So What Are Whole Foods, Anyway?

I was watching television last night, and an ad came on claiming that a cereal was a good source of whole grains.  This is the stuff that gets me yelling at the tv.  Not sports, not soap operas, not even reality shows.  But ads for food making claims that just aren't true - gets me every time.  Last night it got me thinking about just how much misinformation there is out there in food-land.  And among the many nutritional ideas being tossed about lately, whole foods vs. processed foods is one of the most misunderstood.  So I thought I would take a moment to give you a definition.

Simply put, whole foods are in state which is closest to the way they were grown as possible, or, in the case of animal foods, allowed to live and grow the way they were meant to do.  Processing (or refining) generally means that something has been taken away (perhaps to be added back in at the end of the process, as in the case of "enriched" white flour).  The end result is never as nutritious and easily used by your body as the original, unprocessed food.  After all, Mother Nature is a pretty smart cookie.  She knows what she's doing.

Of course, we all eat a combination of whole, partially and fully processed foods.  But the more whole foods we can add in to our diets (and the more processed foods we take away as a result), the better.  Why?  Here are a just a few of the many reasons:   

1. Whole foods have the most nutrition, in the most bioavailable form.
2. Whole foods satisfy more completely, because they are full of vitamins and minerals, so they give your body what it's looking for.
3. Because they haven't yet been broken down, your body has to do the work, leaving it too busy to ask for more.

As a general guideline, I've listed a representative sample of whole vs. somewhat processed or fully processed foods below.  (Somewhat processed foods generally still have a lot of their original nutrition, but they've been broken down in some way, making them take less time in your body, which pushes them further up the glycemic index - but that's a whole 'nother topic.)

Whole Foods:
Wheat berries   
Brown rice 
Soy beans, edamame 
Corn on the cob 
Fresh organic vegetables 
Apples 
Unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil  
Organic Butter  
Full fat, organic dairy products  
Raw milk cheese 
Raw, unrefined honey*

Somewhat Processed Foods:
Whole wheat flour
Brown rice flour
Tempeh, Tofu
Whole corn meal, polenta
Fresh conventional vegetables
Applesauce
Pasteurized whole milk cheese
Refined/pasteurized honey

Processed Foods:
Frozen or canned, cooked vegetables
Refined olive oil
Canola oil
Margarine
Low-fat conventional dairy products
Pasteurized, processed cheese food, low-fat cheese
Refined white sugar

*  Honey is used as an example here.  There are lots of other natural sweeteners that fall under the Whole Foods category