fined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemi

When you are sifting through the deluge of information about diet and nutrition and which foods are good for your health and fitness and which foods are not good for your health and fitness, a general question to ask yourself is: “Has this food been altered from its original state?”

The alteration of food can occur in many different ways.

Foods are altered through processing.

Processed foods are often cooked at very high temperatures which destroy nutrients by completely wiping out many vitamins and denaturing minerals. These cooked foods are then canned or frozen and often cooked again in home kitchens. Sugar, salt, preservatives, stabilizers, and/or color enhancers are usually added.

Fresh and unaltered foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are without question a thousand fold better for you than processed, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables and other canned products.

Foods are altered through refining. Most bread is the end product of pulverizing wheat berries through processing and refining. Uncle Ben’s white rice is a refined food. Instant oats are refined foods. White sugar in any form is refined food. Refined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemic

alteration of food can occur in many different ways.

Foods are altered through processing.

Processed foods are often cooked at very high temperatures which destroy nutrients by completely wiping out many vitamins and denaturing minerals. These cooked foods are then canned or frozen and often cooked again in home kitchens. Sugar, salt, preservatives, stabilizers, and/or color enhancers are usually added.

Fresh and unaltered foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are without question a thousand fold better for you than processed, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables and other canned products.

Foods are altered through refining. Most bread is the end product of pulverizing wheat berries through processing and refining. Uncle Ben’s white rice is a refined food. Instant oats are refined foods. White sugar in any form is refined food. Refined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemi

zen and often cooked again in home kitchens. Sugar, salt, preservatives, stabilizers, and/or color enhancers are usually added.

Fresh and unaltered foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are without question a thousand fold better for you than processed, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables and other canned products.

Foods are altered through refining. Most bread is the end product of pulverizing wheat berries through processing and refining. Uncle Ben’s white rice is a refined food. Instant oats are refined foods. White sugar in any form is refined food. Refined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemi

egetables and other canned products.

Foods are altered through refining. Most bread is the end product of pulverizing wheat berries through processing and refining. Uncle Ben’s white rice is a refined food. Instant oats are refined foods. White sugar in any form is refined food. Refined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemi

fined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemicals, and especially salt. Salt is pumped into almost all processed foods, particularly breads—just read the labels. Salt is one of those chemicals that we accept as part of our daily diet, but it is known to be hard on the body and detrimental to human health.

And then there are those foods, or, rather, pseudo-foods, that are completely manmade from chemicals, not made from real foods at all. Read the labels of foods, and you will soon become familiar with the chemicals that you don’t want to put into your body.

To give one example, imitation strawberry flavoring, found in ice cream, jello, juice drinks, candy, popsicles, desserts, cakes and pastries, can be created from over a dozen different manmade chemicals. That is not food. That is a chemical cocktail completely void of any nutrition whatsoever. Yet we fill up on these pseudo-foods every day.

Once a food is altered from its original state, nutrients are lost.

In this world of food and diet madness and confusion, let’s make this simple.

Is a fresh apple better for you than a piece of apple pie? Of course it is. And to take it one step further, is an apple better