The Whole Food Plant Based Diet
The newest diet movement in the last several years is to eat a whole food plant-based diet. However, what does it mean to eat whole food plant based? Is this a new name for a vegetarian or a vegan diet? The short answer is, yes it sort of is. The long answer is what this blog is about.
What is a Whole Food Plant Based diet?
A whole food plant-based diet is exactly as it sounds. It is a diet primarily or completely composed of plant-based foods. This diet started out as a method to decrease the amount of processed foods we consume on a daily basis. Its original focus was, as the name states, on eating plant-based foods in their natural whole form. That means the food on your plate should look like what it did in nature when it was growing.
This was a simple and easy diet to follow for the most part. Although, the problem of determining what was a processed food versus whole food started to become murky. For example, a fresh tomato cut up and added to a dish is considered a whole food. However, is a can of diced tomatoes considered whole food or processed food? The experts even can’t agree on what processed food really is. I will cover processed foods in more detail in a future blog so make sure to sign up for the weekly blog email at the bottom of this page.
Due to this issue, this diet started to focus on being more plant based and ignored the whole food aspect of it. This brought in a new category of food items like plant-based hamburger patties, plant-based chicken nuggets, plant-based cheese and many more to show up in your grocery store.
With the idea of whole food being set aside, now the diet purely focuses on your food almost exclusively being plant based. In my opinion, the plant-based diet has morphed into a vegetarian or vegan diet (depending on your choices and how strict you are on ingredient selection).
Is the NEW plant based diet healthy for you?
Most people by now have tried a plant-based hamburger. They have become so popular that even McDonalds, Burger King and several other fast-food restaurants have added it to their menus. But is this new plant-based food better or healthier than the food it replaces? Unfortunately, at this time it is still too soon to say definitely yes or no since these foods have not been around long enough to see any long-term issues or benefits from eating them.
But what we can do currently is look at the ingredients in the plant based imitation foods in comparison to what they replaced.
From a whole food point of view the real chicken breast is the obvious answer. As for which is healthier for us, you have to look at what the ingredients are in the plant-based food item.
Soy protein concentrate, Soy protein isolate, potato protein isolate- these are the 3 ingredients providing a source of protein, the majority of which comes from soy.
Coconut oil, sunflower oil - high in Omega 6 fatty acids (the American diet is too high in Omega 6) and saturated fat.
Yeast extract - added to give the food a savory taste
Cultured dextrose - used to inhibit mold and bacteria.
Modified food starch - a fancy industry name for sugar.
Soy leghemoglobin - A heme containing protein from the soy plant’s root nodules that gives a meat like flavor and aroma due it it’s iron content.
Mixed tocopherols - used as an antioxidant and preservative in food.
Zinc gluconate - used as an antioxidant and color preserver.
Vitamins B1, B3, B6, B2, B12, and C - added to fortify the nutrition value of the food.
You don’t have to be a dietitian to know that some of these ingredients are what Americans have been told to minimize in their diet for years now. Besides the oils and hidden sugar, the plant based burger has several preservatives. This is what the original diet aimed to avoid through choosing whole foods such as fresh ground beef.
The concept of these plant-based imitation foods was never intended to be a healthier option by the manufacturer. The main driver behind these food items was a greater sustainability and lower cost of making foods that people already liked. They get perceived as healthier because they are labeled as plant-based, and we’ve all heard we need to eat more fruits and vegetables (plants).
The final say
Over the last few years, the whole food plant-based diet morphed into a plant-based diet and became the very thing that the original diet was trying to avoid. Over-processed foods with too many filler ingredients. Much of this was due to the confusion of what a processed and whole food item really is.
The simplicity of the whole food plant-based diet is the beauty of it. Choose foods that look like what they should look like naturally and have minimal ingredients. Have these food items be the majority of your meals with vegetables and fruits being the main component.
All foods will have some processing involved but the ingredient list is a good indicator of a food to avoid. If the list is a paragraph or more and you can’t pronounce many of the ingredients, then it’s best to avoid these food items.
If you want more information on how to incorporate a whole food plant-based diet into your lifestyle or would like a customized meal plan to get you started, schedule a free consultation today.
Written by: Adam Skowyra MPPD, RDN, LD
