Whole Foods Vs Processed Foods

Have you ever wondered why whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood don’t need to carry nutrition labelling on them?

It’s because they are very minimally processed and do not contain any added ingredients. Whole foods also come “complete”. All the vitamins, nutrients and fibre are kept intact. 

They have not been blended, broken down or dehydrated and in the process, they do not lose their nutritional value. Unlike ultra processed food. 

When food is heavily processed, they will lose much of their flavour as well. This is where food companies will add unhealthy components like added sugar, sodium, MSG and artificial flavouring to enhance the taste. Google “food bliss point” to learn more.

And because food companies are always aiming for the longest shelf life for their products, they will usually take out most of the moisture of the original food in order to enhance that shelf life. 

Worse still, they will add preservatives that show up as unpronounceable, alphanumeric names that sound like codes spy use in the ingredients list. 

INS1442, potassium sorbate and E461 doesn’t sound like food right? But all these weird funky sounding stuff are in the food that we eat everyday if we consume a high amount of ultra processed food.

And then, there is the use of fructose, sucrose and artificial sweeteners. More and more, there is evidence that such sugars are the cause for chronic diseases.

Whole foods have all the nutritional value that nature has kindly provided for us, while ultra processed food has almost all of this good stuff sucked out.

Food companies often spend a lot of their budget on marketing to convince us that they are actually good. Instead of making them healthier, they rather make them affordable and marketable.

Now that you know why whole foods don’t need labelling, start by making a change the next time you go to the supermarket. The next time you feel like having some apple juice, choose a fresh apple instead. 

Spend some time to learn about healthy eating and make incremental adjustments to improve your current diet.

Eat healthy and healthier today and spend less on doctors and medicine later.