Whole foods are natural, unprocessed foods that maintain all their essential vitamins and nutrients. These include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and nuts.
Consider choosing unprocessed dairy and lean proteins. However, be careful as even healthy processed foods such as hummus, cheese and brown rice may contain added sugars.
Fruits & Vegetables
Addition of more fruits and vegetables is an easy way to improve the quality of your diet, offering essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber needed for good health.
Diet is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, so eating an array of fruits and vegetables, while restricting saturated fat intake and excessive sugar and salt consumption may be key in helping you prevent such diseases.
Fruits and vegetables provide essential potassium, fiber and vitamin sources, as well as being low in fat and sodium content. Enjoy seasonal produce like starfruit or kumquat; our Food Group Gallery can provide details about serving sizes. Also consider frozen varieties which may still provide just as many nutrients due to avoiding heat exposure and other nutrient-reducing factors associated with fresh products.
Grains
American’s don’t consume enough whole grains. These foods are packed with essential fiber, iron, vitamins and minerals that are great for controlling cholesterol levels and lowering heart disease risk. When grains are processed they lose some of their nutritive value during milling which reduces its fiber and vitamin content significantly; to offset this loss manufacturers add synthetic vitamins into refined grain products sold on store shelves – these enriched grains.
Food can be classified as whole when it contains all three components of a grain kernel: bran, germ and endosperm. Consumers can easily identify whole foods using labels by searching the list of ingredients until the words “whole grain” appear near the beginning. People should consume about 8-8 ounces of grains daily depending on age and gender; though more may be necessary.
Dairy
At your supermarket chain, you’ll find an expansive selection of whole food products – fresh produce, healthy fats and grains, lean meats and fish, dairy products as well as both organic and non-organic options are readily available to shoppers.
Whole foods, or those left ‘as-is’ or minimally processed, is a type of diet which emphasizes plant-based foods over animal products. Although you don’t have to strictly follow a whole foods diet plan, including more of these nutritious foods into your daily life can have tremendous health benefits.
When shopping at Whole Foods Market, be on the lookout for items with yellow tags; these indicate heavily discounted products either due to being new products or because the store wants them gone quickly. Keep an eye out for weekly sales via their app or physical stores and ask a member of the team if you can cut you a portion of items such as watermelons and cheese for you! You could save big!
Meat & Fish
While there is no official definition of whole foods, most agree that fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, legumes, milk, unprocessed whole grains and uncooked fish fall within its definition. Foods which have undergone basic processing steps like removal of inedible parts or sterilization still count as whole food as long as no added sugars, salts or fats have been introduced – without these modifications, whole food remains considered nutritionally sound.
Eating mostly whole foods diet is widely believed to support good health. Studies suggest it may reduce your risk of chronic diseases in ways not fully explained by science, including by decreasing inflammation levels.
When shopping for whole foods, look for items with short ingredient lists. Beware of aliases for sugar such as maltose, dextrose and high fructose corn syrup that could potentially mask its presence, and choose products without additives. Whole foods provide great sources of protein; many contain omega-3 fats, fibre and plant-based phytochemicals that fight disease as well.
