Kelly, I'm really glad you wrote this. My husband and I have been off processed foods for at least four years. Bruce has severe arthritis and he endured an extreme spine surgery this past year and recently had a hip replacement. He is on the upward swing now and improving daily. Simply by cutting out processed foods, he lost 50 pounds after we began the process. Not dieting, just changing diet. I don't think the neurosurgeon who operated on his spine would have taken him as a patient if he hadn't been eating healthily and at a healthy weight. His doctor recently told him he had the "best blood cholesterol" of all of her patients. I was unhappy in 2018 when I realized I was slowly gaining weight no matter how active I was or how I counted calories. Now I am top 2-3% in fitness for my age and I'm active, healthy, and happy. I am 62 and take NO medications of any type. We eat a varied diet made up of real foods and lately, I've been eating a lot less animal protein of any type and that seems to work well for me. This is so important. These foods are literally what has made everyone so ill in Western countries and also, spreading around the world. There are over 1 billion obese people now! I've told people "don't even consider counting calories" - of course this enrages people. I have been writing about this the whole time. Here is the story of the lady doctor who is the reason calorie counting was pushed, plus Wilbur Atwater, who created the calorimeter. As one side note - food makers do NOT directly measure any of these calories and if you have a "100 calorie pack" by law, it can contain either 80 or 120 calories (be off by 20% either way). It all comes out of a database created in the early 20th century. You helped yourself and your daughter tremendously by doing this - https://medium.com/@asterling/the-lady-doctor-who-is-the-reason-we-count-calories-today-30874b1349ec