WFPB

Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet

It is promoted as the gold standard eating pattern for health, longevity, performance, weight loss, health promotion. Every whole food, plant-based diet guru, doctor, dietitian has to diss the vegan diet with the same comments about being able to eat junk food and still say you are a vegan.

Yes, you can eat vegan cookies, cakes, and be vegan, but why is that really a problem?

Yes, nothing compares to the benefits whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet, but food isn’t only about nutrition.

Experimenting with WFPB

For the months of April, May and June the man and I decided to cut out all processed vegan food. We wanted to see if we felt a difference between WFPB and our normal vegan diet. I would consider our normal diet very healthy, but we cut out the veggie burgers, faux meat and cheese, even stopped baking vegan treats.

We ate a lot more fruits vegetables.

I didn’t think we could eat more, but we did. Our organic vegetable delivery, which usually lasts a week was gone in 3-4 days. We drank more water, had more tea and were probably more hydrated. We ate more fiber, more colour, more variety.

What didn’t happen?

We didn’t lose weight. Nothing much seemed to change, but we had one potentially serious unintended consequence. 

When I help people change their diet I encourage them to take steps that they can maintain. To start by eliminating animal products with vegan alternatives to take a B vitamin supplement. Eat more vegetables, but I don’t tell them to eliminate vegan products.

Why? Because they make meal prep easier and that makes it more likely you will stick with it. Taking a supplement keeps you healthy, but lots of vegan products are fortified. Lots of vegan products are also high in sodium. 

That can be a problem until it isn’t… we don’t use salt, I don’t cook with it, we don’t add it to anything. 

Our WFPB diet experiment had the unintended consequence of eliminating our source of iodine. Which is in salt (not sea salt or salt used in commercial baking). It is one of the daily requirements for optimum health. You can get enough by adding 1/4 tsp of iodized salt to beans. 

The Vegan RD has 7 tips for maintaining a healthy plant-plate including the following, 

• Don’t shun supplements. You absolutely need to take a supplement of vitamin B12 unless you are certain that your diet contains enough from fortified foods. Sea vegetables and fermented foods are not a reliable source of this nutrient. If you don’t get adequate sun exposure, take a vitamin D supplement. And, if you don’t use a few shakes of iodized salt on your food every day, a supplement of iodine can be a good idea.
• Keep the focus on whole plant foods, but don’t get too obsessive about this. Gently processed foods can be helpful for meeting nutrient needs and they can make your healthy vegan diet easier to stick with for the long term.

WFPB hype?

With all the promotion of WFPB diets and the subtle and not so subtle negative remarks about vegan diets, I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with vegan products, but you still need to eat your veggies. Yes, you can be a junk food vegan, but you won’t be harming the environment of causing the suffering of animals. If you want a few good general rules about eating a healthy whole foods diet than I would read the following post by the Vegan RD.

We are back to the YVES Mexican Ground Round (a personal favourite) veggie burgers and the addition of an iodine supplement – just in case. We still eat most WFPB, but there is nothing wrong with making meals easier or having a vegan cupcake every once in a while.

This experiment reminded of something I had lost sight of while researching the benefits of whole foods, plant-based diet and sharing that knowledge is something that I am grateful to the WFPB research community. I believe in getting experienced expert advice, the Vegan RD is a reliable source for nutrition advice.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

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