whole foods vs. processed foods

Let's start comparing the nutrition of the same weight (100g = 3.5 oz) of raw apple, applesauce, apple juice and apple Pop Tart -based on USDA Nutrient Database-

- Calorie content of the first 3 items are equivalent at around 45 cal. If you multiply this amount by 9, you get the number of calories in 100g of Apple Pop Tart.

- Sugars content in the first 3 items is equivalent at around 10g, while it is multiplied by 3.5 in Apple Pop Tart.

- Fat content for the first 3 items is zero; it comes to 11g in Apple Pop Tart.

- Sodium for the first 3 amounts to 1-3mg at most, compared to 348mg in Apple Pop Tart.

- Fiber content of 100g raw apple is 2.4g. It is divided by 2 in applesauce and the Pop Tart, and comes to zero in the juice.

-Vitamin C content of 100g raw apple is 4.6mg. It is divided by 2 in applesauce, divided by 4 in the juice, and comes to zero in the Pop Tart.

- Folate amount to 3 mcg in the raw apple. You get only a third of it in the applesauce, and none in the juice and the Pop Tart.

- Choline comes to 3.4mg in the raw apple and applesauce, but disappears from both the juice and the Pop Tart.

- Vitamin K comes to 2.2mcg in the whole apple. This amount is divided by 3 in the applesauce, and there's none in the juice and the Pop Tart.

- Phytonutrients (which you don't see on Nutrition Panels): The most important in raw apple, betacryptoxanthin and lutein+zeaxanthin disappear as the apple gets more processed, to amount to zero in the Pop Tart.

This is just an example of the dramatic loss in nutrients as the original whole food gets processed, losing its natural fiber, a bunch of vitamins, and phytonutrients. Processing also concentrates sizably calories, sugars, etc.... And adds a bunch of undesirable ingredients, oftentimes highly processed themselves.

What started as a nutrient-dense food -with the proper balance of nutrients, which won't interfere with each other's absorption and metabolism as intended by Nature- now becomes a nutrient-poor, high-calorie processed food.

Whole foods are what our human bodies are programmed to get nourishment from. Millions of years of evolution got us adapted to eat minimally processed foods: cooked, ground, fermented etc. -any kind of simple physical processing that you can perform in your own kitchen. In the past few decades however, we have been offered a tremendous amount of ever more processed foods, starting with refined carbohydrates like flour and sugar and highly processed hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrups, etc. Our bodies clearly haven't had the time to adjust to these new foods. There are more and more scientists who claim that the recent rise in chronic diseases like metabolic syndrom comes from the amount of unnatural processing in our foods.

So, how do you tell apart minimally-processed foods from highly-processed foods (the bad guys)?
Flip the package over, and read the ingredient list. It will tell you sometimes much more than the nutrition facts panel, which is indeed a very incomplete picture of the actual nutrition: Phytonutrients are missing from the picture, carbs are not itemized into whole and refined, sugars are not itemized into naturally-occuring and added sugars, etc.

A whole food is one ingredient, in its natural form. Period.

The more ingredients on the ingredient list, the more highly processed the foods are: e.g Apple Pop Tart ingredient list shows a total of 27 ingredients.

The more scientific-sounding the ingredient name, the more processing is involved.
Example of processing involved in turning corn into high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), courtesy of the Corn Refiners Association:

HFCS is made from corn starch, which is separated from other kernel components through multiple grinding and screening steps, centrifugation and washing. The HFCS refining process utilizes multiple enzymes and consists of numerous steps including: multiple refining using membrane filters, carbon filters and ion-exchange columns; centrifugation; chromatographic separation; and multiple evaporation steps.

...Definitely something you won't be able to perform in your kitchen!

Some ingredients do not have to be mentioned on ingredient lists: All additives belonging to the FDA's list of GRAS additives (Generally Recognized As Safe). You may just read "natural or artificial flavors", which could involve a list of stuff as long as:

Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl Nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerbate, heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl-2butanone (10% solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

These 47 GRAS additives are found in the strawberry flavoring part of a Burger King strawberry milk shake. (Source: E. Schlosser: “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2001).

Now let's take a look at how food companies use ever more refined marketing techniques to sell us more and more highly processed foods, even though we get more health-conscious: They actually capitalize on our wish to eat healthier in a fast-paced world: We now choose convenience foods with a personalized healthy-sounding profile over whole foods because we don't have the time to choose wisely or because we don't prioritize cooking our own food in our culture.

Think of all these new "healthy" segments of the processed foods market, such as "organic", "low-fat", "vegan", "gluten-free", "fortified", "enhanced", you name it...

Let us make a reality check with ingredient lists.

We found in an increasingly popular supermarket chain an "organic apple toaster pie". The ingredient list showed 26 ingredients -only short 1 ingredient from the original non-organic, and most of these processed. On the nutrition panel, the amounts of calories, sugars and other bad guys were equivalent. This product is certified organic, but what does this mean in terms of nutrient-density? Is this really better for you than a conventional raw apple?

Recently, we have seen a tremendous growth for the "functional foods" market: These so-called enhanced foods that claim sometimes amazing amounts of a few fashionable nutrients or herbal extracts. Think probiotics, lycopene, Omega3s, spirulina, etc. What does this really mean in terms of actual balanced nutrition when found in highly processed foods, that come with concentrated amounts of sugars, dense calories, etc.?