Learning to eat well isn’t just about taking away “bad stuff”. It is really about adding more good stuff.
What exactly are “whole foods” ?
Whole foods are foods that are as close as possible to their natural state.
For example:
🥦Fresh fruit & vegetables
🥚 An egg
🥜 A nut in a shell
Here are a few things you should be looking for when you are looking for whole foods:
✔️You can recognize what they used to be. Whole grains look like whole grains ~ like seeds from a plant. Fresh fruit looks like it does in the grocery store and as it would on the tree.
✔️They don’t come in any packaging.
(Unless they need it to keep from rolling around or leaking)
✔️They don’t have ingredient labels. There are obviously a few exceptions. Take dairy products or plant mylks, they still have an ingredient label, but those ingredients should be to a minimum.
✔️They take the minimum number of steps to get to you. You should be able to see that this food did not have to go through a ton of manipulation to get to your plate.
✔️They go bad fairly quickly. Nuts, dried fruit, olive oil might be the exception, but most whole foods ripen or expire.
Why are whole foods “good” for us?
✔️Whole foods add more nourishment to our body.
✔️Whole foods help to enhance our health and make our body run better.
✔️Whole foods are considered ~ natures medicine cabinet ~ vitamins & minerals.
✔️Whole foods keep us healthy & thriving!
Who wants to play along????
Go to your cupboards, pantry, cold cellar, fridge or freezer. See if you can recognize what a whole foods is.
For each food, ask yourself:
➡️Can I recognize what this food use to be?
➡️How is it packaged?
➡️Does it have an ingredient label? If so, what’s on the label?
➡️How many steps did this food take to get to me?
There are no “perfect” answers to this, just like there is no “perfect diet”.
The goal here is to think and learn if foods are more or less of a whole food. As well as what foods move you along the “whole food” continuum of choosing more whole foods over less processed options.
Choosing more foods, that will help you become your healthiest version.
Jeanne xo
Comments