Welcome to the Nutrition Diva Podcast, a show where we take a closer look at nutrition

trends and headlines, explain how the latest research applies to you, and answer your questions.

I'm your host Monica Reinegel, and today I want to talk about phytoestrogens in soybeans,

and whether they have estrogen-like effects in women, for better or for worse.

But first, a question came up in the comments section of a post that I wrote on my blog

at nutritionovereasy.com.

On whether protein powder is too processed to be considered a healthy food.

The original post was in response to a question from Catherine, who wrote,

virtually everyone says to cut down on processed foods.

It seems to be one of the few things everyone from different camps generally agrees on.

Yet a large number of nutrition influencers recommend smoothies that include protein powder.

How the heck are those not processed?

Catherine's absolutely right.

There is a lot of talk these days about the harms of ultra-processed foods.

But this designation turns out to be problematic.

Some of the foods in this category are exactly the ones that you might expect.

Things like red bull or cheetos and pop tarts.

But that category also includes foods that we generally think of as healthy,

or maybe healthier choices, such as almond milk, soyburgers, cholesterol-reducing spreads like benacol,

high fiber breakfast cereal, baby formula, and, yes, protein powder.

Rather than painting all processed foods with the same brush,

it's worth considering what the purpose of the processing is.

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