WFPB - Whole food plant based diet

[VocalVirgo]

I am very much looking to start this diet, which is really a "lifestyle". I have Hashimoto's disease, and it is kicking my a*ss. So many people on the Hashimoto's and thyroid health forms urge others to find a diet that works for them. This is one of the more successful ones. I will start with this. It will be so much easier once I get my new RV and get on the road, because I will be the one responsible for everything I put in my mouth. I've been living #SticksBricks, Sheltering In Place with my boyfriend since Covid started. I am more than ready to get the heck back out into the woods and alongside lakes and rivers (bless my boyfriend, no shade, I'm just a nomad lover).
I think I may need to find a new Nomad-friendly blender because I don't think my Gen 1 BlendJet is going to cut it, lol. Does anyone suggest a bigger/better, battery/rechargeable option they use and like?

And to the OP: Thanks so much for sharing all the links and videos. Huge #AirHug to you.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

Last night I threw some veggies, liquid and seasoning into the Instant Pot. Less than an hour later, I had magnificent soup and one pot to wash. It really doesn’t get any easier. White potatoes and sweet potatoes—OMG, they're good.

Bear in mind also that the IP is quite frugal with energy use. The 3-qt that I use in the van is 750W. It runs pretty steady til it gets up to pressure, but from then on, no matter how long it needs to cook, it just blips on occasionally to maintain. If we are driving, we run it then. Also, if you vent outside, you release very little odor/moisture into the van.

Thanks for that info. That power usage will be easily handled by our van. I have an exterior outlet that is on the inverter circuit that will be handy. I've ordered an Instant Pot from Costco Canada. Free shipping in Canada - https://www.costco.ca/CatalogSearch?...rd=instant+pot probably mid-range units at Costco but likely good enough for us.

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VocalVirgo - this document gives a good overview: Link - https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ic-disease.pdf - It's intended for medical professionals but things are explained clearly so I found it easy to follow. You can download the full text in PDF format.

I printed this guide from UC Davis Integrative Medicine -> https://ucdintegrativemedicine.com/o...ed-diet-guide/ - and put it on my fridge to help remind us of variety needed and number & size of servings etc.

[MsNomer]

That 3qt Duo Nova would be perfect for the van.

[markopolo]

I'm looking forward to getting it. We actual got the 3qt & the 6qt as the two together ended up being only $20 more than the 6qt on Amazon we were considering because of the $30 off promo at Costco. Bonus mitts also.

Back in post #6 I mentioned that we used a bit of water instead of oil to sauté onions, celery, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, bean sprouts, red peppers & scallions.

That was part of a no dairy Alfredo like pasta dish consisting of quinoa pasta, lightly browned tofu cubes, the sautéed vegetables noted above also tossed together in a delicious dairy free Alfredo type sauce. ( sauce recipe: https://thevegan8.com/20-minute-vegan-alfredo/ )

It was so good - I took a photo:
alfredo.JPG

I've been thinking about how to do that dish using an Instant Pot while away in the van. If the sauce could be blended at home and frozen until needed then I think it could be done by completing various steps and the setting items aside then combining everything at the end in the reheated sauce to make it all hot. I wouldn't actually need the Instant pot for that meal but I might end up leaving the Coleman stove & BBQ grill at home if not needed. The Instant Pot + my portable lithium packs might end up being a very useful combo.

It'll be interesting to see if I can use the sauté function on low and parchment paper as a way to lightly brown the cubed tofu so as not to use any oil.

--------------------------------

Re: no added oil - here's my old pan after sautéing onions, orange peppers, garlic, celery, asparagus, zucchini today. After serving, water was added to pan. After eating I simply rinsed the pan under the faucet and it was this clean without even wiping it!
rinsed under tap not even wiped.JPG

You can even caramelize onions without adding oil. Check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbXiJwso0bY

Added oil = added empty calories & added saturated fat & pretty much zero nutrients. Read the oil labels to see for yourself. It's explained well here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCjSVPDZDkM

The good sized yam compared to 1 tablespoon of oil is an excellent example at around 3:18 in the video.

[MsNomer]

You lost me at oils. I don’t use a lot, but I enjoy the heck out of what I use. Looks like that with water, you are essentially steaming in the skillet.

[markopolo]

Sorry, the oil aside wasn't directed at anyone. It was just a general comment.

You're right, it's somewhat like steaming. Vegetables have high water content so you get steam if you apply heat. You'll get that steaming effect even if you use oil. Vegetables also have some fat though (0.4g per 100g in broccoli for example) and perhaps that's what makes the flavor difference when more direct heat is applied in a frying pan. Steamed broccoli and sautéed broccoli are different (to me).

General comment: If interested in oil free sautéing give it try & if not just ignore it. Trying it is the only way to know if you'll end up liking or disliking it though.

