There is a group of foods that most Americans love to eat, and, in fact, eat several times a day. These foods have a few things in common. They are stripped of almost all nutrition. They are loaded with calories, and they partner up with each other to create foods that compromise the health and fitness of Americans.

Although the name may be new, these foods are very familiar to all of us. In fact most of us eat the “Five Deadly Whites” every day and usually more than once. Can you guess what foods are included under the category of the “Five Deadly Whites?”

They are:

White flour

White rice

White salt

White sugar

“White” or refined oils

With the event of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s in Europe and in America came the invention of more complicated and efficient devices for pulverizing the wheat berries into fine white flour, polishing brown rice into white rice, and the refinement of the sugar cane into white sugar, making these common foods more palatable to the Western taste buds.

Add white salt and refined “white” oils, and we have a total of “Five Deadly Whites.”

Who are the losers in this processing and refining process? We are. White rice, white flour, white sugar products may taste better to spoiled taste buds, but they are also stripped of nutrients.

What is so bad about white rice, white flour, white sugar, white salt, and “white” or refined oils?

Let’s take a closer look at these common foods, starting with refined grains.

Americans love many different foods made from refined grains in the form of white flour products, white rice, quick oats, and corn grits. We have an emotional attachment to the Pillsbury Dough Boy (ah-hoo) and fine, light white flour for breads, pastas, pastries, pizza crust, pies, cookies, cakes, and desserts of all kinds. Many of us love these products made with refined white flour, even more than we love sugar-laden foods.

Furthermore, since World War II, grains were bleached, gassed, and colored into mere remnants of their original form; and then roasted, toasted, and frosted with sugar; and embalmed in chemicals and preservatives; and stuffed into a big box. We call these completely adulterated grains–cereals; and these cereals have about as much nutrition in them as the cardboard box that contains them.

Refinement, pulverization, sifting, cooking, and packaging of whole grains cause the loss of enzymes, or the “life force” in foods, along with the loss of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals.

Again, who are the losers in this refinement process? We are.

Refined grains, or fragmented foods, offer poor nutrition, leaving the body still hungry for good nutrition. Thus we overeat; and we overeat the wrong foods. Americans are often overfed and undernourished. Why? Because we eat too many of the processed, refined, and preserved foods that are low in nutrients and high in calories, high in fat, high in sugar, high in salt, and we eat too few of the foods that are nutrient- and fiber-rich.

Refined grains contain no fiber that acts as an intestinal broom to clean out our intestines.

Refined grains are refined and preserved with chemicals; chemicals that we end up eating and are hard on our bodies.

Refined grains cause our bodies to make excess mucous that accumulates in our noses, sinuses, throats, bronchial tubes, and our lungs, causing us to sniff, blow, drain, and cough and, often times, leading to more frequent colds and respiratory problems.

Refined grains cause the calcium to be depleted from our bones, increasing our chances of getting osteoporosis.

Refined grains are broken down in our digestive system and absorbed too quickly into the blood stream. This upsets the blood sugar levels, exhausting the pancreas and/or the adrenal glands, triggering hypoglycemic and diabetic reactions. Refined grains are just as bad for people with diabetes as white sugar.

In fact, refined grains are just plain bad for all of us, and we pay a hefty price for eating them–premature diseases and early deaths.

Are white flour goodies worth risking the health and fitness of our bodies? Only you can answer that question for yourself, but be prepared to accept the consequences that will result from your answer.

Part II: White Salt

Part III: White Sugar

Part IV: “White” Processed Oils