Processed Foods
Processed foods lose fiber and vitamins. Our ancestors ate many whole foods that commonly fell from trees or grew from the ground.
Today we eat a large number of foods that have lost through processing some of their natural constituents like fiber and vitamins.
In 1990, the government reacted to people’s growing concern over nutrition. The Nutrition Education and Labeling Act of 1990 required all food labels to list their ingredients in order of decreasing weight.
Nutritionists used to group food in four basic categories: grains, meats, dairy and fruits or vegetables. Recently, the food pyramid we often see on the side of cereal boxes divides food into six basic groups has been challenged.
Grains compromise the base while fruits and vegetables compromise the next tier. The pyramid recommends six to eleven servings of grains, three to five servings of vegetables and two to four fruits per day.