Nutritional Glossary

Certified Organic - Food grown without use of conventional pesticides and herbicides.  
Natural Foods - There is no regulation for this title. Beware.

An Essential Nutrient is a substance that must be obtained from the diet, because the body needs it and cannot make it in required amounts.

Carbohydrates

Protein

Fats (Lipids)

Vitamins

Minerals

Water

A Nonessential Nutrient is a substance found in food and used by the body to promote health but not required to be consumed in the diet. The body can make the nutrients from other nutrients. 

Alanine

Arginine 

Asparagine

Aspartic acid

L-Cysteine

Glutamic Acid

Glutamine

Glycine

Histidine

Ornithine

Proline

Selenocysteine

Serine

Taurine

Tyrosine.

Nutrients are defined as substances in food required or used by the body to give energy, structure or regulate a chemical reaction. Therefore, a food with nutrient richness would be a food which contains large amounts of these substances to help the body function, have energy and build.

A whole food is full of nutrient richness. They are as close to their whole, natural state as possible. They do not contain synthetic, artificial or irradiated ingredients. They are unaltered from harvest to purchase. No nutrients have been removed.

Refined foods are whole foods which have been altered mechanically or chemically and by so doing remove some or all of the nutrients.

Processed foods was altered by grinding, crushing or cooking but has not lost any of its nutrients.

Example:

Whole food is the grain kernel, whole and unaltered.

Processed grain is ground so it can be used. No nutrients removed.

Refined grain has been altered to the point of removing the fiber so the nutrients have been removed.

This knowledge taught me that the definition of processed food is used incorrectly. I have often stated that my diet does not consist of processed food. That is incorrect. My diet does not consist of refined, prepackaged foods. I prepare a lot of processed foods myself by grinding, crushing or cooking without any loss of the nutrients. The public definitions of processed foods are those foods commercially processed. In that sense, those types of processed foods are nutrient poor and generally calorie rich.

Foods with high calorie and low nutrients are depleting foods. They deplete the body because the food does not contain the needed vitamins and minerals and enzymes needed for its own metabolism. When the body receives depleting food, it pulls nutrients it needs from the body's reserve, first from bloodstream, then from tissues, then organs, muscles and bones. This knowledge of depleting food may be more powerful than any other reason I have had for me to walk away and eat nourishing food 100% of the time.

Nourishing foods include:
Protein - Beans, Legumes, Wild caught fish, free range poultry, meats raised without hormones or antibiotics. Organic dairy products, Eggs, Raw Nuts & Seeds,
Whole Grains- Brown Rice, Oats, Barley, Millet, Quinoa, and Amaranth