On my podcast, you hear me say “Whole foods plant based”, “WFPB” or “plant based” frequently, but what do I really mean by that?
Whole foods are foods that are made from whole plants – meaning they are created with how the plant looked when it was harvested; unprocessed and unrefined.
Because whole foods are unrefined and unprocessed, they contain all of the natural nutrients originally found in the plant, prior to cooking them. Of course, some processing might be hard to get around when in comes to certain foods (and sometimes even beneficial) such as having to steam a cashew shell open in order to make sure the natural toxic resin doesn’t get on the nut. However, for the sake of our convo, I mean prolonged processing and refining. Often times solvents and other chemicals, as well as high temperatures are used to process food. During this process, the chemical composition of the plant gets altered and it no longer “whole”.
Now the other side of the term “Plant based” means…..well i think it speaks for itself right? No meat, dairy, poultry, seafood, eggs, nada. If it came from something with a mother and father, then its not plant based. I’m not saying you have to go 100% plant based or completely vegan. Simply do what you’re willing to do. If you don’t want to give up all animal products then going 100% isn’t going to be sustainable, right? You have to WANT to do what you do, otherwise there is no longevity for it. My hope is simply that you will learn the benefits of plants, understand the detrimental health effects of eating animal products, and will end up incorporating more plants into your diet then when you first started, and build from there.
Let’s be honest, you never walk away from a healthy, whole food, plant based meal and regretting eating it. You never get sleepy and sluggish after downing a hearty helping of veggies, like you do after a double double and some animal fries. You never eating a super salad and then say “shit, I really have to get back on my diet”. Eating WFPB isn’t a diet, it’s a shift of thinking. Eating WFPB is rewiring your brain to eat healthy and actually enjoy it. It’s important, that rewiring, and it’s really not that hard; just eat the healthy shit and stay away from the garbage and before you know it, your body will be craving that healthy stuff instead.
So what do I mean when I say “Eat WFPB”? It means always striving to fuel your body and power your health with optimal nutrition. It’s really not very hard to do; just make up your mind to do it. You can thank me later.
