NOVA Group 1: Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods

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NOVA Group 1: Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods

26 Nov 2020

Disclaimer

Group 1 in the NOVA Food Classification System has Unprocessed Or Minimally Processed Foods. Defined as:

Unprocessed or Natural foods are obtained directly from plants or animals and do not undergo any alteration following their removal from nature.
Minimally processed foods are natural foods that have been submitted to cleaning, removal of inedible or unwanted parts, fractioning, grinding, drying, fermentation, pasteurization, cooling, freezing, or other processes that may subtract part of the food, but which do not add oils, fats, sugar, salt or other substances to the original food.

Source: NOVA Classification Reference Sheet

Almost all members of NOVA Group 1 are single ingredient; only a few are multi-ingredient.

Examples

Examples of NOVA Group 1 foods which are considered okay by Whole Food Plant-Based community:

Grains: (a) whole grains, (b) parboiled grains, (c) broken grains like cracked wheat and steel cut oats, (d) rolled grains, (e) grits, (f) flours, and (g) pasta, couscous and polenta. For details, see Whole Grains Hierarchy by Brenda Davis. [Do sprouted whole grain flours belong to NOVA Group 1? Maybe; I'm not sure]

Beans, peas & legumes: (a) Whole beans like lentils and chickpeas, (b) Split beans like split lentils, (c) Bean flours. For example, Bob's Red Mill sells flours made from several beans: black beans, garbanzo beans, fava beans, green peas, white beans, soy beans.

Fruits & vegetables: (a) Fresh, (b) squeezed, (c) chilled, (d) frozen, (e) dried, (f) juices (fresh or pasteurized) without added sugar, sweeteners or flavors.

Nuts & seeds: (a) Nuts and seeds in their original form, or (b) ground (for example, ground flax seeds, ground mustard and ground cumin).

Some nut butters are prepared by grinding roasted nuts, not plain nuts. Do such nut butters belong to NOVA Group 1? Maybe; I'm not sure. Dr Greger discourages roasted nuts, by the way. Since peanut butter sold in the market is always made from roasted peanuts, I avoid it.

Herbs & spices: Fresh and dried herbs. Whole or powdered spices.

Fungii: Fresh and dried mushrooms.

Algae: Chlorella.

Mixtures: This article explains:

"Group 1 also includes foods made up from two or more items in this group, such as dried mixed fruits, granola made from cereals, nuts and dried fruits with no added sugar, honey or oil; and foods with vitamins and minerals added generally to replace nutrients lost during processing, such as wheat or corn flour fortified with iron or folic acid."

Additives: This article explains:

"Group 1 items may infrequently contain additives used to preserve the properties of the original food. Examples are vacuum-packed vegetables with added anti-oxidants, and ultrapasteurised milk with added stabilisers."

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