Most of us have heard that we should be eating a whole food based nutrition plan and that we should avoid the highly-processed foods.

But what does that mean exactly?

What does that look like practically?

My goal for today’s blog is to answer these questions for you so you can walk away knowing how to identify whole foods and how to be aware of the imitations. Shall we get into it?

Whole foods

So first off- what exactly are whole foods?

Whole foods are foods that are as unprocessed or as minimally processed as possible. These foods are as close to their natural state as possible.

So why are these foods superior to highly-processed foods?

Well, when foods become processed they lose a lot of their native nutrients and oftentimes have a lot of sugar, salt, fat, and other preservatives added to them.

If you want to enjoy foods with more nutrients and health benefits then it’s best to eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible.

Ok, so I know I’ve said that twice already so let me explain…

Let’s compare organic broccoli to fried broccoli bites.

Being that the organic broccoli is organic means that it was made without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemically induced methods. There haven’t been any chemicals added to it so that’s a win already. 🏅

The fried broccoli bites, however (if bought at a restaurant) are extremely unlikely to be organic- therefore they have had chemicals added to preserve them. To make them into broccoli bites, they have to be deep-fried (likely in refined oil) and breaded (likely with enriched and bleached flour loaded with more harmful chemicals).

The organic broccoli is the obvious winner. And whether it’s cooked or eaten raw, it has more of its native nutrients still attached to it and it is, therefore, closer to its natural state than the broccoli bites are.

So to say that you got your vegetables in by eating those deep-friend broccoli bites is like saying you got your protein in by eating a 💩 sandwich.

Examples of whole foods

Whole foods can include:

• Fruits & vegetables

• Nuts & seeds

• Beans/legumes

• Organic lean meats

• Unprocessed & sprouted whole grains

Processed foods

Processed foods are foods that have been altered with ingredients to change the chemical makeup, form, and appearance of a food. Or- The transformation of agricultural products into useable foods.

Not all processed foods are “bad”. There are different levels when it comes to processing and most foods undergo at least some amount of processing. It’s really the highly-processed foods that we want to avoid.

Typical highly-processed foods can include:

• Most boxed & bagged snacks

• Chips, cookies, crackers

• Sports drinks

• Fast food

• Most food offered at low-mid level restaurants

• Pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and other obvious “junk foods”

When a food is highly-processed, it is far away from its natural state therefore having less health benefits.

Refined foods

Refined foods are foods that are processed to the max.

When this happens, the food is usually stripped of its entire nutritional profile being left with a small sum of its parts.

An example of food refining is processing a banana to banana juice and then refining that juice down to just be the banana flavoring that can be used in candy. The potassium, antioxidants, and other good things that were once attached to it have been eliminated.

Food refining can be harmful to our health. Chemicals used during refining (even in small amounts) can end up in our foods and cause long-term health problems.

Our immune system is very well equipped to fight off many different things that can wreak havoc on our system but if it has to fight hard and fight constantly, over time it can begin to shut down and this is where heart diseases and other major issues can start to arise.

A Solution to the problem

So what’s the plan here? What can we do about all of this?

When deciding on whether you should eat a food item or not, stop and think to yourself:

How close is this food to its natural state and how many steps did it take to where it is at now?

I’ve just touched the surface on this subject and I have a lot more to share with you.

I truly believe there is a lot of evil being done in the food industry and there is a lot of misleading information out there that has been put out by these large food companies in the industry.

Their job is to get us addicted and hooked on highly-processed foods because it’s cheap, it’s highly profitable, and it funds other industries that I won’t get into right now.

I want to be here to inform you of the truth and teach you how we can get back to our roots of eating real foods and avoiding the junk.

I created a nutrition course with that exact goal in mind.

In this online nutrition course, I teach you five different video lessons over five days. I want to educate you on what’s actually in our foods and teach you how to differentiate between the good and the bad.

I highly suggest you check out this course if you have ever had questions such as:

• What are whole foods and should I be eating more of them?

• How can I tell the difference between whole foods (real foods) and highly processed (fake foods)

• What exactly does organic mean and is it really any better?

• Can I trust the big-name brands and are the foods safe that I am feeding to my family?

• If it's advertised, well-known, and available at the supermarket it must be safe right? 🤣

• How do I read a food label?

  • What do I look for?

  • What ingredients should I avoid?

  • Can I trust “health claims” and which ones are legit?

• Can I be healthy and not follow a particular diet? (Yes you can by the way and I can show you how)

• How can I eat well when I’m out?

• What do I do when I’m stuck and my choices are limited?

This course goes into all of these topics and more.

If you want to know what it means to eat real foods that nourish and fuel our bodies and how to reduce the junk, then you are going to need to check out this course.

I wanted to make this course accessible to anybody interested so it’s only $29. And you can go through the first lesson entirely for free (without entering any information) by clicking on the button below.

Let’s get back to our roots of eating real foods provided by God and get rid of the man-made crap.

Cheers to living a healthy lifestyle. 🍷

Coach Kyle 💪