What is the Whole Food, Plant-Based Lifestyle?

My family and I are Whole Food, Plant-Based (WFPB). Most people do not know what WFPB really means. It gets confusing at times to differentiate between similar diets. In this post I'll begin to clarify what the terms vegetarian, vegan, and WFPB really mean. I am sure you have heard the terms vegetarian and vegan thrown around. Both are similar to WFPB, however, there are some major differences.

A vegetarian diet normally consists of dairy products, eggs, veggies, fruits, nuts, legumes (beans/lentils), and grains. Neither meat nor fish are allowed on this diet. Vegetarian diets allow processed foods (aka anything packaged and/or man-made that can not be taken straight from the earth), as well as oil, salt, and sugar.

Vegans eat veggies, fruits, nuts, legumes, and grains. No animal products are allowed, including dairy, meat, fish, eggs, and in some cases, even honey. Vegans normally eat this way because they are concerned about animal rights or the environment. Vegan diets allow processed foods (aka anything packaged and/or man-made that can not be taken straight from the earth), as well as oil, salt, and sugar.

The WFPB Lifestyle consists of veggies, fruits, nuts, legumes, and whole grains (unprocessed grains like brown rice, corn, and oats are best), but minimizes processed foods, sugar, oil, and salt (SOS). In some cases processed foods and SOS are completely absent from a plant based diet (as close to this as you can get is ideal for disease reversal and prevention). Variations of this diet include The Clear Skin Diet. The only difference is that the CS Diet cuts out all oil as well as high fat plant-based foods such as açaí, avocado, nuts, and peanuts (which are technically a legume). I currently follow the CS Diet because I have Cystic Acne, and highly recommend it to anyone who suffers from any skin disease/condition.

So, now that we know the differences between these terms, we can better understand each individually. I hope this post helped clarify some terms that I will be using in my future posts.