[markopolo]

Just a note about Instant Pots and WFPB way of eating.

Instant Pots are very useful. Again, thanks to those that suggested using them. Currently, the 3qt we have is used for cooking grains and wild rice blends with some consumed that day and some leftover for another day.

The 6qt we have is used most days right now. We have two stainless steel steamer baskets for it; one deep and one shallow. The deeper basket fits in the primary pot and the shallow basket nests into the deeper basket. We just about fill the 6qt for a meal with something like 12 or more different vegetables if counting garlic cloves and onions etc. and sometimes a grain to reheat. We layer the different vegetables and season if desired as the layers get built up. 2 minutes on high pressure and a quick pressure release works well. It's around 20 minutes from pressing the pressure cook button to serving on a plate.

003.JPG

We use fresh vegetables but this should work with frozen vegetables also. One frozen vegetable we currently use is edamame beans.

Using the Instant Pot has dramatically cut down on the number of pots, pans & casserole type dishes we typically used and the unattended cooking is a real bonus.

This is tool: https://tools.myfooddata.com/recipe-...ion-calculator is great for learning the nutrient composition of any food, meal or entire days consumption. Just enter the food(s) and quantity.

[MsNomer]

I’m not sure which is more valuable—the one pot part or the forgetting part. I’m cooking things I could never manage before because I would forget to tend them.

[VocalVirgo]

Quote:

VocalVirgo - Note that all of the WFPB focused sites advise that if you're under doctors care / on any prescriptions etc. then discuss any planned dietary changes with your doctor. One reason is that medication dosages may need to be adjusted as overall health improves. I'm not involved in the health care profession at all so obviously no advice from me.

Elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and cholesterol is what got us started eating better. My wife's annual checkup results were such that her Doctor wanted an additional test scheduled for when we returned from a winter down south in the RV. Those mid year results confirmed the trend and she decided to change what she was eating. I don't think she has eaten any processed food since then. I was a bit slower coming around to it. The 3rd test for her 5 months later showed positive changes with TSH dropping 4 mIU/L and much better cholesterol numbers. The numbers were back within normal ranges and she's back to annual checks. Numbers still within normal ranges last test.

For us, it's very clear that what we eat directly affects our health. Eating better resulted in a positive turn-around. I'm still so surprised I didn't more fully understand it before. Our recent decision to switch to a WFPB way of eating is the next step. We hope to now prevent future health problems instead of trying or hoping to fix them after they've already occurred.

We're not 100% WFPB yet. 19 meals of 21 per week are WFPB so we're very close. There's some fish & seafood in the freezer that we're trying to use up ........... funny but true![/QUOTE]

If I may ask, (I begging fir the cliff notes version, lol), what foods does your wife eat that brought her TSH numbers down? And what did she cut out?
I started on a 1/2 dose (12.5mcg) of the medication and it moved me from right above the bad line, to below it. Now, I’m on the lowest dose of the medication [25mcg) and it has brought me down to the very low end of the scale... almost to HYPERthyroidism. So, I’m sure that if I change my diet, my TSH can be managed without the medication. I’ve done so much research and I still don’t know what to eat. I have cut out soda, all dairy, eggs and a few other random things. Do I need to go gluten-free and be completely meat-free? I’m fine with that.
In my readings, the diets seem to be WFPB but with no oats or grains, rice, watermelon, potato, tomato, and a few others. There’s a name for this diet: Paleo (Paleolithic diet). It also looks extremely similar to a diabetic diet.

I’d love to find out what a few of your food days are like so I can get an idea of what you guys are doing. Maybe you covered all this in the videos you posted?

Thank you so much for your help. My Dr. is not informed, no offense to her, and I’m on a 4 month waiting list to talk to an endocrinologist.

Thank you again.

[MsNomer]

I’m curious about the references to thyroid functioning. My thyroid went south probably 30-40 years ago and I’ve taken Levothyroxin every day since. My mother's did the same. I’ve never considered it an issue. No doctor has ever raised a brow or suggested I might address it differently. I’m guessing there are different reasons for thyroid dysfunction?

[markopolo]

VocalVirgo - You already understand that there can be links between diet and disease so fitting the pieces of the puzzle together should follow more easily for you.

Prior to changing her diet, our diet, in hindsight, wasn't great. It included some vegetables and fruits and meat etc. daily but also included processed foods and fast food. We were moderately active with long walks everyday and some cycling. The three winters in the RV in FL didn't help with nutrition I'm sure as we chose quick, convenient & simple meals.

She did a lot of reading on the subject while away that last winter and decided to follow the advice she found on https://liveenergized.com/ because she also wanted to deal with acid reflux. She was ready to start with lots of saved recipes when we returned home.

