Whole Food Plant-Based Lifestyle

With catchy headlines on the American Heart Association website such as: "Olive oil may lower heart disease risk" You might think that olive oil is worth considering. Dig into the article or study and find the "compared to what?". Here's what it was compared to: One interesting thing our study shows is that although olive oil was better than most animal fats and margarine, it was not superior to vegetable oils in this study population," Guasch-Ferre said. "This means that replacing any type of animal fat with vegetable oils, including olive oil but also others, could be a good strategy to improve cardiovascular health. Here's another attention grabber: "The benefits of adding a drizzle of olive oil to your diet" and here's what the researchers found: In cohort studies of U.S. adults, replacing margarine, butter, mayonnaise, and dairy fat with olive oil is associated with lower risks of total and cause-specific mortality. If you're...

Few supplements are needed when following a Whole Food, Plant Based diet that includes a wide variety of whole foods.  Vitamin B12 supplementation is necessary.  It is critical that you take B12 on a regular basis. Vitamin B12 is made by microbes as neither plants nor animals make it. Eating unwashed fruits, roots, leaves, vegetables and drinking from natural water sources would have supplied our ancient ancestors with Vitamin B12, but that's not an option in today's polluted world. We wash our fruits and vegetables and drink treated or filtered water etc. for safety.  The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for vitamin B12 for people over age 14 is 2.4 micrograms. All adults over the age of 50 are advised to consume foods fortified with vitamin B12 or a supplement containing vitamin B12 because of malabsorption issues with food-bound vitamin B12. All who follow a plant-based diet are advised to either consume B12 fortified foods or ...

The answer is that whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses, whole grains, nuts and seeds already contain sodium. Our bodies evolved to be  salt conserving machines . Consider the following: There is no RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) set for sodium because there is inadequate evidence to support a recommendation.  Likewise, there is no Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) . There is only an AI (Adequate Intake) and a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) (was UL now it is CDRR (Chronic Disease Risk Reduction)) set for sodium.  Lots of people confuse AI and RDA when it comes to sodium. Researchers Paul Elliott and Ian Brown (Brown et al.) determined that the physiological need is 230 to 460 mg of sodium per day. They also noted in their published paper that the 1500 mg/d AI (Adequate Intake) was set to " ensure that the diet provides adequate intakes of other nutrients , and to cover sodium sweat losses in unacclimatized individuals who are exposed to high temper...

The phrase No SOSA simply means that there is no added salt, no added oil, no added sugar and no added alcohol in your regular diet. There are negative health impacts associated with all of those items. Once you've committed to a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet (WFPB) then no added salt, no added oil, no added sugar and no added alcohol (no SOSA) in your regular diet just follows naturally. It might seem difficult at first but, from experience, I know that it just makes sense. You just don't want those items anymore!

  The Center for Nutrition Studies describes a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet as: A WFPB diet doesn’t include any meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or eggs. It’s not, however, the same as a vegan diet, which is defined only by what it eliminates. A WFPB diet is defined also by what it emphasizes: a large variety of whole foods. The term “whole” in WFPB describes foods that are minimally processed. This includes as many whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes as you want. It also includes, in moderation: nuts, seeds, avocados, natural sweeteners, and certain soy or wheat products that don’t contain added fat (e.g., tofu). Heavily processed foods, on the other hand, are not included in a WFPB diet. This means avoiding highly refined grain products (e.g., white rice, white flour), foods containing added sugars or artificial sweeteners (e.g., confectioners sugar, high fructose corn syrup), and foods containing added fat. Yes, even olive oil.  It's that simple! It's a beautifully si...

  Dr. Joel Fuhrman  coined the term “Nutritarian” to describe a nutrient-dense eating style, designed to prevent cancer, slow aging, and extend lifespan. This nutrient-rich, plant-based diet is based on the following principles: This eating style focuses on the  nutrient-rich foods  that unleash the body’s tremendous ability to heal, achieve optimal weight, and slow the aging process. Eat mostly plants  means only eat animal products in small amounts,  if any , such as meat, fish, dairy, and eggs Whole food  describes natural foods that are not heavily processed. Basically, the majority of our diet is made up of fresh and clean produce rather than food that comes out of a package. No S.O.S  means that we don’t add salt, oil, or sugar to our recipes or to our prepared food, because these ingredients have been shown to have a negative impact on our health. When we eat the whole nut over just the processed oil, we are eating the fiber and protective ...