Whole Food Nutrition: Fresh Food With a Good Nutrient Balance

Whole foods, nutritious nutrition, or balanced nutrition: these forms of nutrition are the epitome of health-oriented food intake. Read what this means and whether this diet is suitable for you.

Balanced and healthy: whole food nutrition

The topic of healthy eating is literally on everyone’s lips and there have never been as many different concepts as there are today. The spectrum ranges from Ayurveda to vegan – whole food nutrition is one of the older representatives. The main features of this form of nutrition were already developed at the end of the 19th century by social reformers who were critical of industrialization with its heavily processed foods and luxury goods such as tobacco. Finally, in the 1940s, the scientist Werner Kollath presented the concept of whole foods, which to this day forms the basis for the recommendations of the German Society for Nutrition (DGE). A diet is wholesome when your diet plan or meal prep weekly plan provides all the essential nutrients in the recommended ratio and covers your daily requirement. Also referred to as a balanced diet, the goal of the concept is a varied mixed diet.

Whole Food Nutrition Basics

In addition to the quantitative ratio of the nutrient-rich foods, which is illustrated by the DGE in the form of a food pyramid, the basic principles of whole food nutrition include other guiding principles:

• Eat as much plant-based, gently prepared food as possible.
• Five servings of fruit and vegetables should be on the menu every day.
• Limit your meat, fish and sausage consumption to 300 to 600 grams per week.
• Salt, sugar and animal fat should only be contained sparingly in the diet.
• It is best to consume milk and milk and grain products every day.
• Drink at least 1.5 liters every day.

A wholesome diet made of raw foods and with a high proportion of whole grains is considered particularly valuable and prevents a nutrient deficiency – it contains the most vitamins, minerals and trace elements. White flour provides less good ingredients than wholemeal flour and also does not fill you up for as long: Wholemeal recipes are therefore to be preferred.

Are whole foods suitable for everyone?

The greatest disadvantage of whole food nutrition is the digestibility: Sensitive people can react to the high fiber content of this diet with digestive problems. The diet is also unfavorable for certain intestinal diseases. If you would like to try whole food recipes, it is best to slowly approach the amount of raw food and whole grain that you can tolerate. The main criticism of the original concept of whole food nutrition according to Kollath was the division of food into value groups, which from today’s perspective is no longer scientifically tenable. Not every cooked food automatically has a poorer nutrient balance than raw food.