Why Are Whole Foods “Good”?

Yes, I agree, Whole Foods Market is good - especially the Hot Bar, but for the purpose of this blog we are discussing some of the specific foods that Whole Foods actually sells at their stores. We are constantly being told to eat more whole foods and less processed ones. But why does that matter? What is so great about these whole foods?

First, let’s begin by defining what a whole is. At its most basic level, a whole food is one that is as close as possible to its origin. Some examples would be fresh fruit and vegetables, an egg, or a nut in its shell.

Here are some general rules to adopt when looking to identify a whole food versus a processed one:

Whole Foods

• Can recognize what they used to be

• Little to no packaging

• No ingredient labels or if so, very few

• Minimum processing steps to get to the shelf

• Go bad quickly 

Processed Foods

• Hard to recognize what original form was

• Heavily packaged 

• Multi-ingredient labels

• A lot of steps to get to the shelf

• Keep for a long time

Whole foods contain nature’s pharmacy in the form of micronutrients which we need in order to be healthy and function well. Therefore, adding more good stuff to our daily nutrition will bring us more value, nourishment, and quality which will in turn make our body run better. As with most things nutrition, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by it all. Take baby steps and experiment. If there is a certain meal we really like we want to investigate if we can make a whole foods version of it or something very close to that.

When it comes down to it, whole foods give us far more bang for our buck when it comes to nutritional quality so we should strive to consume as much of them as possible. We will feel better, look better, and function better - all of which are worth a little short-term sacrifice for long-term benefit.