The World's Healthiest Foods are health-promoting foods that can change your life.

How to Eat Healthier in 2018

Try our exciting new WHFoods Meal Plan.

The George Mateljan Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests or
advertising. Our mission is to help you eat and cook the healthiest way for optimal health.
What is The Healthiest Way of Eating?

The Healthiest Way of Eating is eating for maximum nutrition and enjoyment. Eating is one of the few things we do every single day. And since most of us eat 3 or more meals a day we are eating over 1,000 meals a year! That means we have the opportunity to make 1,000 healthy decisions each year to positively affect our health. The Healthiest Way of Eating is designed to help you make decisions that will optimize your health. And it can be done in 3 easy steps:

  1. Select health-promoting, nutrient-rich World's Healthiest Foods
  2. Combine them in the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan to fulfill your nutritional requirements
  3. Use cooking methods that retain maximum nutrition and flavor

The Healthiest Way of Eating is for those for whom eating is not merely a reaction to "hunger" but for those who want to eat for nourishment and better health. This new Healthiest Way of Eating goes far beyond taking in calories to satisfy your hunger; it is a way to enjoy foods that will nourish your body. If you want to eat healthier, the Healthiest Way of Eating does all the work for you by taking out all of the guesswork and making it creative, fun, easy, and enjoyable.

Nutrient-Richness is the Paradigm at the Core of The Healthiest Way of Eating

Nutrient-richness is the key to the Healthiest Way of Eating. It is the measurement of how many nutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein, fiber, carbohydrates, omega-3 fatty acids, and phytonutrients) you will receive from your food for the least number of calories.

Nutrient-Rich World's = Maximum Nutrients
Minimal Calories

Your body requires over 50 vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids every day to operate efficiently and keep you healthy. All of these nutrients can be found in the nutrient-rich World's Healthiest Foods.

Why the World's Healthiest Foods Should Be Your Foods of Choice

The World's Healthiest Foods are among the most nutrient-rich foods in the world and therefore help promote optimal health by providing you with maximum nutrition and taste for the least number of calories. They ensure your body is receiving the necessary amount of nutrients it needs. Along with vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids they are concentrated in antioxidants and phytonutrients, which combat free radicals that can damage DNA and cellular structures, as well as act as powerful anti-inflammatory agents.

We always recommend selecting nutrient-rich World's Healthiest Foods for our body to function optimally and inspire well-being. The Healthiest Way of Eating may help you enjoy more energy, strong bones, healthy skin, good sleep, and other aspects of optimal wellness. Alternatively, a diet that emphasizes nutrient-poor foods may lead to symptoms of nutrient deficiency: low energy, unhealthy skin, poor heart health, an inability to sleep, and reduced ability to cope with stress.

Our List of World's Healthiest Foods highlights more than 100 foods, which I have selected to be among the world's healthiest after 40 years of traveling around the globe searching for the foods associated with cultures recognized for their exceptional health and longevity.

For each food you will find a description of the food; how to select, store, prepare, and cook the food; its health benefits; and its nutritional profile. The list of World's Healthiest Foods helps you to select which of the nutrient-rich foods fit your personal tastes and nutritional needs. There may also be times when you are interested in increasing the intake of a particular nutrient. In that case click on the link to the -nutrient in which you are interested from our list of Essential Nutrients and find which of the World's Healthiest Foods is most concentrated in that particular nutrient.

And every week we feature one of the World's Healthiest Foods on the home page—a food that is currently in season, a food that is currently in season when it has the best flavor and is the least expensive.

Enjoy the World's Healthiest Foods in the Powerful Healthiest Way of Eating Plan

You will love the foods in the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan: sweet fruit, rich in antioxidants vitamins, minerals, and fiber; great tasting vegetables, rich in immune-boosting nutrients; crunchy fresh salads that are full of enzymes and alive with flavor; great omega-3-rich fish recipes; beans and legumes are rich in folate, protein, and fiber; and nuts and seeds that are great for snacks.

For over 30 years I was told it would be impossible for food alone (without taking supplements) to supply enough nutrients to promote optimal health, but that's what the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan is all about. It supplies it with you with over 100% of most nutrients your body needs. Each nutrient has a specific role to play in the regeneration of the approximately 300 billion new cells created by our bodies each day! For these cells to be healthy, proper nutritional intake is a must. And because nutrients work synergistically, the Plan provides the variety of nutrient-rich foods nutrients to support the synergistic interaction of nutrients. The nutrients concentrated in the World's Healthiest Foods featured in the the Plan also provide anti-inflammatory protection for a healthier cardiovascular system and a stronger immune system as well as protection against the free radical activity that can damage cellular structures and DNA.

