Whole Foods

Nutrients by Nature

from the desk of Ted Duboise

What are Whole Foods?
Whole foods are fruit, vegetables, grains and other plant foods in their raw state, unprocessed, unrefined and with no added ingredients (sugar, fat, salt). It’s the foods you would find at a typical farmers market. Whole foods include fruits (apples, plums), seeds, dark green vegetables (broccoli, cabbage), whole grains (rice, oats), onions, yellow-leafed vegetables. Whole foods contain the essential nutrients needed for life and also provide bioactive compounds that contribute to health and prevention of disease.

Benefits
Phytochemicals – the bioactive non-nutrient plant compounds in fruit, vegetables, grains, and other plant foods – have been linked to reductions in the risk of major chronic diseases. Fruits and vegetables contain a wide variety of anti-oxidant compounds (phytochemicals) that may help protect cells in humans from oxidative damage and lower the risk of chronic diseases. (1) In fact, in numerous dietary studies, eating whole foods was proven to provide a significant protective effect. In the studies, the occurrence of cancer was as much as 50% higher for those who were not eating whole foods. Read the report.

Whole Foods compared to Dietary Supplements
Today, there are hundreds of dietary supplements on the market. Some are classified as pure, all-natural or purified. While supplying some benefit, dietary supplements do not contain the bioactive plant compounds that are present in whole foods and therefore simply cannot provide the consistent preventive effects against disease as a diet that is rich in whole foods. Furthermore, taking mega-doses still doesn’t supply the preventive effects of whole foods and could be toxic to the body. (Recommended Dietary Allowances)

Whole Foods are the Answer
Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and soy is a practical strategy for people to optimize their health and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. We believe that the evidence suggests that antioxidants are best acquired through whole-food consumption, not as a pill or extract.(1)

Source: RT Journal A1 Liu, Rui Hai T1 Health benefits of fruit and vegetables are from additive and synergistic combinations of phytochemicals JF American Journal of Clinical Nutrition JO Am J Clin Nutr YR 2003 FD September 1 VO 78 IS 3 SP 517S OP 520 UL http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/78/3/517S AB Cardiovascular disease and cancer are ranked as the first and second leading causes of death in the United States and in most industrialized countries. Regular consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging. Prevention is a more effective strategy than is treatment of chronic diseases. Functional foods that contain significant amounts of bioactive components may provide desirable health benefits beyond basic nutrition and play important roles in the prevention of chronic diseases. The key question is whether a purified phytochemical has the same health benefit as does the whole food or mixture of foods in which the phytochemical is present. Our group found, for example, that the vitamin C in apples with skin accounts for only 0.4% of the total antioxidant activity, suggesting that most of the antioxidant activity of fruit and vegetables may come from phenolics and flavonoids in apples. We propose that the additive and synergistic effects of phytochemicals in fruit and vegetables are responsible for their potent antioxidant and anticancer activities, and that the benefit of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables is attributed to the complex mixture of phytochemicals present in whole foods.