Chef Boyardee and the Slow Decline of Real Food

Why Cutting Factory-Made Food Could Save Your Health

Author

Kevin Davis Health
March 23, 2025

TODAY’S POST SUMMARY

Key Takeaways:

  • Processed foods are chemically altered and stripped of nutrients.

  • Ingredients in packaged foods today are far more artificial and harmful than 30 years ago.

  • Example: Chef Boyardee then vs. now shows a shift from real ingredients to a chemical list.

  • Processed foods can cause fatigue, cravings, digestive issues, inflammation, weight gain, and long-term diseases.

  • These foods are linked to metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance, and increased cancer risk.

  • Many harmful food additives are banned in other countries but still allowed in the U.S.

  • Policy change is needed, but personal choice is the first defense.

  • Shopping the perimeter of the grocery store helps avoid most processed foods.

  • Visiting local markets, buying from farmers, or growing your own food increases access to real, nutrient-dense options.

  • Small changes—like reading labels and avoiding packaged junk—can have a major impact on energy, mood, and long-term health.

HOUSEKEEPING

THE POST

The Foundations of Health: Simple Daily Habits for a Stronger You

Week 2: Cut the Processed Foods – Take Back Control of Your Health

If real food builds your body, processed food breaks it down.
Last week, we focused on eating whole, nutrient-dense foods—what your body was made to thrive on. This week, we’re tackling the flip side of that habit: reducing or cutting out processed foods, which are quietly at the root of fatigue, chronic illness, and poor metabolic health.

This isn’t about restriction. It’s about awareness—knowing what you’re putting in your body and making better choices, one step at a time.

What Are Processed Foods, Really?

Processed foods go beyond cooking, chopping, or freezing. We’re talking about foods that are chemically altered, refined, and filled with synthetic ingredients your body can’t recognize or use.

These foods are designed for shelf life and profit—not nourishment. They’re engineered to taste good, hit the pleasure centers in your brain, and keep you coming back.

Common examples:

  • Packaged snacks (chips, crackers, protein bars)

  • Sugary drinks and sodas

  • Frozen meals and boxed dinners

  • Processed meats (deli slices, hot dogs, sausage)

  • Breakfast cereals

  • “Diet” or low-fat foods with chemical additives

  • Refined flours, oils, and sugars

They often look harmless. But look at the label—you’ll see a long list of ingredients that are anything but food.

Then vs. Now: How Ingredients Have Changed

Let’s take one familiar example: Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli.
This used to be a basic canned meal with simple ingredients. Compare that to what it’s become:

🕰️ 30 Years Ago
Ingredients: Tomatoes, pasta, beef, water, salt, onion, garlic, basic seasoning.
Not great, but still recognizable.

🧪 Today’s Version
Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour, water, tomato paste, beef, textured vegetable protein (soy flour, caramel color), high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, salt, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, flavorings, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, enzymes, and more.

This is what’s happened to most “convenience” foods. Even if the packaging looks the same, the content is radically different—and far more harmful.

This is why reading labels matters. And why we must be conscious of the quiet shift that’s happened in our food supply over the past 30 years.

What Processed Foods Do to Your Body

Every processed food you eat makes your body work harder to manage inflammation, detox chemicals, and stabilize blood sugar. Over time, this leads to chronic dysfunction.

Here’s what processed food actually does:

🔻 Triggers fatigue and brain fog
Blood sugar spikes and crashes lead to poor focus, irritability, and low energy.

🔻 Disrupts digestion
Additives and preservatives harm gut bacteria, weaken the intestinal lining, and lead to bloating, constipation, or IBS symptoms.

🔻 Drives inflammation and weight gain
Refined sugars, industrial oils, and chemical additives activate inflammatory pathways, increase fat storage, and worsen insulin resistance.

🔻 Impacts hormone balance
Highly processed foods interfere with leptin and insulin—two critical hormones for metabolism and hunger regulation.

🔻 Increases disease risk
There’s strong evidence linking ultra-processed food consumption with cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even depression.

How you feel after eating them:

  • Tired but wired

  • Sluggish in the afternoon

  • Craving more sugar or carbs

  • Bloated or gassy

  • Mentally foggy or unable to focus

  • Still hungry, even after eating

That’s not a lack of willpower. That’s your body reacting to chemical food-like products.

Why This Is Bigger Than Personal Choice

For the past 30+ years, food industry lobbying has prevented meaningful regulations on food safety. Many additives that are banned in other countries are still legal—and widely used—in the U.S.

Our kids are being raised on ultra-processed food. Rates of obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions are soaring. And most of the people we trust to protect public health aren’t doing their job.

Hopefully, RFK Jr. and other leaders with courage will start to change the system. But we can’t wait on Washington. We have to make better choices right now, with what we can control.

This Week’s Challenge: Stay Out of the Middle of the Store

Most real food doesn’t come in a box—and it’s not found in the center aisles of the grocery store.

✅ Shop the perimeter: fresh produce, meat, eggs, dairy, seafood
✅ Visit local food markets—Knott County will be launching its own soon
✅ Buy directly from farmers or local co-ops whenever possible
✅ Grow your own: Start small—herbs, tomatoes, greens in containers
✅ Read every label: If you don’t recognize the ingredients, skip it

When you focus on real, simple foods, your body responds fast—more energy, fewer cravings, clearer thinking, and better digestion.

Keep Building

Processed foods are a major part of what’s driving fatigue, disease, and poor health across the country.
You don’t have to overhaul everything at once. Just start removing the obvious junk and replacing it with whole food alternatives.

Next week, we’ll add another daily habit to keep stacking the wins. But for now:

🛒 Stay out of the middle of the store
🌱 Look local
🥦 Eat real food

Let’s keep going. You're taking back your health—one habit at a time.

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