Whole foods are packed with nutrients and allow you to burn fat at rest!

Many studies have found that a diet high in whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are associated with a reduced risk of diseases such as:

• cardiovascular disease
• many types of cancer
• type 2 diabetes
•  

So what’s so good about healthy whole foods? For one, they’re loaded with fiber, vitamins, and minerals.  They also contain phytochemicals, the general name for natural compounds in plants.  While thousands of individual phytochemicals have been identified, countless more remain unknown.  They help in different ways.  Some are antioxidants, which protect cells against damage.  Examples of antioxidant phytochemicals are flavonoids, carotenoids, and lycopene.

Usually, the term whole foods is confined to vegetables, fruits, and grains.  But any dietitian will agree that eating a skinless chicken breast is preferable to eating processed chicken nuggets.

One problem with processed food is that, during manufacture, many healthy nutrients are removed.

For instance, when whole grains are refined, the bran and the coat of the grain are often removed.  Some nutrients are lost, most significantly fiber.  Then, during the enrichment process, nutrients may be artificially added back in.  But even after enrichment, the final product is likely to be less nutritious than the whole grains you started with.

Check out more details here and the cost of whole foods!

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Dion Mychalyn

The Cost of Whole Foods

There’s another bonus to eating healthy whole foods.  Although the name may now be synonymous with that fancy grocery store, whole foods are much cheaper than processed foods.  They’re also available everywhere.

A bag of healthy brown rice is going to be cheaper than a fancy prepackaged rice mix!

Of course, there may be a different cost to eating healthy whole foods: the preparation time.  It’s hard to deny that popping a processed sandwich pocket in the microwave for three minutes is easier than cooking a proper meal with whole-food ingredients.

The goal is just to decrease the number of processed foods you eat and increase the proportion of healthy whole foods. That isn’t hard, especially when it comes to snacks.  The next time need something to tide you over, eat a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit instead.  It’s no harder than reaching for an energy bar — you’ll even be spared the labor of unwrapping it.

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