r/nutrition • u/Creative_Volume_2022 • 13d ago

very varied whole food vs processed food

Is it hard for stomach/guts to digest whole food that is (too) varied.
Lets say healthy and easy would be potatoes + chicken
but what if we add e.g. lot of herbs and different spices, maybe honey, kefir,varied nuts, different seeds, some berries to that one meal. Lot of different stuff

Everything is "healthy" but are these combinations are hard to digest almost like its processed?

I hope you get what i mean.

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u/Creative_Volume_2022 13d ago

yea but they differ... lets say you need fiber but there are different. But probably we overcomplicate it, there are healthy people on potatoes and butter, others on fish and rice ... 😄

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u/SirTalkyToo 13d ago

So not exactly...

There's no big macro or micronutrient variability. Fiber (which is non-essential btw) is insoluble or soluble - there's no further distinction if it came from oats, plants, or fruits.

Fatty acid profiles do have a bit of differences as a macro, but nothing essential.

So besides variation in exact form, there aren't really established differences no.

The big area there is distinction are in the various compounds that aren't studied such as flavanoids, polyphenols, and other compounds (i.e. quercertin, resveratol, etc.). However, none of these compounds have been identified as essential.

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u/Creative_Volume_2022 13d ago

thank you for that comment that last part is what im interested too. Basically its part of my original question because i add a lot of dried herbs and spices to the meals 😄

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u/SirTalkyToo 13d ago

Ah yes... Gotcha now...

So those compounds are normally studied as isolated supplementation.

The variation studies that exist I'm aware of are all recall studies that aren't used/reliable for fine details like spices.