
Health advantages
The whole-food plant-based diet is a vegan form of nutrition based on the principles of whole-food nutrition. The focus is placed on unprocessed, plant-based foods as far as possible, which have been produced organically, regionally and seasonally or, in the case of foods from developing countries, come from fair trade. The whole plant-based diet is intended to promote a high quality of life (health and wholesomeness), animal suffering-free food industry, protection of the environment, fair economic relations and social justice worldwide. I would like to explain the benefits of this form of nutrition in more detail here.
Plant-based foods have a favorable ratio of essential nutrients to food energy. That is, they tend to have fewer calories but more nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber, carbohydrates or proteins. There are nutrients that are only found in plants, namely phytochemicals, complex carbohydrates and fiber. They are all important for our health. On the other hand, plant foods do not contain saturated fat, purines or cholesterol. The health status of vegans is usually good, and for some diseases they even do better than mixed-food people. These are overweight, obesity, risk of heart disease, diabetes 2 and hypertension. In addition, vegans generally have lower BMI and serum cholesterol levels. There are potentially critical nutrients in the vegan diet that should be given special attention. They should be checked regularly and supplemented if necessary. But a mixed-food diet also has potentially critical nutrients that should be considered.
But vegan convenience foods are not healthy either. They contain a lot of fat and salt and hardly any fiber, vitamins and phytochemicals. That’s why a whole-food plant-based diet is also about using the least processed foods possible. Dr. Michael Greger has developed a traffic light system which I will discuss later. In general, the more unprocessed the healthier the food, because the quality decreases with the degree of processing. In addition, a raw food portion of at least 1/3 to a maximum of 2/3 is aimed for. The advantages of raw food are obvious. The essential health-promoting substances are in almost pristine form, intensive chewing promotes saliva formation and leads to higher saturation, fewer calories are absorbed but more water. Exemplary raw food meals are: Muesli, salads or raw food pasta. However, for certain food groups, processing is desirable because it reduces toxic substances and makes certain nutrients more available to the body. In addition, altered texture and flavor can enhance enjoyment. Low-processed foods are also free of food additives, the high intake and combination of which pose potential health risks.
Organic foods contain fewer pesticide residues and other undesirable substances. In return, they have more antioxidants and phytochemicals. They pollute the environment less, which is also good for your own health. Regionally and seasonally produced food leads in the best case to a reduction of pesticide use, greenhouse pollutants and soil pollution. Fairtrade products can also lead to reduced pesticide use, as they are usually organically grown at the same time.
