Is my exhaustion really my fault?
The link between ultra-processed food and your energy crashes isn't about willpower. Here's what the research actually shows, and one small shift to try this week.
Sophia Mohammed
8/10/20263 min read
A few weeks ago, in a small women's coaching circle I run, I asked everyone to bring one thing from their pantry, whatever they'd grabbed most that week without thinking, and read me the first 5 ingredients on the label.
One packet of instant noodles: refined wheat flour, refined palm oil, iodised salt, thickener, acidity regulator... and the list went on.
It read like a chemistry formula?
Some questions we asked ourselves - am I really choosing to put this into my body? What would happen if I eat this all the time? What choices to I have?
But the real question we need to ask ourselves is what am I willing to do about it?
So, let's unpack this.
A checklist to make it easier
I've put together a free UPF Label Reading Checklist: the sugar aliases to watch for, the additive names worth knowing, and a simple 5-minute pantry audit you can do this week.
If you'd like to talk through what's coming up for you specifically, my free Discovery Call is a relaxed, no-pressure conversation about where you're at.
What's really going on?
Ultra-processed food does something measurable to your blood sugar. A French cohort study of over 100,000 adults, found that every 10% increase in how much of the diet came from ultra-processed food raised the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 15%. Repeated spikes and crashes ask your body to work overtime, and that metabolic labour is a real, physical cost. It shows up as the 2pm wall, and eventually as the fog that coffee stops touching by week two.
What surprises most people about sugar? Your body doesn't actually tell the difference between sugar and refined flour. A can of Coke and a cup of white rice get processed almost identically once they hit your bloodstream, both read as sugar. So when a label lists refined wheat flour before you even reach the added sugar, that's doing more of the same work than the ingredient name lets on.
For homeschooling families, this compounds. Our days are full and unpredictable, and convenience becomes everything. We reach for the morning cereal, the jarred sauce, the 3pm snack because we have to, not because we're doing anything wrong. Those are responses to a demanding day. They also add up in ways we don't always connect to how we're feeling by dinner.
Start with one swap. Notice which packaged staple shows up most in your week, and look for a whole-food alternative for just that one.
Here's what I had the group do, and what you can do this week with anything already in your pantry.
Pick one packaged food you buy regularly.
Read the ingredient list. Sugar and additives hide under a lot of names: dextrose, maltose, rice syrup, sodium benzoate.
If you count more than 3 of them in the first 5 ingredients, treat that as your cue to look for a whole-food version instead.
Then ask: does this leave me energised an hour later, or flat?
You already have the data, ask the question and be honest about what you notice.
The direction worth acting on is simple.
The truth is, the more of your plate is whole food, meat, vegetables, fruit, grains you cook yourself, the steadier your energy tends to be.
The more of it comes from a packet, the more that rollercoaster shows up.
Sophia is a PREKURE certified health coach, homeschooling mum, and retired Technical & Engineering Manager. At Nur al fajr she works with homeschooling mums who are ready to Notice, Understand, and Realign, one honest step at a time.
