5 Differences between a Vegan and Whole Food Plant Based Diet
by Elizabeth Yeter
If you know me, you know that I’ve been a vegetarian for a long time. Pretty much my whole life. I can attribute this choice in lifestyle to my mom, another vegetarian, but not for the reason you might be thinking. Yes, her healthy lifestyle was an inspiration to me, but also she was a horrible cook when it came to meat. Though she will deny this, every cut of meat I can remember eating as a child was microwaved. I’m not talking microwave to heat it up, but microwave to take it from its raw form to its cooked form. Chicken breasts: microwaved. Steak, microwaved. Pork chops: microwaved.
Needless to say, I never developed a taste for meat. I remember chewing and chewing and chewing a hunk of dry steak as a six year old only to spit it out thinking, “What’s the point of swallowing this?”
Disclosure: Although I have gone through stints of the more strict veganism in my adult life, I am currently a lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning that I eat dairy products and eggs. However, recently I read a book by T. Colin Campbell called Whole that changed my perspective on how I should be eating. Campbell is considered the father of the whole food plant based (WFPB) phenomenon that many people are turning to as a diet to lose weight and rid themselves of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, and even cancer.
Of course any diet that claims to ward off cancer is going to have me a little skeptical. The book Whole does not actually go into detail about the specifics of the WFPB diet. Rather, Campbell looks at the way nutrition has been ignored in modern medicine and how health care is really, in his words, “disease care.” He talks about how much of the research into nutrition (and, in fact, a great amount of research in general) is “reductionist,” only focusing on a sliver of biochemistry in isolation instead of a broader, more holistic viewpoint.
The book definitely changed my perspective on how I should be eating. I’ve tended to be a pizza and veggie patty kind of vegetarian. That doesn’t actually seem any healthier than a meat and potatoes kind of diet. The WFPB diet does seem a little strict for me to just jump in to, but I would like to incorporate its principals gradually over the next year.
The vegan and WFPB diets both seek to avoid all animal products including meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. Here are the five main differences between a vegan diet and a whole food plant based diet:
1) Eat plant based foods in their most whole form.
Let’s face the truth about being a vegan. You can eat little to no plants and still be on that diet. Cookies, donuts, and even pizza can be made vegan. Fake meat products have their own section of the supermarket. But that doesn’t make these foods “whole food” or even healthy.
Whole fruits and vegetables are the basis for the WFPB diet. You can eat them raw or cooked, but the point is for them to be minimally processed. I have seen hundreds of signs on products at my local 'health food store purporting them to be “plant based.” Don’t be fooled. The WFPB diet actually wants you to go to the produce section and pick stuff out.
2) No processed sugar and artificial sweeteners.
Vegan diets don’t have anything specific to say about sugars except honey, which is an animal product. That’s because the foundation of the vegan diet is to avoid animal cruelty and exploitation (no leather jackets or shoes too!)
The WFPB diet is a vegan diet, make no mistake. But it is also a diet that aims at keeping processed products out of your body. Sweeteners that are allowed are maple syrup, date syrup, and molasses. Still, in order to really access this diet, these should be used in small amounts.
3) No refined grains.
Refined white flour, white rice, and even quick cooking oats are all off limits on the WFPB diet. The refining process removes the many of the nutrients and fiber from the grain. However, the diet does allow for whole grains such as quinoa, brown rice, millet, steel cut and rolled oats, whole wheat, barley, and amaranth. Some of these may be easier to buy locally than others, but don’t forget the power of the internet! I plan on adding some adventure to my life by ordering some amaranth soon.
4) Avoid added salt.
The premise for this is that whole foods already contain enough salt for the average person to be healthy (about 500 mg). The modern diet includes way more salt than is necessary, leading to hypertension, heart disease, and kidney issues. The average American diet contains a whopping 3400 mg of salt. Elimination of added salts, even those fancy ones like pink Himalayan and black Hawaiian contributes to overall health benefits and reduction in the common modern killers named above.
5) No added oils.
The vegan diet allows for all sorts of non-animal-based oils. Margarine, check. Coconut oil, check. Olive oil, check. Give an “X” to all three of those on the WFPB diet. Sticking to the WFPB diet means abstaining from squirting that tablespoon of olive oil into the pan before frying up your kale. Also, no Veganaise (vegan mayonnaise) or other common vegan condiments that are oil-based.
The reason for avoiding oils is that they are purely fat and injure the lining of the artery, causing vascular issues. I can’t attest to the veracity of this notion, but it is the logic behind the elimination of added oils.
Sounds kinda strict, doesn’t it? It seems especially difficult to stick to in my state of New Mexico, where the restaurants are heavy in meats, cheeses, and variations of refined flours. But if you’ve been battling some serious health issues, or even some minor ones, it seems worth a try. After all, what do you have to lose? Maybe a few pounds? Yes, the diet also claims to help with weight loss.