Whole Food

What's the difference between corn on the cob and barbeque flavored corn chips? The corn chips are a processed food, while corn on the cob is a whole food.

A whole food is as close to its natural form as possible. For instance, corn is found naturally on a cob, which is part of a corn plant. Eating corn on the cob is eating corn in its most natural, or whole form. Drying the kernels of corn and grinding them into whole cornmeal is also a whole food. Sometimes though, people remove different parts of the corn kernel to refine it or change it. For example, to make corn chips the corn kernel is ground up and refined into a cornmeal that doesn't have all the fiber and vitamins of whole cornmeal. Refined foods are less healthy because many of the nutrients are removed.

Learn which foods are healthiest to eat