Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB)WFPB for the Perfectionist
For most healthy people, 50% to 90% WFPB is good enough.
People can be healthy with a small [[file:guidelines.org::*Non-WFPB allowance][Non-WFPB allowance]] including [[file:guidelines.org::*A little added salt & sugar doesn't hurt][a little added salt & sugar]].
The most important part is to make your WFPB diet sustainable: keep it simple and tasty.
The health benefits of the following changes are small or uncertain. But might be of interest to WFPB enthusiasts.
Miscellaneous replacements
- Replace added sugar and artificial sweeteners with a whole-food sweetener like date flour.
You probably don't want fibrous sweetener in tea, so eliminate all sweeteners from tea. - Replace white potatoes with more nutritious sweet potatoes or purple potatoes.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/anti-inflammatory-effects-of-purple-potatoes/ - Replace iceberg lettuce with more nutritious lettuces like Romaine.
- Replace pre-chopped vegetables with chop your own vegetables.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-pre-cut-vegetables-just-as-healthy
- 4:26 The onion study.
- 5:25 It’s definitely still better to eat pre-chopped vegetables than no vegetables, but chopping your own might be the healthiest.
- Replace plant-based milks with water (plant milks are not whole).
- Replace white vinegar with Balsamic vinegar.
- Replace tofu with tempeh (tofu is not whole, tempeh is whole).
- Replace aspirin and ibuprofen with turmeric.
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/turmeric-curcumin-and-osteoarthritis/
Curcumin works as good or better than ibuprofen for osteoarthritis. - https://nutritionfacts.org/video/boosting-the-bioavailability-of-curcumin/
Black pepper increases the bioavailability of curcumin. - https://nutritionfacts.org/video/who-shouldnt-consume-curcumin-or-turmeric/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/turmeric-curcumin-and-osteoarthritis/
Replace flours and nut butters
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-is-a-better-breakfast-cereal-or-oatmeal/
The physical form of food alters both fat absorption and carbohydrate absorption.
Weight Loss Tips with Dr. Doug Lisle
https://youtu.be/Gc3XfIOxTLU?t=1316
- 21:56 Food processed in a blender, or softened food, moves through stomach faster
- 24:23 nut butters are not a whole natural food, like adding oil to nuts
- 25:59 [end of topic]
Flours, pasta and bread
Flour is food ground to a powder. Whole flour is considered whole because grinding is a minimal process. All the food fragments are still contained in the powder. But some of the food fragments are no longer bound together in their natural state. This alters the food absorption.
Intact grains are healthier than flour. Intact grains are boiled and chewed instead of put through the mill. Chewing intact grains leaves bits and pieces for good gut bacteria to eat and it’s absorbed slowly and naturally into your body. Intact grains include:
- barley
- steel-cut oats and old-fashioned rolled oats
- brown rice
- quinoa
- millet
- buckwheat
The starch structure of pasta causes it to be digested more slowly than the same amount of flour made into bread. Al dente pasta has a lower glycemic index than overcooked pasta.
Nut butters and nuts
Nut butter is ground nuts. Nut butter is considered whole because grinding is a minimal process. But the oil floats to the top, so it is isolated oil, not really whole. Peanut butter has more oil than the other nut butters.
Whole nuts are healthier then nut butter. Chewing intact nut leaves bits and pieces for good gut bacteria to eat and it’s absorbed slowly and naturally into your body. Instead of a peanut butter sandwich, I eat alternating bites of whole nuts and pita bread.
Keep shelled nuts in the freezer or refrigerator. Once they are out of their shell they are more susceptible to oxidative damage.
Avoid nut butters if you are trying to lose weight. If you want to limit nut consumption, only buy nuts in the shell. The effort to shell nuts naturally limits nut consumption.
Most of the peanut's antioxidants are located in the skin, which is removed for peanut butter. Unsalted raw Spanish peanuts with the skin are sold in the baking supplies section of some grocery stores.
https://trailrunnermag.com/nutrition/daily-nutrition/ask-the-dietician-are-raw-peanuts-safe-to-eat.html
To minimize exposure to aflatoxin, purchase peanuts and peanut products that have been grown, harvested and processed in the U.S.
Organic
EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce
- https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
Pesticide levels typically diminish when food is cooked. - https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/full-list.php
Pesticides in Produce List.
A series of organic-food videos by Dr. Greger:
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-organic-foods-more-nutritious/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-organic-foods-safer/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-organic-foods-healthier/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-the-benefits-of-organic-food-underrated-or-overrated/
People tend to overestimate the risks of pesticides. We get a tremendous benefit from eating conventional fruits and vegetables that far outweighs whatever tiny bump in risk from the pesticides. Concern about pesticides should not stop us from stuffing our face with as many fruits and vegetables as possible. But why accept any risk at all when you can choose organic?