What is WFPB?
What is WFPB?
I keep using this acronym everywhere in my blog posts, in my recipes, but WHAT DOES IT MEAN ?
It means Whole Foods Plant Based.
When you first look it up you will find several definitions for it, most of them agreeing on the fact that you should base your food intake on whole plant foods; that is nothing processed and you should avoid animal products. Most do not take salt off of the equation, but I personally do.
BEST DIET FOR LONGEVITY
I based my very own definition of WFPB on many different ones. Basically I brought together the knowledge I got from the many books I read on the subject and from my nutrition studies course at e-Cornell.
Salt intake
Taking into consideration the science mentioned in the book How Not To Die, I try to include Dr. Greger’s daily dozen as much as possible in my recipes and I follow his guidelines when it comes to salt intake. That is, one needs to include iodine in their diet, whether it be by eating iodine enriched table salt (1/4 tsp per day per person) or even better, take kelp supplements (150mg/ day) and leave salt out altogether*. This is better for blood pressure, as you should not add salt to your food; there is generally enough of the mineral naturally in what you eat.(1)
If you love the taste of salt, good news! The consumption of Miso paste has been proven to improve your blood pressure. It is believed that the presence of soy in the paste outweighs the cons of salt in it. Ideally, do not boil miso paste so as to benefit from the probiotics it comes with, and there you go :)!
Animal products
There is soo much science backing up the fact that one should avoid animal products, that for now I will just direct you to nutritionfacts.org and invite you to search for whatever question you have on the subject; it will most likely be answered there. Blog posts on the subject will follow :).
Processed foods
When eating processed foods, in the best case scenario, most of the nutrients have been taken out and in the worst one, changing the composition of foods can be very unhealthy. For example, we know for a fact that soy is great for you and could prevent the development of some hormonal-linked cancers, such as breast cancer due to its phytoestrogen content, but once you break apart soy and isolate its protein, it could actually harm you. Compared to eating animal products, such as cow’s milk though, it is important to understand that it is still much better to drink a plant-based milk in which they added a soy protein isolate as it is not even comparable to cow’s milk when it comes to how badly it hurts your body. I would say, as long as it brings your slowly towards a WFPB goal, go for the plant-based products that motivate you along your journey. Even though some are not ideal, it is still better in so many ways and for so many reasons to opt for plants.
Oil
I should point out that oil is a processed food. Since you are not eating the whole food, you do not get the satiety signal that you should. It is basically empty calories with all the nutrients taken out and it is bad for your endocrine system. This is why I leave it out.
I hope this answers your questions and if you have any as usual you can shoot me an e-mail and I will do my best to answer you in an upcoming blog post. :)
In the meantime, I wish you all the joy and happiness in the world.
Marie-Chose
*Potassium iodide supplements are also a great option as they are less subject to natural variability. Eating 2 sheets of nori per day or 1/2 tsp of dulse or arame could also answer your needs.
References
All references are linked in text, with the exception of:
(1) Faclm, G. M. M., & Stone, G. (2015). How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (1st ed.). Flatiron Books.
If you would like to download/share a little reminder, here it is :)!
