The Quickstart Guide

To a whole food plant-based lifestyle

Jul 13, 2024

I thought it was about time I did another primer post for our new followers, and a refresher for those who’ve been here awhile. Here is exactly how the whole food, plant-based lifestyle works.

What we Eat

Whole grains: Instead of white flour, whole grain flour. Instead of white rice, brown rice. Instead of instant oatmeal, rolled oats. Instead of white bread, oil-free, whole-grain bread. We eat barley, oats, rice, quinoa, couscous. Any grain that is “whole.” Whole grains are packed with protein.
Quinoa: This is the powerhouse grain. (It’s actually a seed, but falls into the grain category.) It’s a complete protein source all by itself. While all plants have protein, and in fact all plants have all 9 essential amino acids in varying amounts, Quinoa has all 9 in the ratios required for optimal human health, and is particularly high in lysine, which is lower in most other plant sources.
Nuts and Seeds: Seeds are tiny powerhouses of nutrition. Nuts are packed with protein. But they also can be hidden sources of fat. Limit your nuts to a handful a day. Remember, the wider the range of nature’s foods you eat, the healthier your gut microbiome will be. So aim for a wide range. In addition to all my snacking nuts, I keep both walnuts and cashews on hand for my sauces.
Daily Flaxseed: Flaxseeds are particularly good for us. They’re high in fiber, and they bring us s B12 boost, and are excellent for constipation issues. I eat 1 tablespoonful daily on my oatmeal.
Fruits: Eat any and all fruits, as much as you want. Try new fruits you haven’t tried before. Eat a wide range. But not fruit juice. That’s not a “whole” food. Fruit juices are a shot of sugar direct to the bloodstream. If you want orange juice, eat an orange. Now remember we’re eating fruits from farm stands, produce sections, trees. If we can’t get fresh, frozen fruits are fine. But if buying canned, be sure you’re buying just the fruit, no syrup, no sugar added. By fruit we do not mean fruit smoothies, fruit popsicles, or fruit juices. We mean fruit.
Eat berries every day. Nothing is more antioxidant than a blueberry. Berries are the superfoods of the fruit world, so be sure they’re a part of your daily plan.
Vegetables: Eat a wide range of vegetables. Don’t be afraid to eat lots of starchy vegetables, like potatoes, squash, corn, peas, sweet potatoes, and yams. Our brains are starch-based. Carbs are our friends. Starches fill us up. Our cells are built from starches.
Eat green leafies and cruciferous vegetables every single day. To remove existing plaque from your arteries it takes about 6 servings a day, every day. So eat all you can of these super veggies. Green leafies include arugula, cabbage, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, Swiss Chard, turnip greens. All the greens! The cruciferous group includes broccoli, broccolini, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, horseradish, kohlrabi, radish, rutabaga, turnip, wasabi, watercress and so on.
Beans and Legumes. All vegetables have protein, but beans and legumes have an abundance of it. As a rule, the darker the bean, the higher the protein, but all beans have plenty. Eat a wide variety of beans. Every week we eat pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, cannellini beans, garbanzo beans (chick peas,) even fat-free refried beans. (Never get “traditional refried beans—they’re made with animal fat.) Other legumes include lentils, which are fantastic for us, and often overlooked. I always throw a cup or so of lentils into my crockpot chili. And don’t forget peas. I put peas in stir fries, peas and split peas into soups. I always include garbanzos in my goulash and potato salad, which is made with a cashew & cannellini bean mayo.
Minimally processed, healthy foods: Tofu, tempeh, plant-milks, reduced-sodium tamari (a mild, animal-free soy sauce,) vegan Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, maple syrup, whole grain pastas, unsweetened applesauce, peanut butter, almond butter, nutritional yeast, and Ezekiel bread, a complete protein source. (Use your own judgment, as there are probably a few more. But remember, low-sodium and minimally processed.)

What We DO NOT EAT

Meat. Chicken is meat. Fish is meat. The muscle, skin, bone, or organ tissue of a living creature is meat. Meat is inflammatory. Dietary cholesterol ONLY comes from meat. Meat consumption has been associated with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, numerous auto-immune disorders including lupus and MS, and many more health issues.

Dairy. The secretions of any animal, be it a cow, goat, sheep, yak, whatever, are not a part of this eating plan. This includes the myriad things made from milk, such as butter, cream, cheese, yogurt and so on. It also includes anything with a dairy product as an ingredient. The dairy protein casein has been shown to turn dormant cancer genes “on like light a light switch” when its presence in the diet is raised to 20% of total calories. It turns off again when casein is reduced to 5% of total calories. This is well within the range of human experience, and easy to measure and control. (See the study featured in the documentary Forks Over Knives.)

