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Eat Whole Foods, not Broken Foods
As a culture we place great value on technology and ease. Modern, convenience foods fill our grocery
store shelves! We are often attracted to these products because of their highly influential marketing and
because of our desire to minimize time spent in food preparation. Our lifestyle habits may be modern. But
the body physiologically evolves quite slowly. We are physically the same animal that we were 1000 years
ago. Since they have only been available for the past fifty years or so, these modern foods are foreign to
our bodies on many levels. We have not yet evolved to process these foods well or to survive well on their
reduced nutrition and synthetic or modified ingredients.
Our bodies today function best on whole foods, those that most closely resemble the way the food
was grown in nature. Generally speaking, the fewer foods we eat from boxes, bags, and cartons and the
less our food has been chemically modified, the healthier we will be. As you work to get healthier, look for
opportunities to include more whole, natural foods in your diet and to reduce the number of processed,
modified foods. Think of it as eating only things that your great-grandmother would (and could!) have
eaten. In general, this is going to include these major groups:
 Vegetables (e.g. greens and beans)
 Fruits (e.g. berries, tree fruits, citrus fruits, tropical fruits, stone fruits)
 Nuts and Seeds (e.g. almonds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts)
 Whole grains (e.g. whole wheat, oats, quinoa, buckwheat, barley)
 Whole dairy foods (e.g. cheese, plain yogurt, milk)
 Whole, natural, unrefined pressed oils (e.g. olive, coconut, butter)
 Wild or pastured/grass-fed meats and seafood (e.g. chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, shrimp)
Here are some examples you might consider of the choices you can make:
Whole Food Options
Whole grain crackers
Water
Handful of almonds
Fresh brewed coffee with real cream
A fresh, whole apple or an orange
Whole-grain English muffin with nut butter
Sautéed or lightly-grilled chicken
Eggs with sautéed veggies
Steel cut oatmeal
Raw vegetables with hummus dip
Butter
Extra virgin Olive oil
Whole sweet potatoes with skin
Real cheese (e.g. cheddar, swiss)
Real fresh, sliced meats without preservatives
Homemade Chili or Hearty stews
Bowl of steel-cut oatmeal w/crushed almonds
Homemade stir-fry
Freshly brewed tea over ice
Guacamole
Plain yogurt with fresh fruit stirred in
Plain yogurt in blender with frozen fruit
Frozen vegetables
Whole Quinoa, Brown rice, Buckwheat
Broken, Processed Food Options
Potato chips and Cheese puffs
Soda (ANY kind!)
Candy bar and almost all granola or “health” bars
Coffee with Coffeemate and artificial sweetener
A bottle of fruit juice
Bakery doughnut or packaged Danish or muffin
Fried chicken take-out or breaded chicken sandwich
Fast food breakfast sandwich
Typical granola bar
“Fake” vegetarian meats
Margarine
Refined vegetable oils (e.g. Wesson)
Instant mashed potatoes
American cheese
Typical hot dogs and lunch meats
Just-add-water noodle cups
Bowl of boxed breakfast cereal
Chinese take-out
Flavored, bottled ice tea or lemonade
Processed ready-made queso cheese dip
Flavored yogurt
Commercial milkshake or ice cream
Canned vegetables
Regular pasta
© Purpose LLC, www.eatonpurpose.com
Here’s a simple example that demonstrates what’s *really* in processed food.
What would you expect to be in a breakfast sandwich? Perhaps an egg, a slice of cheese, a piece of ham,
an English muffin, and a bit of butter? Absolutely. But what do you expect to be in your “egg” besides an
egg? What do you expect to be in your “butter” besides milk and perhaps some salt? Most commercial
processed foods (in your grocery store) and chain restaurant foods are loaded with chemicals,
preservatives, and artificial ingredients. In general, healthier foods have fewer ingredients, so be sure to
look at the labels of your favorite foods. When you read an ingredient list on a food label and you don’t
know what something means, do you really want to eat it? Do you really want to put it in your body and let
it become part of your future? Take a look at what’s really in a couple of popular fast foods (according to
McDonald’s own nutritional information at their company home page as of January 2011).
McDonald’s Egg McMuffin® Breakfast Sandwich
English muffin: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin
mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, wheat gluten, soybean oil
and/or canola oil, salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, citric acid, calcium citrate, yellow corn flour, corn
meal, rice flour, barley malt, artificial flavors, natural flavors (botanical source), dough conditioners
(ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, datem, tricalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes,
calcium peroxide), calcium propionate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), soy lecithin.
Canadian Bacon: Pork, water, sugar, salt, sodium lactate, sodium phosphate, natural flavor (vegetable),
sodium diacetate, and sodium nitrite (preservatives).
Folded Egg: Pasteurized whole eggs, food starch-modified, soybean oil, natural flavors (botanical
source), sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan, flavor enhancer [salt, maltodextrin, natural flavor (plant
source), spices, herb, turmeric (color)], monosodium phosphate, citric acid, soy lecithin (release agent).
Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed
oil, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial
flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
Cheese Product: Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid
(preservative), sodium phosphate, artificial color, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for
slice separation).
Chicken McNuggets ®
White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat
starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil,
dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides,
extractives of rosemary).
Battered and breaded with water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin
mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda,
sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate),
spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch.
Prepared in vegetable oil which may contain the following Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated
soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness, and
dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.
© Purpose LLC, www.eatonpurpose.com