Whole Foods and Labels

What’s a whole food? Let’s give some examples: In your produce section of your grocery store: the fresh fruits and vegetables. In canned or packaged food aisles, foods that are only minimally processed: packaged oats, rice, red lentils, beans or canned chickpeas in water. In the frozen section: frozen vegetables with no seasoning or additives. When we choose whole foods, either the food has no nutritional label (like buying a punnet of oranges) or has a label that is really easy to read, such as a bag of frozen peas ( truly natural peanut butter that reads “100% peanuts”).

When we reduced processed food, we reduce or eliminate added salt, added sugars, and even some unhealthy fats (that palm oil added to so many vegan products). The label reading is also easier.

While increasing or choosing whole foods is a great step, most of us are still going to buy processed regularly, this includes breads, pastas, yogurts, and plant-based milks. And that is what we do next this week: how do we read those labels?

Diet – and a good relationship with food – is a cornerstone of healthier living, and is the first step that doctors bring up when we are talking about managing many conditions: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, polycystic ovarian syndrome, depression. Unfortunately, the lifestyle management parts are always the part of the conversation that gets rushed in healthcare systems under pressure.

For those of us who are doctors who practice #lifestylemedicine, we talk food with our patients. A lot.