The Plan provides over 100% Daily Value of many important nutrients from foods. These include:

  • Protein-rich foods that scientific studies have found to promote healthy skin, hair, and nails
  • Vitamin K-rich foods that scientific studies have found to promote the absorption of calcium and prevent osteoporosis
  • Vitamin A-rich foods that scientific studies have found to help support a healthy immune system, prevent frequent colds and flues, and promote healthy vision
  • Vitamin C-rich foods that scientific studies have found to help reduce free radical damage to cells.
  • Fiber-Rich Foods that scientific studies have found to help support the health of the digestive system
  • Folate-rich foods that scientific studies have found to help support cardiovascular health.

And many more. . . .

The Healthiest Way of Eating Plan Promotes Synergistic Interaction of Nutrients

Nutrients do not work alone but in concert (synergistically) with other nutrients in foods. The Healthiest Way of Eating Plan works to promote beneficial nutrient interaction and allows for the synergistic reactions between nutrients essential for optimal health. The benefit of deriving nutrients from eating fresh whole foods such as those included on the list of the World's Healthiest Foods is that they provide not only an abundance of individual nutrients but also the variety necessary for their optimal function.

One good example of how the synergistic interaction between nutrients in foods works is in regards to bone health. The importance of calcium is almost always featured as the nutrient necessary for maintaining strong, healthy bones. The reality is that strong bones also need vitamins D and K, magnesium, and trace minerals like boron. All of these nutrients are not concentrated in one foods but in a combination of foods. Of course, milk and yogurt supply are great sources of calcium, green leafy vegetables provide you with vitamin K, and salmon is a wonderful source of those hard-to-find omega-3 fatty acids. So, as you can see by eating a range of delicious foods you'll enjoy great taste and promote better bone health.

The Healthiest Way of Eating Plan was designed to take the guesswork of healthy eating and make it fun, easy, and enjoyable. It provides a menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks for 7 days. After following the Plan, you'll become a master on how to mix and match recipes so that you can enjoy delicious meals that will help you take control of your health. And you won't feel deprived or hungry because nutrients like fiber help keep you feeling satiated and satisfied.

The Healthiest Way of Eating Plan Can Help Save You Money

The Healthiest Way of Eating can save you money since it will inspire you to prepare more of your meals at home rather than buying take-out food or eating out at restaurants. By purchasing food on sale or sold at local farmers' markets you also save additional money. You can therefore purchase these powerful health-promoting foods for no more than what you are spending on food now if you eat healthy and even less if you regularly eat out. And they are much less expensive than supplements. Also when you take into consideration all of the health benefits derived from the Healthiest Way of Eating and the Plan you actually get more for your money because it provides you with health insurance that really works!

In the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan you will learn how to get over 100% of most nutrients.

The Healthiest Way of Eating Includes the New Healthiest Way of Cooking

The Healthiest Way of Cooking is an integral part of the Healthiest Way of Eating. George was inspired to develop the Healthiest Way of Cooking (link to cooking) when he found that traditional cooking methods could lose up to 50-80% of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients found in food! To George that meant that even if he was purchasing the most nutrient-rich foods available, it was possible that he was not enjoying many of their health-promoting benefits because if the foods were not cooked properly he was not enjoying the full range of their nutrient potential.

The new Healthiest Way of Cooking will take you out of the dark age of traditional cooking. You will discover how great vegetables can taste and how tenderizing their fibers by cooking them al dente helps release their naturally wonderful and complex flavors.

We have long been aware that no matter how good a food is for you, no one will eat it if it doesn't taste good. That's why George placed equal importance on maximizing nutrition and taste when developing his Healthiest Way of Cooking. And because the Healthiest Way of Cooking is quick and easy, it is a perfect fit in today's busy lifestyle.

