My Top 10 Guide to Eating a Whole Food Plant Based Diet . . . Lifestyle
1. Variety - aim for 30 different plants per week with plenty of colours; fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes (wholefood/not refined)
· This will feed your healthy gut microbes and they will grow stronger.[xxviii]
· Naturally obtain macronutrients; fats, carbs and proteins
· Naturally obtain micronutrients; vitamins and minerals
2. Eat enough – with whole food in mind, eat an abundance to your satisfaction.
3. Sprouts -start sprouting, aim to eat sprouted, seeds, beans or lentils with at least one meal per day for the enzymes.
4. Be fibre obsessed – as a reminder, choose unrefined wholefood over processed refined foods. Both soluble and insoluble fibre are only found in plants. For an additional boost, take a tsp of ground flaxseed everyday in water.
5. Soak nuts to reduce phytic acid which then enhances the bioavailability of all the micronutrients; vitamins and minerals.[xxix]
6. Consider these 9 essential nutrients to mindfully include every other day
By doing so you will experience the full benefits of a WFPBD and reap the benefits of the superfoods that they come in.
Omega 3 – Chia seeds, Hemp Seeds, Walnuts, Flaxseed, Almonds
Vitamin B 12 – Nutritional Yeast, Seaweed, Chlorella or Spirulina
Vitamin D – Sunshine or fortified plant based milks
Vitamin K – Spinach, Cayenne, Barley Grass, Mung Bean Sprouts
Calcium – Sesame, Leafy Green Vegetables, Edamame, Tempeh, Beans and Lentils, Wheatgrass, Mung Beans
Iodine – Seaweed (Nori, Kombu, Wakame, Sea moss, Dulse, Chlorella [xxx])
Iron – Beans, lentils, Pumpkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Flax Seeds, Maca, Spinach, Leafy Greens, Potatoes, Olives, Wholegrains, Spelt, Oats, Quinoa, Cayenne, Almonds, and Cacao
Selenium – Brazil Nut (x1 per day) Cayenne, Barley Grass
Zinc – Sprouted beans, Lentils, Chickpeas, Hemp Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Wheatgrass
7. Fermented Foods – can upgrade the nutritional quality of food[xxxi] and contain probiotic bacteria to balance gut bacteria. Some readily available or reasonably easy sources of fermented food are Kimchi, Kraut, Kefir, Kombucha, Tempeh, Miso and Sourdough.
7. Raw Garlic try to include crushed raw garlic in your tahini, avocado or nut dressings every day. It increases zinc uptake[xxxii], it also contain heart healthy and anticancer phytonutrients when eaten raw.[xxxiii]
8. Cayenne Pepper works to remove plaque from the arteries and it also reduces cholesterol. It has anti oxidant and anti microbial properties and been found to be anti-obesity together with bringing energy balance.[xxxiv]
9. Mealtimes – considering our circadian rhythm which is influenced by Sunshine and Sleep, eating within an 8-10 hour window allows our digestive system to rest when we are resting, renewing our energy levels and promoting a healthy body weight.[xxxv]
10. Make Plant Based Eating work for you, it is not a diet, it is a lifestyle, it is your desire for health. Enjoy it. Consistency over time matters far more than what you in on one particular day. The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. This is a journey to a better life.[xxxvi]
Ask yourself . .
What benefits do you see you will get from eating a Whole Food Plant Based Diet?
What are the biggest changes you will need to make to what you currently eat?
What will be your first step?
You know how it will benefit your health, the changes you will make and the first step you will take. Are you ready to enhance your life through food?
[xviii] Liu, L., Wang, S. and Liu, J. (2015). Fiber consumption and all‐cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortalities: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of cohort studies. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 59(1), 139–46. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mnfr.201400449
[xix] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.CIR.99.6.779
[xx] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes
[xxi] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes
[xxii] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/weight-loss
[xxiii] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/weight-loss
[xxiv] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/cancer
[xxv] Zhong VW, Van Horn L, Greenlandy P, et al. Associations of processed meat, unprocessed red meat, poultry, or fish intake with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 3, 2020.
[xxvi] https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/alzheimers
[xxviii] Leeming ER, Johnson AJ, Spector TD, Le Roy CI. Effect of Diet on the Gut Microbiota: Rethinking Intervention Duration. Nutrients. 2019 Nov 22;11(12):2862. doi: 10.3390/nu11122862. PMID: 31766592; PMCID: PMC6950569. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950569/
[xxix] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325021/
[xxx] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7551956/
[xxxi] Dimidi, E., Cox, S. R., Rossi, M. and Whelan, K. (2019). Fermented foods: Definitions and characteristics, impact on the gut microbiota and effects on gastrointestinal health and disease. Nutrients, 11(8), 1806. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/8/1806
[xxxii] Gautam, S., Platel, K. and Srinivasan, K. (2010). Higher bioaccessibility of iron and zinc from food grains in the presence of garlic and onion. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 58(14), 8426–9. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf100716t
[xxxiii] Song, K. and Milner, J. A. (2001). The influence of heating on the anticancer properties of garlic. Journal of Nutrition, 131(3), 1054S–7S. https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/131/3/1054S/4687116?login=false
and
Cavagnaro, P. F., Camargo, A., Galmarini, C. R. and Simon, P. W. (2007). Effect of cooking on garlic (Allium sativum L.) antiplatelet activity and thiosulfinates content. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55(4), 1280–8. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf062587s
[xxxiv] Azlan A, Sultana S, Huei CS, Razman MR. Antioxidant, Anti-Obesity, Nutritional and Other Beneficial Effects of Different Chili Pepper: A Review. Molecules. 2022 Jan 28;27(3):898. doi: 10.3390/molecules27030898. PMID: 35164163; PMCID: PMC8839052. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8839052/
[xxxv] Patterson RE, Laughlin GA, LaCroix AZ, Hartman SJ, Natarajan L, Senger CM, Martínez ME, Villaseñor A, Sears DD, Marinac CR, Gallo LC. Intermittent Fasting and Human Metabolic Health. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015 Aug;115(8):1203-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2015.02.018. Epub 2015 Apr 6. PMID: 25857868; PMCID: PMC4516560. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4516560/
[xxxvi] Illustration from The Proof is in the Plants. Penguin Random House. Australia. 2021