as being lower in fat than ice cream, but often contains comparable or higher amounts of sugar. And despite the "yogurt" label, the amount of probiotics present depends on how it was processed. Freezing doesn't kill probiotics, but pasteurization does. Some companies add probiotics back in after pasteurization, prior to freezing.
Indulge occasionally, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re eating something healthy.
Artificial sweeteners used in diet foods were touted as healthy alternatives to sugar because they contain no calories and don’t raise blood sugar. Other trendy substitutes, such as agave syrup, are often marketed as healthier alternatives despite being highly processed. Yet more recent research has linked sugar substitutes to changes in the microbiome and metabolism associated with obesity, diabetes, and other long-term health problems.
I saw ORGANIC GUMMY BEARS at the grocery store and burst out laughing. Oh, and they were also “Fat Free” and “Gluten Free.”
INGREDIENTS: ORGANIC TAPIOCA SYRUP, ORGANIC CANE SUGAR, GELATIN, ORGANIC LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, ORGANIC TAPIOCA STARCH, ORGANIC POTATO STARCH, AGAR, COLORS (BLACK CARROT JUICE, BLACKCURRANT JUICE, CARROT JUICE, TURMERIC, PURPLE SWEET POTATO JUICE, CHERRY JUICE, RADISH JUICE), CITRIC ACID, ORGANIC SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL FLAVORS, ORGANIC CARNAUBA WAX.
Despite the impressive ingredient list, these these offer little meaningful nutrition.
Baby formula
Baby formula is another processed product that appears to have all the appropriate profile on paper. Yet zooming in on specific nutrients loses sight of the holistic benefits of mother’s milk, which contains immunity-building probiotics.
Pickles
On the other hand, pickled foods made the traditional way—salted and allowed to ferment naturally over time—are a great source of probiotics. The fermentation process gives it a natural sour taste.
However, industrially processed sauerkraut, pickles, and kim chee aren’t fermented because manufacturers want to reduce cost and production time. These foods get their sour flavor from the addition of vinegar and don’t contain living probiotics. If you want to eat real food, don’t be misled by marketing!
The beauty of diversity
In addition to individual differences in levels of absorption, humans aren’t able to store certain nutrients in excess. That’s why it’s a good idea to diversify your nutritional portfolio.
Cars might function well with the same octane 91 gas all the time, but we fare better (pun intended!) with variety. Don’t eat the same things every day—not even the healthy stuff. Mix up the kale with other greens such as spinach, Swiss chard, or dandelion greens. Swap flax seeds for chia. Try purple cauliflower sometimes instead of eating broccoli all the time.
Similarly, industrial farming's lack of diversity is illustrated through monocropping. Not only does this practice deplete the soil of nutrients, relying on monocrops also puts us in a vulnerable position. Ireland, for example, was devastated by famine when their monocrop of potatoes was wiped out by disease.
Consistency is great for automating machinery. Nature, however, is not consistent year round; nor is it easily controlled. I’m sure this is frustrating for chain restaurants and food processors trying to set standard operating procedures!
In Italy, for example, cows graze on grass in summer and hay in winter. This leads to differences in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese made with summer vs. winter milk.
Likewise, chickens have egg-laying cycles that vary with the seasons. Farmer Joel Salatin had a customer whose Swiss culinary training took seasonal variations in eggs into account.
The ancient Japanese calendar divides into 72 micro-seasons. Some master chefs cook by that calendar, which changes about every 5 days. Can you imagine the precision required to plan a menu for a 5-day window, down to details like when “bamboo shoots sprout” and what seafood and produce are in season that week?
Eat like a human
So eat like a human—eat whole foods. Feel free to indulge sometimes, but don’t be deceived by marketing or government agencies that you’re eating healthy. Avoid putting all your grass-fed eggs in one basket and diversify your nutritional portfolio. And finally, fuel your car at the gas station, not your body.
These ideas are central to how I think about food and health, and I explore them further in my book Nature’s Palette.
If you want to put this into practice, you can learn more about how I work with people.