To put George's cooking methods into practice WHFoods.org website provides you with at-home cooking demonstrations, WHFoods Kitchen, and an extensive library of hundreds of recipes , many of which you will find in the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan. From breakfast to dinner, soups to salads, vegetable side dishes to vegetable entrees, you can find delicious recipes that will entice your whole family and save you time and money. Most recipes can be prepared in 5 minutes or less using 3 or fewer ingredients! Using these recipes—such as 15-Minute Salmon, dinner salad with Mediterranean Dressing, 5-Minute Broccoli, and Blueberry Parfait — you can even learn how to prepare a 4-course meal in just 15 minutes!

If you don't want to worry about what to prepare for a meal, we recommend you sign up for our free Weekly Newsletter and Daily Tips on the home page. Each day you will receive a Recipe of the Day that provides you with great ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. You will also receive a Q&A about a food or nutrition topic to help you learn more about The Healthiest Way of Eating.

You can also learn more about our Healthiest Way of Cooking from George's new Healthiest Way of Cooking DVD and cookbook.

A Lifestyle Change to The Healthiest Way of Eating

Modern science now concurs that among all lifestyle factors, no single factor is more important to our health than the food we eat. According to healthcare experts, our best bet in avoiding chronic preventable disease rates does not lie in more expensive medical procedures, or in more sophisticated technology, or in further specialization with respect to testing and medication. Our best bet, experts agree, lies in the simple, everyday practice of a lifestyle change in the foods that we eat.

We could be saving millions of lives and several hundred billion dollars in healthcare costs related to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer if we would eat more health-promoting, nutrient-rich foods like the World's Healthiest Foods—foods that the peer-reviewed medical research has already suggested may help prevent these diseases. Instead of spending more money and having more disease (our current situation), we would be spending less money and having less disease!

What's also remarkable about the chronic preventable disease patterns described above is the degree to which they overlap when it comes to dietary prevention. Based on current research, we do not seem to need one diet for preventing heart disease, a second diet for preventing diabetes, a third diet for preventing obesity, and a fourth diet for preventing cancer.

What seems to be needed in the case of all four chronic preventable diseases is that the changes in the foods we eat move in the same general direction: decreased intake of sugar, salt, animal fat, and processed foods, and increased intake of health-promoting, nutrient-rich foods like the World's Healthiest Foods. Dietary prevention in the case of all four chronic preventable diseases calls for a greater focus on health-promoting foods and a healthier way of eating that can be followed and enjoyed day after day, year after year.

Nutrient-rich foods like the World's Healthiest foods are the keys to a healthy lifestyle. It is the source of good health and energy. Following The Healthiest Way of Eating can benefit all of us. Eating more nutrient-rich foods, cooking them properly, and learning about how to create a better way of eating by following the Plan will help you feel stronger and healthier. You can have more energy, enjoy better sleep and less stress, and promote general optimal health.

We have created this website to serve as a comprehensive resource that leaves you with no guessing about what you have to do to eat healthier. It offers you all the tools you'll need to make eating healthier an integral part of your healthy lifestyle.

Testimonials about the Healthiest Way of Eating:

I discovered your site and your list of the healthiest foods a few years back. It has been my blueprint for my Healthiest Way of Eating since then. - Annie

I really enjoy your site and your Healthiest Way of Eating so much info in a concise form. I have little time to surf the web. You provide so much up to date info. I am in and out of the net, armed with knowledge to keep myself and my family healthy. You are a true blessing. Thanks. - Mary

Thank you: Hi, I just wanted to tell you how I appreciate You, your Healthiest Way of Eating website, recipes and tips that you send. I just had the most delicious lunch that I have had in along time, thanks to your ideas. Thank you, I am also shedding those pounds. - Rosemarie

From all the books and materials I already studied on the Healthiest Way of Eating specific for kids, I found "The World Healthiest Foods" to be the best of the best related to what people need to know and implement into their life. You inspired me when I design the program on nutrition for kids, and I believe you need to have all the credits. - Mario

I have been using your website as a tool for me and my family for the Healthiest Way of Eating. I have lost approx 7 pounds in 3 weeks along with exercise. I feel great and just wanted to thank you for all the work that goes into your website. Just knowing the benefits of the different foods has motivated us to eat better. Thanks again. - TI

I recently stumbled upon your website (and soon after ordered your amazing book The World's Healthiest Foods!). I have fallen in love with your foundation's wonderful approach to the Healthiest Way of Eating. - Raychel

Thanks for sharing your passion with the world and making it easy for some of my friends who have never even thought of the Healthiest Way of Eating to transition into getting their 'power' back. - EL

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