Vegan Storyteller

Ruha Thevi is a nutritionist, master Herbalist, Author, Vegan, and Whole Plant-Based Advocate with Nutrivolution. She explains why she avoids processed foods in her diet.
Nutritionist Ruha Thevi sits with a bowl of salad and talks about foods with no nutritional value

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A guest essay by Ruha Thevi, Nutrivolution

This blog is about foods with no nutritional value. I would like to explain why I don’t eat any (almost) processed food.

We eat food for two reasons: energy and nourishment. The calories that we get from the food we eat converts to energy. Energy keeps our bodies working, like the fuel in a car. But too much energy turns into extra fat, which is not good for the body.

Nourishments keep our bodies healthy and balanced. Nourishment includes all of the macronutrients (good carbohydrates, good proteins, good fats) as well as micronutrients (vitamins, minerals). All of these nutrients keep our bodies strong and healthy, like the engine oil, brake fluid, the refrigerant liquid, and the wax coating in a car keep it running well.

Foods with no nutritional value include processed food

Mother Nature has prepared the most amazing recipes for us — fruits and vegetables that are packed with the right amount of energy, and the perfect quantity and combination of nutrients.

Processed food is not balanced and has no nutritional value. Foods with no nutritional value are usually packed with calories and are too high in salt. These are what we call the “empty calories,” meaning calories that are not matched by nutrients (commonly all fats or all sugars, but no water, no fiber, no vitamins, no minerals…).

Too many calories harm the body. Too little nutrients or an unbalanced combination of nutrients would harm the body too. When you buy processed food, you need to spend a lot of time and energy thinking how to combine your foods to ensure a healthy diet.

Why bother buying processed food and do all that thinking? We can just eliminate them from our diet and go back to what Mother Nature has made available to us – fresh fruits and vegetables in their natural form.

Fruits and vegetables keep us healthy and strong

When we eat a variety of fruits and a variety of vegetables, we do not need to think and study diets anymore. All of the nutrients are automatically there, and you do not need to be a nutritionist to make sure your diet is OK.

Fruits and vegetables also automatically guarantee a low calorie intake. This means the right amount of energy to maintain a lean body with no weight-gain worries, and a longer life.

These are the reasons I do not include processed foods in my diet. They don’t have good nutritional values and, therefore, provide no benefit to my body.

Crazy fad diets won’t win back your health and wellbeing. All it takes to do that is a simple DIETSTYLE!

Ruha Thevi, @TNutrivolution 

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