A Wall Street journal article "Fortified Foods: How Healthy Are They?" published yesterday (June 16, 2009) stated the following:
"But enhanced foods aren't always as impressive as the label may suggest --especially when compared to whole foods. "Processing destroys nutrients, and the more processing there is, the more destruction you get," says Marion Nestle, author and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "Fortification adds back some nutrients, so overall you're better off with a processed fortified food than a processed unfortified one. But a whole food is always going to be superior."'
"Fortification" refers to the process of artificially adding nutrients to foods.
Whole foods (referring to minimally processed foods - not the gourmet store at Kahala Mall and coming soon to locations next door to Down to Earth throughout the state!!!) are the best kind of foods to eat. The refining and processing of whole grains removes most of the nutritional benefit. This results in a situation where companies then have to artificially add nutrients back to the foods to try and make them "nutritious", i.e. they further process the foods, making them even more unnatural.
If you think about it this is quite bizarre. Instead of just making minimally processed products that are better for people and actually cost less to produce, the modern food industry, which is controlled by a small number of huge agri businesses, further processes the foods, making them even more unnatural, destroying more of the original nutrients in the process, and has the result of increasing the cost of the final food product. In other words you get less for more. Oh, and while they are at it they poison the earth and water with pesticides and smoother the crops with toxins, and then think, "let's make the food even better by genetically modifying them". In short, things have gotten a little out of hand. But, thankfully, the organic and natural products industries have helped educate people about what is really going on and are providing their customers with organic and natural foods.
Down to Earth has been one of the pioneers in educating and providing our customers with healthy options that are both good for their bodies and for the environment. For example, our bulk sections offer an extensive range of unprocessed and minimally processed grains and other food items.