25/05/2019
There still seems to be a lot of confusion among people about the difference between adopting a vegan lifestyle vs a whole foods plant-based lifestyle.
Being vegan is generally the more popular in our minds as we hear after speaking with several people, mainly because of two reasons.
- There has been a lot of propaganda around being vegan, sensationalized further with so many videos about animal cruelty
- It's easier to be "vegan" than to be "whole foods plant-based" simply because one doesn't place restrictions on a lot of our so-called most important ingredients in any food we consume, such as oil.
With that being said, let's clarify it once more though there are hundreds of videos and articles online explaining the same.
Our go-to explanation about this difference can be stated in a simple sentence:
You could be vegan without eating healthy at all, but you can't be WFPB without being healthy.
Let us take an example from a typical day:
You wake up in the morning, toast the bread that you carefully selected at the supermarket for its vegan ingredients, spread a dollop of Vitalite Dairy Free spread on the bread, and finish it with a coffee with sugar and almond milk.
For lunch, you had a sandwich or a plant-based burger with some chips and then for dinner, you cooked pasta at home, or ordered Indian food all vegetarian.
You ended the meal with a Cornetto dairy-free ice cream or a dollop of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.
You have stayed "vegan" all day, but have you eaten healthy, at all?
Does this also mean you stayed on a WFPB lifestyle?
The answer to the second question, of course, is a resounding NO. And I will explain this with an answer to the first question.
You HAVE NOT eaten healthy, because of a few possibilities:
- The toast you bought from the store for breakfast is what is considered "processed" food because it contains artificial preservatives that may have come from animal sources. For example, E471 Emulsifier is composed of glyceryl monostearate and glyceryl distearate - both of which can be obtained either from animal fats or soybean oil.
- Vegan spreads like Vitalite are made almost entirely of Vegetable oils that are highly processed by their very nature, and do not constitute "whole foods"
- Similarly, at lunch, the chips, plant-based burger patty that you bought frozen comes with its own set of processed ingredients including preservatives that are sometimes not even fit for human consumption.
- The Indian food you ordered for dinner comes with its own set of issues, mostly in the way most take-outs cook food - they use butter in kneading dough to make the bread softer, more appetizing and flavorful. The vegetarian "bhaji" or the daal that you ordered is cooked in a whole lot of oil which is what, when mixed with spices, gives it its flavor, right? The dessert, it goes without saying is loaded with processed refined sugar in addition to many other ingredients that make up the bulk of the ice cream.
So, in a nutshell, while eating vegan all day, you DID NOT EAT healthily or WFPB at all.
This doesn't imply being vegan isn't healthy. It is when you begin to choose your food on the principles of "being whole"
For staying "whole" you have to make conscious choices, such as choosing oats t or shredded wheat for breakfas might be more beneficial than store-bought bread. You may even bake your own bread that does last a week in the freezer easily without using any preservatives or emulsifying agents.
On a whole food plant-based diet, you consume whole foods, with no processing of any sort.
It's hard, very hard, and you don't have to do it in one day.
However, if you make progress, while understanding the difference between being just vegan or being whole foods plant-based, might make a difference in your health and mindset over time, considerably.
Here is some additional reading for your pleasure:
Vegan Diet vs The Whole Foods Plant Based Diet - By The Health Magazine (https://wholefoodsmagazine.com/columns/consumer-bulletin/the-vegan-diet-vs-the-whole-food-plant-based-diet/)
Plant Based Primer - The Beginner's Guide to a Plant-Based Diet - By Forks Over Knives (https://www.forksoverknives.com/plant-based-primer-beginners-guide-starting-plant-based-diet/ .e7nkam
What is a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet - By T.Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (https://nutritionstudies.org/what-is-a-whole-food-plant-based-diet/)