Ultra-Processed Foods. All that yummy, tasty stuff in the freezer section with “Plant-based” labeling falls into this category. The ice cream, the Impossible meats, the Beyond meats, even the Daring Meats, all the Morning Star products and all the rest. They’re not whole foods, because they’re made from parts of foods. They tend to substitute meat fat with coconut oil, which is higher in saturated fat than pig lard. They tend to be very high in sodium, fat, and calories, and usually low in nutrition. They’re made of things like “wheat gluten,” and “soy protein isolate.” If you want soy protein, eat a soybean.

Refined Oils. Vegetable oil, canola oil, coconut oil, and yes, even olive oil. These are not whole foods. They are foods with everything stripped away except the fat. That fat is then concentrated and refined. All the fiber that would naturally come with the whole food, and would mitigate the impact of its fat, is gone. The fat alone remains. Learn the art of the oil-free sauté. No oil, butter, spray or Teflon® needed. In baking, substitute something else for oil, peanut butter, almond butter, or best, unsweetened applesauce.

White Sugar, White Flour are not WFPB. Raw sugar, maple syrup, or date paste are our preferred sweeteners. White sugar is often bleached by filtration through cow-bone ash. Yes, even in the US. Yes, even today. Ew.

White flour is not a whole food. Important parts of the grain, the germ and the bran, have been stripped away, leaving only the endosperm, and the flour has been bleached.

In addition, this lifestyle shuns alcohol and tobacco use, and minimizes salt & caffeine.

Other Lifestyle Components

Diet is a major part of a healthy lifestyle, but it’s not the only part. There are several other recommendations to optimize your health.

At least 30 minutes of an exercise that raises your heart rate each day. This can be a brisk walk, a short jog, a workout video that gets your heart going.
In addition to our 30 minutes, it’s recommended we do some sort of resistance exercise 3 times per week. This could include things like squats, pushups, ab-work, and working with light weights. This is especially important for women as we age because it helps build bone as well as muscle.
Daily meditation of 15-20 minutes. This is simpler than it sounds. First, find a comfortable spot, with a nice steady sound. I like to meditate near running water, but when I can’t, I can use a sound effect app on my phone. Falling rain is beautiful for meditation. Second, ensure you won’t be interrupted. Turn off the ringers, put the phones in another room, lock the door, whatever. Third, set a timer. You can’t meditate when you keep wondering how much time you’ve “wasted.” So set a timer. I say 15 to 20 minutes is enough.

For his Alzheimer’s study, Dr. Dean Ornish recommended an hour a day, but I think for normal people not trying to reverse symptoms of disease, 15 -20 minutes is plenty.

To begin, just sit comfortably and close your eyes. Inhale to a count of three slow beats, and pause for a moment, lungs full. and then exhale for a count of five, and then pause for a moment, lungs empty. When thoughts intrude, and they will, just let them float by without sucking you in, and gently return to counting the breaths and hearing your chosen sound. Count and hear. Count and hear.

The notion is to quiet thought.

Another method is the mindfulness meditation, or what I call “presence” meditation. In this, you do not close your eyes or count. You instead open your eyes, and immerse all your senses fully in the moment you occupy. Smell it, see it, taste it, touch it, hear it. As thoughts come, and they will, gently return your focus to the ground on which you sit, the air moving in and out of your lungs, the bird singing nearby, the breeze, the scents, your heartbeat.

Good Sleep
A solid eight hours per night is considered optimum, but they don’t often do studies on elders. I think for senior citizens, a little less is probably needed. I have no science on which to base that, I just know I feel great, and rarely get the full eight. I’d say to shoot for at least seven hours, and you can include an afternoon nap in that count. I often grab a 20-minute catnap around 3 p.m.

Ways to sleep better

Try a weighted blanket. It’s the best sleep aid I ever tried.
Stop using phone and/or computer 1 hour before you want to sleep.
A bedtime walk can relax your mind and body
A sound effect or natural sound like crickets can help quiet your mind.
A clean, made-up bed is conducive to good sleep.
No caffeine later than one p.m.
A successive clench, hold, then release of each muscle group one by one; feet, legs, hips, abdomen, and so on. Then in larger groups. Lower body, then upper body, for example. Then the entire body.
Repeat in a whisper or in your mind, “Every day, in every way, I am better and better.” Try to repeat it twenty times. If you make it to twenty, start over.
A hot bath or shower right before bed can help immensely.
Keep your bedroom cool. (Summer: Open the windows and curtains at night, close them again in the morning. Use a fan if you have one. Winter: Keep the bedroom temp lower than you preferred daytime temp)

Good, Healthy Relationships
Loneliness is unhealthy, and the mind of a hermit will quickly become dull. We need companionship, and it can’t just be our pets. Although our relationships with pets are extremely good for us, too. But we do need to interact with other humans, and ideally, we want that to be in person, outside in the real world. This is especially important if we live alone.

Develop the habit of saying yes instead of dropping that automatic no when you are asked to attend an event, or help out with the babysitting, or help someone move, or have a lunch. Be the initiator! Invite someone to join you and get out there.

Talk to your closest loved ones on the phone, don’t let it fade to texts-only. Go to your grandkids’ or your local district’s high school plays and soccer games.

