Let’s talk about whole foods. As we like so say, donuts don’t grow on trees.

So, what is a whole food? With all the health slogans, labels, and packaging in the supermarket, it can be confusing to know what’s actually healthy—or even what counts as real food.

Let’s keep it simple. A whole food is something that looks basically the same as it did when it was picked, pulled from the ground, or taken off a tree or vine.

For example, a banana comes from a tree, and a potato is pulled from the ground. You don’t need a label to know where they came from—they’re whole foods.

Now think about a donut. You can’t easily explain where it came from, or what it’s even made of. That’s your clue it’s not a whole food.

The next time you’re at the supermarket, pick up a product. If you can easily figure out where it came from, it’s probably a whole food. If you’re unsure, or need a label to explain it, it’s likely not.

Processed foods: A simple rule of thumb

Not all processing is bad. Acceptable processing is when the food is altered without removing nutrients or adding unhealthy ingredients—or even when processing makes nutrients more available.

Problematic processing happens when something good for our health is removed, like fibre or nutrients, and something less healthy is added, such as sugar, salt, or preservatives.

Let’s look at some examples:

✅ Tofu is made from soybeans, but none of the good stuff is removed and nothing unhealthy is added.

✅ Cooking tomatoes increases lycopene, a cancer-fighting nutrient.

✅ Processing coffee beans creates your morning brew.

✅ Fresh corn on the cob is a whole food. Even if it’s picked, frozen, or canned, it still looks like corn.

✖️ Corn flakes are made by grinding corn into flour, removing the fibre and nutrients, cooking it, baking it, and adding sugar and salt. In this case, the corn is no longer a whole food.

✅ Whole oranges contain fibre.

✖️ Orange juice often has the fibre removed and sugar added. Something good is taken out, and something less healthy is added.

Where it gets tricky is when food companies process food, strip out nutrients, and then add tiny amounts back in so they can advertise vitamins and minerals.

In Australia and New Zealand, ingredients are listed on a food label in descending order by weight—the first ingredient is the largest.

For example:

• Ingredients: Milled corn, sugar, malt flavour, contains 2% or less of salt
• Vitamins and minerals: Iron (ferric phosphate), niacinamide, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B1 (thiamin hydrochloride), folic acid, vitamin D3, vitamin B12

Here, the majority of the product is processed corn and sugar (about 96–97%). Salt makes up less than 2%, and all the added nutrients together may account for less than 1%, possibly as little as 0.1%. While they’re listed to sound impressive, their impact on health is negligible. Be cautious of foods that advertise extra nutrients—they rarely make the product healthy.

Quick guide to spotting whole foods

Ask yourself:

• Can I easily tell where this came from?
• Has anything good been removed?
• Has anything unhealthy been added?

And remember—donuts don’t grow on trees, there’s no soft drink river, and biscuits don’t come off vines.