The best way to eat is indeed to take the food in its most natural form. This way we are getting the enzymes, vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals in the way that nature intended and hence in a most beneficial way.

Thanks for your comment :)

I think a good rule to follow is that any overly processed product is not going to be healthy. A candy bar is still a candy bar even if it does contain additional protein, vitamins and minerals. Less refined, natural products such as fruits and vegetables are always going to be the healthiest choices.

As you point out from your personal example that is exactly where many people are, in that they automatically assume that if it came from the health food store, then it is automatically good. But again for all the reasons and I am sure many more others can think of, this is just not the case.

My mother frustrates me so much because she tends to buy junk from the health food store. She thinks it’s okay to eat because the label says organic. The last time I talked to her on the phone she told me she messed up her diet by eating a whole bag of chips. Then she said, “It’s really not that bad though because I got them from the health food store.” Chips aren’t health food. It doesn’t matter where you bought them, chips are chips.

And I think a great lesson for people to learn from your comment is to see how EASY healthy eating can be…just read your ingredients and eat stuff with ingredients you know and recognize and are comfortable with.

I’ve become a real label reader of late. No longer interested in calories, fat grams, carbs, etc. I’m looking for ingredients. And, if it’s not recognizable, it’s not food. Simple.

I’ve discovered the same is true with “health supplements” — Calcium Carbonate, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Cellulose, Ascorbic Acid, dl-alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Acacia, Croscarmellose Sodium, Zinc Oxide are all man-made chemical isolates that my body doesn’t know what to do with.

Now, compare that to Whey (milk) protein powder, flax meal powder, brown rice protein powder, calcium citrate, magnesium citrate, buckwheat juice powder, Brussels sprouts (whole plant), barley grass which are mainly nutrients derived from recognizable food sources that my body can then assimilate and benefit from.

All health foods are not created equal.