Just a few weeks into the school year—yes, as were getting back to buying chips, granola bars, and all manner of lunch-bag standards—this article by Michaeleen Doucleff caught our eye: “My Family Went Off Ultra-Processed Foods For a Month. The Results Surprised Us” (WSJ, paywall).
 
Like any family today, we battle with the constant lure, ease, and tastiness of ultra-processed foods. It reminds us of the 24/7 battle we have with screens and media, with training our kids (and ourselves) to be capable of deeper focus, attention, and even contemplation. Like the screens, the battle to resist overly processed foods and their proven link to “obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease”—not to mention depression and poorer mental health—seems never-ending.  
 
At times, the battle seems so hopeless that you just want to give up and eat a big bag of chips [or fill in your favorite comfort food here!]. So, it felt important to hear the first-hand account of a mom who went off ultra-processed foods (UPFs) for a month with her 8-year-old daughter, Rosy, and her husband. They did it … How? Can we? Here are 7 takeaways from their journey:  

• “Around 60 percent of children’s calories come from UPFs” today.
• To help their 8-year-old understand UPFs, Doucleff’s family simply defined them as foods that have an ingredient we don’t use at home or can barely pronounce. They include ingredients like emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial flavors, refined sugars, refined flours, or other refined carbohydrates. This includes “most store-bought crackers, cereals, breads, pretzels, granola bars…” and more.   
• “About 10 days in, I noticed a striking shift: I wasn’t constantly thinking about food,” Doucleff shares. Their snacking “plummeted.”  
• “By the third week,” Doucleff shares, “[my daughter] did something I hadn’t seen in years: She ate a homemade dinner with gusto.” Their family began to regain the taste for healthier foods.
• “After a month without UPFs, I felt so much better, mentally, that I found I no longer needed willpower to resist them. I simply didn’t want them.
• Throughout the 30-day journey, “people gave her [Doucleff’s daughter] UPFs nearly everywhere she went—at parties, friends’ houses, the pool, the farmers markets, church and even softball games.” Given this, they adjusted their strategy to at least making their home and cars UPF-free, a “context-setter” approach that made “specific times and places UPF-free.”
• The journey underscored how important it was to teach Rosy how to cook. A researcher Doucleff spoke with said, “I think it’s really important to teach children to cook and that cooking is pleasurable.”

Bravo to the Doucleff family for taking this journey and sharing some practical tips for the rest of us! And we look forward to Michaeleen’s forthcoming (2026) book: Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultra-processed Foods. It’s heartening to see these benchmarks—arguably available to any family at 10 days, 3 weeks, and 30 days if we set similar challenges for ourselves—and to be reminded of how central food is to the lifeblood of our own Trinity House.
 
Let’s cut to the chase: Is it possible to have a domestic church—a Trinity House—that is thriving spiritually (Faith Life, Level 1), and that is marked by healthy people and relationships (Person & Relationships, Level 2), a shared teamwork (Household Economy, Level 3), a thriving Family Culture (Level 4), and a joyful witness of Hospitality & Service (Level 5), but which is powered by a constant influx of ultra-proceesed food?
 
Yes. We know that it’s “possible,” at least for a while. We know that in busy and unintentional seasons of our lives, we have gone overboard on the availability of processed foods in our home. And yes, God has continued to work powerfully despite less-than-ideal food.    
 
But … If our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit; if we know without a doubt that UPFs shorten our lifespan and raise the chances for mental anxiety and depression; and if we know that part of our job as parents is to provide the best possible context for our children to make virtuous decisions (where doing the good is just easier, requiring less willpower), then wouldn’t we want to fight for our kids and give them the best chance possible at eating well?
 
Like Rosy—who was offered ultra-processed treats the minute she stepped outside her home—every one of us will likely be surrounded by them for years to come. And yes, even five minutes from now. But rather than be overwhelmed, resigned, or cynical, let’s recover our agency and take our families back, one small step at a time: perhaps through a 30-day journey like the Doucleff’s, “context-setters,” family plans, simpler and healthier meals, and of course, all within the context of prayer and surrendering our lives to the Lord.