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Whole vs. Processed Foods
by author Simone Gabbay, RNCP

If you choose processed foods over whole grains, you cheat yourself of nutrients and increase your risk of obesity and degenerative disease.

White bread, white rice and white pasta. That’s the food line-up for grain products shown on Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating. (The guide recommends five to 12 servings a day for people aged four and over.)

On the illustrated diagram published by Health Canada, only two items, a bagel and a loaf of bread, look as if they might have been baked with whole-meal flour. A note underneath them reads: “Choose whole grain and enriched products more often.” According to the guide, most of our daily foods should come from the grain group.

If Canadians follow the food guide and take most of their nourishment from white, refined breads, rice and pasta, it’s no wonder that obesity is rising at an alarming rate. Refined carbohydrates are “empty calories” that not only rob nutrients but also stimulate insulin production, thus promoting fat storage. In May 2002, Statistics Canada reported that between 1994-95 and 2000-01, the percentage of Canadian adults considered obese increased by 24 per cent. Even the greater physical activity registered by Canadians during this period could not make up for the damage caused by a diet consisting mostly of refined foods.

Obesity is not only a problem in itself; it also increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other degenerative conditions, including cancer. All these health conditions are on the rise in North America and in developed countries worldwide. Refined foods are turning us into an overweight, sick people. Choosing whole grain products “more often” is not enough, and “enriched” grain products are simply refined foods to which a few synthetic vitamins and minerals have been added in a feeble attempt to replace the complex composition of phytonutrients removed during refining. The term “impoverished” would more accurately represent their nutritional value than the misleading term “enriched.”

Refined foods are turning us into an overweight, sick people. Choosing whole grain products ‘more often’ is not enough, and ‘enriched’ grain products are simply refined foods to which a few synthetic vitamins and minerals have been added.

What’s in a Grain Kernel?

A grain kernel consists of three parts: the innermost germ, the endosperm that surrounds the germ and the bran that envelops both. Most of the kernel’s nutrients are locked into the germ and bran. Whole grain products, therefore, provide us with the full nutrient content of the grain kernel. In the production of “refined” grain products, however, modern high-speed, high-heat roller mills strip away the germ and bran, leaving only the starchy endosperm, which is then ground into flour of varying consistencies.

What’s left after refining contains less than 25 percent of the grain kernel’s magnesium and zinc and barely a trace of vitamin E. All other nutrients, including the B-complex vitamins, are also severely reduced. Many Canadians chronically lack vitamin E, an important antioxidant shown to have heart-protective and rejuvenating properties. By eating refined grain products, we deprive ourselves of one of the most important food sources of this important nutrient. B vitamins are required for the proper breakdown of carbohydrates. If they are absent from a carbohydrate food, as in refined grain products, the body cannot properly metabolize the food. It is important to note that a whole food, such as a whole-grain kernel, naturally contains all substances required for its assimilation and metabolism. When these have been stripped away through refining, the refined food draws on the body’s own store of vitamins, minerals and enzymes for its metabolization, gradually depleting and weakening the body.

Adding a handful of synthetic vitamins and minerals to "enrich" refined food does nothing to avert the damage. In fact, some researchers believe that synthetic nutrients in isolation are toxic and lead to tissue damage. We know, for instance, that all B-complex vitamins function synergistically, yet only three (thiamin, riboflavin and niacin) are typically added to “fortified” grains.

Simone Gabbay is a registered nutritional consultant in Toronto. She is the author of Nourishing the Body Temple (A.R.E. Press, 1999) and Visionary Medicine: Real Hope for Total Healing (A.R.E. Press, 2003).

Source: alive #248, June 2003