What is WFPB Nutrition?
Updated: Sep 6, 2018
This is a frequent question I get asked when telling people that I lost 145 pounds with nutrient dense Vegetable Juices and a Plant-based Whole Food eating lifestyle. That question usually comes along with, "what about the protein?" and, "how do I transition from traditional animal protein foods to create healthy plant-based recipes? "How can I possibly just eat vegetables, plants & fruits?"
When you consume a variety of plants - the whole plant including Fruits & Vegetables, Beans, Legumes, Nuts and Seeds are the builders and re-generators of the body and contain ALL the amino acids, phyto-nutrients, proteins, mineral, salts, enzymes, fiber and vitamins needed by the body, provided they are used in large quantities, raw (or cooked), and preferably without preservatives, and as with juicing, that they have been properly extracted from the vegetables. Moreover, you will receive healthier, bio-available nutrients and protein since plant protein is less likely to promote cancer growth and increase blood cholesterol levels associated with heart disease. In most cases, plant-based foods are nutrient dense foods, whereby animal-based proteins are almost devoid of any usable nutrition.
As the ground breaking nutritional science book The China Study, states on page 348:
"Never before has there been such a mountain of empirical research supporting a whole food, plant-based diet. Now, for example, we can obtain images of the arteries in the heart, and then show conclusively, as Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. have done, that a whole food, plant-based diet reverses heart disease. Animal protein, even more than saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises blood cholesterol levels in experimental animals, individual humans, and entire populations. International comparisons between countries show that populations subsisting on traditional plant-based diets have far less heart disease, and studies of individuals within single populations show that those who eat more plant-based foods not only have lower cholesterol levels but also less heart disease. We now have a deep and broad range of evidence showing that a whole food, plant-based diet is best to combat cancer and alleviate diabetes and autoimmune diseases. We also have tantalizing evidence linking multiple sclerosis with animal food consumption and especially dairy consumption.
Published data show that animal protein promotes the growth of tumors. Animal protein increases the levels of a hormone, IGF-1, which is a risk factor for cancer, and high-casein (the main protein of cow’s milk) diets allow more carcinogens into cells, which allow more dangerous carcinogen products to bind to DNA, which allow more mutagenic reactions that give rise to cancer cells, which allow more rapid growth of tumors once they are initially formed. Data show that a diet based on animal-based foods increases females’ production of reproductive hormones over their lifetime, which may lead to breast cancer.
Intervention studies show that when people who have type 2 diabetes are treated with a whole food, plant-based diet, they may reverse their disease and go off their medications. A broad range of international studies shows that type 1 diabetes, a serious autoimmune disease, is related to cow’s milk consumption and premature weaning. Kidney stones arise because the consumption of animal protein creates excessive calcium and oxalate in the kidney. We know now that cataracts and age-related macular degeneration can be prevented by foods containing large amounts of antioxidants. In addition, research has shown that cognitive dysfunction, vascular dementia caused by small strokes, and Alzheimer’s are all related to the food we eat. Investigations of human populations show that our risk of hip fracture and osteoporosis is made worse by diets high in animal-based foods. Animal protein leaches calcium from the bones by creating an acidic environment in the blood.
We now have a deep and broad range of evidence showing that a whole food, plant-based diet is best for our kidneys, bones, eyes, and brains. More research can and should be done, but the idea that whole food, plant-based diets can protect against and even treat a wide variety of chronic diseases can no longer be denied. No longer are there just a few people making claims about a plant-based diet based on their personal experience, philosophy, or the occasional supporting scientific study. Now there are hundreds of detailed, comprehensive, well-done research studies that point in the same direction. "
Written by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, the father of plantbased wholefood nutrition, WHOLE clarifies the reality of outdated reductionist theory.
"If you want to live free of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes for your entire life, that power is in your hands (and your knife and fork). But, sadly, medical schools, hospitals, and government health agencies continue to treat nutrition as if it plays only a minor role in health.
And no wonder: the standard Western diet, along with its trendy “low fat” and “low carb” cousins, is actually the cause, not the cure, of most of what ails us. In a nutshell, the “miracle cure” science has been chasing for the past half century turns out not to be a new wonder drug painstakingly formulated after decades of brilliant and relentless lab work or a cutting-edge surgical tool or technique using lasers and nanotechnology or some transformation of our DNA that will turn us all into immortal Apollos and Venuses.
Instead, the secret of health has been in front of us all along, in the guise of a simple and perhaps boring word: nutrition. When it comes to our health, it turns out the trump card is the food we put in our mouths each day. "
In the process of learning all this, I also learned something else very important: why most people didn’t know this already. The medical and scientific research establishments, far from embracing these findings, have systematically dismissed and even suppressed them. Few medical professionals are aware that our food choices can be far more effective shields against disease than the pills they prescribe. Few health journalists report the unambiguous good news about radiant health and disease prevention through diet. Few scientists are trained to look at the “big picture,” and instead specialize in scrutinizing single drops of data instead of comprehending meaningful rivers of wisdom. And paying the piper and calling the tune for all of them are the pharmaceutical and food industries, which are trying to convince us that salvation can be found in a pill or an enriched snack food made from plant fragments and artificial ingredients." *2
Were you aware that there are 3 stages of pre-cancerous conditions: initiation, promotion, and progression.
Do you know that cancer and other debilitating disease or chronic auto-immune conditions could be growing and progressing from the carcinogenic foods that you consume?
Were you aware that at any of those stages, that any-type of growing cancer, can be reversed?
Did you know that cancer, diabetes, obesity and degenerative disease could be stopped in its tracks with nutrition?
Did you realize that what you consume in your day-to-day life could be feeding any cancer or other debilitating degenerative disease, whether it is active or lying dormant?
If you should in fact receive a positive diagnosis (for any form of degenerative disease, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, or chronic auto-immune illnesses), there is really no need to be fearful. You need not resort hastily to pharmaceuticals, medications, invasive treatments or surgery. I would implore you to not only read thoroughly, but consider now the following excerpt from T. Colin Campbell, PhD in his latest book, Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition *2
"The good news is that we don’t need medical breakthroughs or genetic manipulation to achieve, maintain, and restore vibrant health. A half century of research—both mine and that of many others—has convinced me of the following: What you eat every day is a far more powerful determinant of your health than your DNA or most of the nasty chemicals lurking in your environment. The foods you consume can heal you faster and more profoundly than the most expensive prescription drugs, and more dramatically than the most extreme surgical interventions, with only positive side effects. Those food choices can prevent cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, macular degeneration, migraines, erectile dysfunction, and arthritis—and that’s only the short list. It’s never too late to start eating well. In short: change the way you eat and you can transform your health for the better".
"For some reason, “health food” has a reputation for being tasteless and joyless. You might be thinking at this point that the miracle diet for human health must be the most grim fare imaginable. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Evolution thankfully has programmed us to seek out and enjoy foods that promote our health. All we have to do is get back to our dietary roots—nothing radical or miserable required."
"The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible (“whole” foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 10 percent from fat, and 10 percent from protein. That’s it, in 66 words".
2*Campbell, T. Colin (2013-05-07). Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition (pp. 6-7). BenBella Books, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
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