Whole Foods?

No not the store. I love Whole Foods the store. I am talking about whole intact foods. For example, an orange vs. orange juice.  The entire fruit or vegetable skin and seeds included all contain vitamins and nutrients that are good for the body. By breaking cutting the skin off or trying to simply extract the juice we are missing out on those extra goodies held in the skin and the seeds. Remember when you were young and had a baked potato, the adults would tell you to eat the skin because it was good for you? Well they weren’t just trying to make you clean your plate, the skin actually contains half of the fiber and lots of nutrients. By cutting it off you are missing out on the benefits. Whole foods are better for you because they have not been processed. Processing foods removes most of the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs. To replace the lost nutrients businesses must “enrich” and “fortify” the foods after they have been processed. Although these things sound fancy and good for you they aren’t as good as the natural vitamins the food started with. The process adds back the lost vitamins but the debate wages on about whether these added vitamins and nutrients are just as beneficial as the natural ones. I would rather have the natural vitamins just because I don’t always trust man made imitations. You can decide what you like however. In addition to fortifying and enriching processed foods are generally heavy in added salts. Being at risk for hypertension, I try to cut down on my salt intake. Canned food often has a lot of salt added to preserve the food. Look at a can of canned vegetables and see how much salt is in it, even in the low sodium versions. If we get fresh fruits and vegetables or even frozen ones we are cutting out the added salt factor. If you must get canned versions of fruits get those in 100% juice instead of heavy syrup that way you cut out the extra sugar. Also instead of falling into the trap of “enriched/fortified with blah blah blah ….” just go for natural or whole i.e. whole grain rice and fresh bread. No bleaching process no salt added, simple. It’s always better to go for home made things but I understand we don’t all have the time to make homemade sauces and breads so it is easier to just buy them. But, try to take a few hours a week and just make a dish or two from scratch and see how much better it tastes. You might want to do it more often. If not, at least read the labels and ingredients thoroughly, your body will thank you. If you don’t know what some of the ingredients are, just take a few minutes to google it. We all have smart phones now so it’s easy.