One of the simplest things you can do for you health is to add more whole foods to your plate on a regular basis, but if you don’t know much about whole foods then this can make this simple fix a nightmare. If your diet is mainly made up of processed, nutrient poor quick convenience foods and you want to get more of the healthier, happier, whole foods stuffs into your diet, read on!

What’s a whole foods?
These are foods that are in their whole state, with little or no processing done to them, i.e.
Fresh fruits and vegetables (apples, pears, berries, spinach, sweetcorn, potatoes, peas, avocados, tomatos, cucumbers, celery, melons, coconuts, mangos, pineapple, oranges, lemons, onions, leeks, kale etc), legumes (lentils, pulses, beans), fresh fish, fresh poultry, fresh meat, fresh seafood, seaweeds, whole grains, fresh herbs, homemade fresh vegetable and fruit juices.

What’s a processed food?
These are foods which have been taken far from their whole state, heavily processed with things added to them or nutrients stripped from them i.e.
Fast foods, junks foods, white bread, white pasta,  white oil, white rice, Tinned fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, beans and lentils with preservatives added to them, most commercial cakes, crisps, cookies, heavily fried foods, foods with MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate), Aspartame and trans fatty acids, frozen microwave meals, most chocolate bars, chewing gums, sugar laden breakfast cereals, sodas (fizzy drinks), juices from concentrate, etc

What’s the point of getting more whole foods into my diet?
When foods are in their whole state, especially if they are organic, fresh and raw, they typically contain the most vitamins, minerals, good fats, enzymes and good clean sources of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. All of this means that when you eat whole foods you are feeding and nourishing  your body with things that will help it to produce vibrant energy, heal, repair and grow itself, making you look great, feel great and think clearly.  This is the point of your foods, to give you a good fuel source to function on.

What happens when you eat processed foods?
When foods are processed and harmful chemicals are added to them, they become useless and even dangerous to the body as a fuel source. Useless because they don’t give your body and nutrients, therefore no energy to do anything, and furthermore some of them have to take nutrient from your body to be digested and absorbed (which is quite cheeky actually!!!). They are dangerous because many of the added chemicals can damage your internal organs and the processing changes the structure of the nutrients making it dangerous to the body also. So when you eat these foods, your body has to use it’s energy and nutrients to protect itself from these effects, which isn’t always easy to do

In part 2, we’ll look at the top tips for getting more delicious whole foods into your diet

Take care and stay healthy

Leah Salmon

http://www.davidel.com