Whole food

Whole foods are plant foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed.[1] Examples of whole foods include whole grains, tubers, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.[2]

Unrefined, whole foods

There is some disagreement over the usage of the term surrounding the inclusion of certain foods, in particular animal foods. The modern usage of the term whole foods diet is now widely synonymous with "whole foods plant-based diet" with animal products, oil and salt no longer constituting whole foods.[3] However, this view is not based on a scientific definition; the concept of a whole food simply means a food product that has not been processed to remove any natural part of that food. For example, whole grains are defined as any grain including the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm.[4] Similarly, whole milk is defined as cow milk that has not been subjected to a process of fat removal, and is considered by some to be a whole food.[5] The disagreement around the proper use of the term is based on the lack of a unified scientific definition of what constitutes a whole food.

The earliest use of the term in the post-industrial age appears to be in 1946 in The Farmer, a quarterly magazine published and edited from his farm by F. Newman Turner, a writer and pioneering organic farmer. The magazine sponsored the establishment of the Producer Consumer Whole Food Society Ltd, with Newman Turner as president and Derek Randal as vice-president.[6] Whole food was defined as "mature produce of field, orchard, or garden without subtraction, addition, or alteration grown from seed without chemical dressing, in fertile soil manured solely with animal and vegetable wastes, and composts therefrom, and ground, raw rock and without chemical manures, sprays, or insecticides," having intent to connect suppliers and the growing public demand for such food.[6]