What is a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet?
A WFPB diet is based on whole or minimally processed plants, primarily fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tubers, and legumes. It excludes or minimizes animal-based foods such as meat (including poultry and fish), dairy and eggs, as well as refined foods like refined flour, refined sugar, and oil.
The growing popularity of whole food plant-based diets is hardly a temporary fad. The Pritikin[1] and Ornish[2] programs have been preventing and treating chronic diseases for years. The film “Forks Over Knives” has introduced millions to the work of T. Colin Campbell PhD and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. and to the curative effects that low-fat WFPB diets have on coronary artery disease, Type II diabetes and various cancers. In fact the evidence supporting WFPB diets is so strong, Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest managed care organization, now encourages its physicians to promote plant-based diets to their patients.[3]
The health benefits provided by WFPB diets result from a synergistic interaction of countless health-promoting phytonutrients (plant nutrients). The key word in the previous sentence is “countless”. Great health is not provided by meeting the recommended dietary allowances of a dozen or so nutrients.[4] Nutrition cannot be looked at in such a reductionist way. Doing so fails to acknowledge the amazingly complex way food and nutrients interact with human biochemistry. A reductionist view of nutrition focuses on minute details taken out of context from the whole system of which they are a part. This view really doesn’t help us determine the healthiest way for humans to eat. Nutrition is a holistic phenomenon; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, we should look at whole dietary patterns and their effect on health. Studies like The China Project have established that WFPB diets not only support vibrant health across the board, but can be effective in treating many chronic diseases.[5]
Essentially, eating a diet dominated by whole plant foods allows the body to heal itself in a holistic fashion. The healing can occur quickly and powerfully, resulting in reversal of disease and reduction of physical pain. However, overall health not only includes physical health, but mental and emotional health as well.
Alleviation of physical pain will elevate anyone’s mood. But can WFPB diets improve mental health by different means?
Losing Weight
It’s estimated that obese individuals have a 20% elevated risk of depression.[6] Some estimates are as high as 55%.[7] Losing weight is likely to improve one’s self esteem so weight loss can have a mood enhancing effect for obese individuals suffering from depression. However, there are many methods one could use to lose weight, almost all of which are unhealthy and short-lasting.[8]
Following a WFPB diet will result in weight loss if someone needs to lose weight. What’s even more important is that people get healthier as the weight comes off. As they begin to feel better they realize that WFPB eating does not limit the volume of most foods included in the diet. The combination of improved well-being and the freedom to eat until satisfied makes it more likely to sustain a WFPB diet compared to other diets.
WFPB diets give people a fighting chance to keep the weight off for the long haul, thus avoiding the negative psychological effects of weight cycling (“yo-yo” dieting).[9]
Vegetarian diets have been shown to be associated with healthy mood states.[10] The effect on overall health may explain the positive effect on mood, but some researchers believe that diets high in unrefined carbohydrates beneficially impact brain chemistry.
The Serotonin Connection
Serotonin is a brain chemical that acts to suppress appetite, relieve depression and mute stimulation from outside sources. Antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRRI) act by preventing the removal and degradation of serotonin from the nervous system – thus higher serotonin levels persist.
According to researchers Judith and Richard Wurtman, carbohydrate consumption stimulates serotonin production.[11] They discovered that the brain makes serotonin only after a person consumes sweet or starchy carbohydrates in combination with very little protein. Carbohydrates are only found in plant foods. The foods that dominate a WFPB diet, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tubers and legumes, are naturally high in carbohydrates and relatively low in protein. Although we all can consume plenty of protein on a WFPB diet that is 100% plant based, the amount of protein in whole plant foods will not inhibit serotonin production. So, it just may be possible for some people to avoid medicines such as SRRIs if they consume a high carbohydrate WFPB diet.[12]
WFPB Diets – Their Time Has Come
Almost 80 million American adults are obese making them at greater risk for heart disease, stroke, Type II diabetes and certain types of cancers.[13] Obesity is not a cause of disease, but a symptom of an unhealthy lifestyle. Many millions of non-obese adults suffer from the same diseases simply because they also follow unhealthy lifestyles.
WFPB diets can reverse chronic disease, help people lose weight and keep it off, and positively affect mood. It seems that for most Americans, the decision to transition to a WFPB diet is a no-brainer. Victor Hugo wrote “all the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come”. For WFPB diets, that time is now.
[2] http://www.ornishspectrum.com/wp-content/uploads/Intensive-lifestyle-changes-for-reversal-of-coronary-heart-disease1.pdf
[3] http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/issues/2013/spring.html
[4] http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Tables/RDA_AI_vitamins_elements.pdf
[5] http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Tables/RDA_AI_vitamins_elements.pdf
[6] http://www.obesityaction.org/wp-content/uploads/Depression-and-Obesity.pdf
[7] http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/03/04/us-obesity-depression-idUSTRE6234RF20100304
[8] http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/obesity-research-confirms-long-term-weight-loss-almost-impossible-1.2663585
[9] http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=21745
[10] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20515497
[11] http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2004/carbs
[12] http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/2004nl/040300pudepression.htm
E Excerpt from Laurie Endicott Thomas’s amazing book Thin Diabetes – Fat Diabetes by clicking here!
Dom — great article outlining the benefits of a WFPB diet! Hope to stop by the Shaker Fire Dept. on Saturday.