Supplements

You do NOT need protein bars or shakes. Your protein goal is about 10% of total calories. Protein has 4 calories per gram. Even a potato has 10% protein. You’re fine.

You do NOT need a fiber supplement. If you are eating a wide variety of the foods described here and eating enough to get full, you are going to be getting a lovely amount of fiber.

B12 is made in the soil. In the US most of our soil has been fertilized and insecticided to death, and no longer has B12. So everyone should be supplementing.
I take 2500 mg of Cyanocobalamin (not methylcobalamin) B12 once a week, because that’s what Dr. Michael Greger recommends and he is a trusted source.

D3 comes from sunshine and animals. D2 comes from plants. To get enough D3 we need our arms and legs exposed to sunshine for 15 minutes every day. (Put on mineral-based sunblock or cover your skin as soon as the 15 minutes are up.) On days when I don’t get that, I take a vegan D3 supplement.

The Homework

Your homework, to really rev you up and show you what to expect, is to watch at least one documentary every week. Here’s a list. You can find most on Amazon Prime and Netflix, and even on ad-supported channels like Tubi. Some can be found in full online. The first is the best, and its science is the basis for all that follow. There are certainly more than I’ve listed here.

Forks Over Knives
What the Health?
Cowspiracy
Seaspiracy
You Are What You Eat: The Twins’ Experiment
Code Blue
Eating You Alive
How Not to Die
Foods that Cure Disease

I also recommend The PlantStrong Podcast with Rip Esselstyn, son of cardiologist Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, who appears in Forks Over Knives, and who, with T. Colin Campbell Ph.D., are WFPB pioneers.

Your Quickstart Guide

Clean out the fridge and cupboards. Donate unopened items to a shelter, give it to the neighbors, or compost it. “I’ll start after I use up what I have,” is the number-one excuse that keeps people from diving in. To do this, you have to just do it. It’s like jumping into a chilly swimming hole, or ripping off a band-aid. Just do it. Right now.

Yes, right now.

Fill your entire fridge with produce. The whole thing becomes the produce drawer.

You’ll want balsamic and other kinds of vinegar, reduced-sodium tamari, maple syrup, nutritional yeast, whole grain pastas, flaxseed meal, multiple cans of beans and tomatoes (reduced sodium, reduced sodium!)
You want lots of filling, starchy vegetables. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and fresh produce like kale, spinach, lettuce, turnip greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, onions, peppers, mushrooms, celery, carrots.
Get lots of frozen veggies like corn, peas, snap peas, spinach, green beans and frozen fruits like mixed berries, peaches, strawberries, etc.
Get some dry grains like brown rice, quinoa, barley, lentils and teach yourself to cook them.
Get whole wheat flour. If you don’t do gluten, here’s a whole grain, gluten-free flour blend. It’s the only one I use in all my baking. Nobody here is GF, I just love this flour. It’s much tastier than whole wheat flour.
Get some Ezekial bread in the FREEZER SECTION. They make regular, raisin bread, and even English muffins.

Start every day with oatmeal
Not instant. The kind you have to cook. 1/3 cup rolled oats to 1 cup water, simmer for a couple of minutes. I eat mine with a whole, ripe banana, 4 or 5 big strawberries, 5 to 7 raspberries, 13 blueberries, a tablespoon of flaxseed meal, a tablespoon of maple syrup and a sprinkle of chia seeds on top. This is the breakfast of all breakfasts.

On weekends, I make Lance pancakes on Saturday, and he makes me a tofu scramble on Sunday. But all week long, it’s our oatmeal.

Resources: ForksOverKnives.com has a free recipe app with literally hundreds of ideas. Thie site has a recipes section, too.

The best WFPB cookbooks are The Engine 2 Cookbook by Rip Esselstyn, Be a Plant-Based Warrior Woman by Anne and Jane Esselstyn, and Forks Over Knives: FLAVOR!
I consider them the best because most cookbooks use oil. There are very few cookbooks that actually use only whole plant foods without oil. These are a few I actually own and use constantly. (The pages are falling out of Engine 2!)

Don’t sacrifice good in pursuit of perfection

I know people who do mostly the above, except for (fill in the blank.) Some have an ultra-processed food once in a while. Some have a little bit of meat or dairy once in a while. Some are still having lots of sugar or too much salt. Some are doing everything except the exercise. And every last one of them is seeing positive results. Blood pressure comes down, A1C comes down, cholesterol comes down, inflammation comes down, weight comes down. Energy goes up, digestion improves, sleep improves, mood improves, life improves.

The better you do, the better you want to do. It’s so empowering to be able to tweak what you eat and watch your “chronic” and “age-related” conditions disappear! And so gradually, by degrees, you do a little better, and a little better. That’s how it’s worked for me. I’ve just added in weight training to my routine. Every year I seem to evolve to one level better. (Kind of the opposite of declining with age, isn’t it?)

So just start, already! You’re gonna feel GREAT!