Choosing Whole, Unprocessed Foods for Health

If a whole, uncut head of cabbage is wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator, it will remain fine to eat for several months. If the same head of cabbage is cut along its surface, even to a depth of one inch, and wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator, it will spoil within a few weeks. This is because as soon as a whole, unprocessed food is cut or processed even mildly, it begins to oxidize and lose its nutritional value. For this reason, a whole apple is a better choice for health than apple juice, even if the apple juice is freshly squeezed and without preservatives. A whole orange is better than orange juice, and a freshly prepared salad is more nutritious than lettuce that has been sitting shredded in the refrigerator for a day or two.

When we eat foods close to their whole, natural states, we benefit from all of the vitamins, minerals, and fibre that come naturally bound to the bigger nutrients in these foods. Drinking apple juice rather than eating a whole apple causes a sudden rush of sugar into the bloodstream, which puts unnecessary burden on organs like the pancreas and liver. When an apple is eaten whole, the vitamins, minerals, and fibre that are present in the whole apple help to allow the natural sugars of the apple to enter the bloodstream at a pace that doesn’t put the same burden on our organs. In the same way, eating foods that contain sugar puts an incredible amount of stress on our organs, paving the way to a variety of health challenges.

If we want to eat sugar in a natural environment, we have to eat it in the form of a whole fruit, plant, or vegetable like sugar cane or sugar beets. But processing techniques have created sugar that has been extracted from these whole, natural foods, and is devoid of essential vitamins, minerals, and fibre. A simple way to understand this concept is to consider a large chocolate bar and a can of soda. Together they contain approximately 100 grams of sugar. If we want to eat the equivalent of 100 grams of sugar from whole apples, we have to eat approximately 6-7 medium apples. Of course, many of us become full in eating just a few apples, but we are more than capable of eating a chocolate bar and drinking a can of soda in one sitting. So by eating foods that have been processed and concentrated, we put a great deal of stress on our organs, which is a significant cause of low energy and illness.

Weston A. Price was a holistic-minded dentist who travelled around the world in the 1930s, studying the teeth and overall health of primitive cultures who subsisted on diets that were close to their ancestral diets. He found that the closer people stayed to eating whole, unprocessed foods, the stronger and healthier they were, with few signs of disease and tooth decay. His research can be found at The Weston A. Price Foundation.

There may be many points of conflict among health care providers and scientists regarding nutrition and healthful food choices, but it is unlikely that many will disagree with the notion that choosing whole, unprocessed foods is an excellent habit to adopt for our health and vitality.

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