Beans and brown rice would be… unless you’re eating the whole cow. But actually, it’s surprising how many things like preservatives get added to things like ground beef.
Sorry but this is a ludicrous statement. Beans and brown rice are more "whole" than beef unless you're eating the whole cow? You're not eating the whole bean plant or rice plant. Even looking at brown rice or beans off the plant, with brown rice you are still removing the husk and with beans you are removing the pod.
That part was humor, sorry you missed it. I’ll elaborate.
If it’s unprocessed beef it could be considered a whole food — but often people don’t bother checking the ingredients for the meat they buy and just assume that it doesn’t have things added.
That said, there is research that points to eating too much beef and other red meats potentially being bad for health.