When making food choices use each of the principles as a cue for asking yourself:

- Is this food whole, fresh and natural?

- Does this food agree with my system or is it   something to which I have a sensitivity/allergy?

- Does this food support, or work against any   health conditions I am experiencing?

How to answer these questions will be made clearer as you read through the following pages describing each of the five principles. The descriptions will give user-friendly meaning to "whole", "fresh", and "natural", which for many have become mere buzzwords.

Adopting the principles as a regular part of making food choices will initially cause you to at least think about eating for health rather then letting your ingrained habits and taste buds dictate your actions. Coupled with the suggestions in the chapters, Level with Yourself and Make It So!, you will soon find yourself increasingly and consistently making food choices that are healthier for you and begin to experience the fruits of your efforts.

Over the past few decades our culture has increasingly come to rely on what giant food corporations manufacture as a poor, albeit convenient and profitable, substitute for the pure food Mother Nature has provided for centuries. When people return to this whole, fresh, natural way of eating, many experience immediate results - feeling better, having more energy, losing weight, etc. - and later wish they had started long before. So, keep reading and get started now on the road to a healthier, more vibrant you. It's fun and easier than you think!

whole
Whole is the first, and probably simplest principle to grasp and remember. Just think of any food that is completely intact just as Mother Nature made it. Any produce, such as apples, broccoli or potatoes, whole grains such as brown rice, millet, or quinoa, vegetable proteins such as beans and legumes, animal proteins such as eggs, a piece of fish or meat. That's pretty much it - any food that is in its whole form containing all it's parts and nutrients. Any food that has been ground, separated, processed, refined, and stripped of its parts and many - or all! - of its valuable nutrients, such as white refined sugar and flour, would not be considered a whole food.

The principle itself is easy, however our culture has gotten so far removed from its food source that today many people don't even know what's whole, "real" or natural food and what's not. And that can be where the confusion comes in. But don't fret; the information in this book will be a great help to you. You will soon learn to easily identify foods that are whole, fresh and natural and your body will be grateful.

fresh
The principle of fresh comes in a close second to the principle of whole, or maybe even tied, when it comes to simplicity . If food has been cooked, processed or preserved in any way it is not fresh. Of course there are degrees of freshness to consider as well. For example, produce trucked in from the farm to your local store is going to be less fresh than having picked it from your garden (which is as fresh as you can get!), but still much fresher than frozen, canned or dried produce. The same may be said of meats, poultry and dairy products.

Mother Nature has been very helpful to us by installing in our produce, meat and dairy products an auto expiration date system - it's called rotting! Something that doesn't ever rot or takes a very long time to rot (excepting properly stored grains or legumes which have a naturally long shelf life) would obviously not be considered fresh and should be given at least a second thought before eating.

natural
The principle of natural is a little trickier and the topic of some debate, at least among the FDA and food manufacturers who have to adhere to agreed upon usage of the word "natural" when it comes to labeling. Getting into that could be another whole volume. So to make it easy, for our purposes here, we will define natural foods as those that Mother Nature has provided us (as opposed to a manufacturer), are not refined or processed or minimally so, and do not contain any artificial or chemical additives, such as colorings, preservatives, flavor enhancers, etc.

Once again with each of the preceding principles, it becomes clear that there are degrees to which a food may be considered natural. For example, a store bought canned tomato sauce that does not contain any preservatives or chemical additives would be more natural than another brand that does contain preservatives and additives. While a fresh batch of tomatoes from the garden or produce section cooked down to tomato sauce would be more natural and fresher than either of the canned products.

Two other important considerations on the topic of natural have to do with how we eat our food. First, many people who advocate an all raw, or predominately raw foods diet believe that cooking food is not natural. While I would agree that eating raw foods in abundance is very beneficial to the human body in general, and it is certainly not natural to never eat them at all or rarely as has become common in our culture, the majority of people in America have been raised on overly processed, refined and primarily cooked foods resulting in digestive systems that are not accustomed to digesting raw foods. This is evidenced by the abdominal discomfort, gas, bloating, and disturbed bowel function that those who fit this profile frequently experience upon introducing raw foods into their diet. Starting with steamed vegetables and gradually integrating more raw foods into the diet over time is the wisest thing to do.

In addition, eating big plates of many digestively incompatible foods at one sitting is considered by many to be unnatural and very disruptive to the digestive system, but so as not to confuse our simple definition of natural we will leave that particular topic for the section entitled Food Combining.

read on
Inspire, motivate and educate yourself by reading more valuable information: