Are Refined Foods Actually Better For You

[johnwester130]

refined white sugar - easiest carbohydrate to digest
refined white flour - removes the phytic acid, fat and oil, and removes fibre (which is good)
refined coconut oil - removes the odor, removes the impurities too

 

[Agent207]

I don't think so. No way refined sugar is better than panela or honey.

Also, what kind of refining? industrial wheat flour is crap becouse the modern milling process -not for removing the fiber-. The old school one, stone grounded, is way better; the ultra-fine powder of comercial one is worse for the gut, it leaks more easily and is very high in trypsin inhibitors.

Refined coconut oil I would say only for people who is allergic to some components present in the coconut; otherway stick with qualty virgin unrefined, always from fresh coconuts, free of chemical processing and hexanes.

 

[milk_lover]

My taste buds have always steered me away from brown rice, whole wheat bread, virgin coconut oil, and certain types of honey. I just don't like them, and I'm glad I followed what my body craves because they are easier to digest. Easy food to digest that don't give you an allergy like white sugar and refined coconut oil raises your metabolism without the bad stress hormones.

 

[johnwester130]

I never noticed the difference between refined cococnut oil and virgin oil

White sugar always felt better than coconut sugar and rapadura and "whole" sugars

White flour always worked better than wholegrain bread.

White corn flour always felt better than fermented masa harina varieties too (no gluten too)

White rice is in every way superior to brown rice.

 

[tara]

Depends on context. Assuming you can get all the micronutrients you need from ther sources, then refined versions have advantages. That probably applies to most of us here, who mostly have access to more resources than many.

For people living with very limited resources, the whole grain versions may be a way to get a bit more of the other necessary micronutrients. For instance, I think there have been people who have got beriberi when they ate white rice instead of whole when that was the vast majority of their diet.

 

[johnwester130]

yes, which is why some companies do "enrich" refined foods with b1, b2 and b3

 

[artist]

Refined is a somewhat ambiguous term but I generally see extremely refined foods as a last resort for when my body is too racked to deal with whole foods. Calories matter but vitamins and minerals are needed to process them correctly so refined foods as the bulk of the diet is not a good longterm strategy

 

[tara]

post 110460 Refined is a somewhat ambiguous term

I agree it's a bit ambiguous in some cases.
I guess discarding potato peels and orange peels and pith could be counted as refining. And low fat milk. Still lots of minerals left in them anyway.
I agree vitamins and minerals are important. Trying to live on mainly refined sucrose or white rice doesn't look very sustainable to me either. But I probably will keep peeling the spuds, carrots, onions etc.

 

[Mr Rossi]

Raymond Peat, Ph.D. "Cholesterol and saturated fats" East West Healing, 2011

Caller: Why many people have stomach aches when starting eating coconut oil ? Is it because the salicylates in it ? Should one use instead refined coconut oil ?
RP: I recommend the completely deodorized kind. The research was always done with the filtered kind, that had no odor at all. Even though it tastes really good to make ice cream or cookies or something out of the very aromatic kind. For safety in general use, because some people are allergic to the aromatic tasty things in the coconut, making it completely odorless I think is safest.

Caller: Isn't that too much processing?
RP: They just pass it through a diatomaceous earth or –inaudible-. So it's just a filtering process, no chemical treatments.