She completely excluded all processed foods, refined sugars, refined flours, breads, dairy products and fast food. Vegetable intake was upped to 5-7 per day, daily inclusion of flax & hemp seeds and some nuts. Some fruits daily as well. Leafy greens salad everyday also. Just 2 Brazil nuts could provide 100% of the daily requirement for selenium for example. She basically followed the advice from that site as to permitted foods. An exception was that we still had a serving of meat or fish per day. She was not on any medication so the abnormality was caught early. We hadn't even heard of WFPB then. Neither of us had ever subscribed to a particular "diet" before then. Never bought a book or read about diets etc. She describes the diet change as more additions to what she ate rather than exclusions. Now we understand that the additions and increased variety resulted in better nutrition.

Since then we've changed to WFPB and we're coming up on 3 weeks 100% WFPB no added oils & no added sugars. Each day could include 12 vegetables, 4 fruits & berries, 3 or 4 types of nuts, 5 or so types of seeds, 3 servings of whole grains and at least one serving of legumes or beans. We went 100% WFPB right after the post you quoted.

This link is very useful: https://tools.myfooddata.com/recipe-...ion-calculator

Eat to achieve a balanced nutritious diet. The calculator lets you check to see if you're getting the required nutrient balance. It will tell you the vitamin, mineral, Omega 3, protein content etc. It even assigns a PRAL score for those interested in reducing acid. Very helpful tool.

For those that are interested in the specifics of WFPB nutrition and why a large variety of whole foods are needed then check out Dr. Joel Fuhrman's videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?sear....+Joel+Furhman .

Some specifics:

Oats just about every morning for us. Mostly it's steel-cut or rolled oats "pancakes" baked in the oven: steel-cut or rolled oats, banana, chia, hemp, flax, cinnamon, nutmeg etc. & water all mixed together (mixer) then formed into small pancakes & baked. Topped with almond butter or 100% natural peanut butter, berries etc. Left over oat pancakes make for great snacks. Sometimes "overnight oats" prepped then left in fridge overnight. Sometimes overnight crock pot oat groats. Additions of hemp hearts, chia seeds, flax seeds, almond milk and topped with fruit or berries.

MsNomer - I think links between diet & disease are better understood now. All or most of the videos in the first post mention that doctors get little training in nutrition maybe measured in just hours over years of other training. The actual Doctors in the videos say that. Doctors are awesome at what they do but we can't expect them to know more than what their training taught them. Nutrition is coming to the fore now because disease prevention has become critical for a sustainable health system. Ever increasing rates of diseases like CVD, diabetes, autoimmune diseases etc. is not sustainable. I'm hoping to watch https://www.codebluedoc.com/ sometime. I think it explains the crisis. Insurance companies are even getting onboard with this. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...ealth-75443857 they're learning that it costs less to prevent disease with nutrition than to treat it after the fact.

[VocalVirgo]

Originally Posted by markopolo

VocalVirgo - You already understand that there can be links between diet and disease so fitting the pieces of the puzzle together should follow more easily for you.

Prior to changing her diet, our diet, in hindsight, wasn't great. It included some vegetables and fruits and meat etc. daily but also included processed foods and fast food. We were moderately active with long walks everyday and some cycling. The three winters in the RV in FL didn't help with nutrition I'm sure as we chose quick, convenient & simple meals.

She did a lot of reading on the subject while away that last winter and decided to follow the advice she found on https://liveenergized.com/ because she also wanted to deal with acid reflux. She was ready to start with lots of saved recipes when we returned home.

She completely excluded all processed foods, refined sugars, refined flours, breads, dairy products and fast food. Vegetable intake was upped to 5-7 per day, daily inclusion of flax & hemp seeds and some nuts. Some fruits daily as well. Leafy greens salad everyday also. Just 2 Brazil nuts could provide 100% of the daily requirement for selenium for example. She basically followed the advice from that site as to permitted foods. An exception was that we still had a serving of meat or fish per day. She was not on any medication so the abnormality was caught early. We hadn't even heard of WFPB then. Neither of us had ever subscribed to a particular "diet" before then. Never bought a book or read about diets etc. She describes the diet change as more additions to what she ate rather than exclusions. Now we understand that the additions and increased variety resulted in better nutrition.

Since then we've changed to WFPB and we're coming up on 3 weeks 100% WFPB no added oils & no added sugars. Each day could include 12 vegetables, 4 fruits & berries, 3 or 4 types of nuts, 5 or so types of seeds, 3 servings of whole grains and at least one serving of legumes or beans. We went 100% WFPB right after the post you quoted.

This link is very useful: https://tools.myfooddata.com/recipe-...ion-calculator

Eat to achieve a balanced nutritious diet. The calculator lets you check to see if you're getting the required nutrient balance. It will tell you the vitamin, mineral, Omega 3, protein content etc. It even assigns a PRAL score for those interested in reducing acid. Very helpful tool.

For those that are interested in the specifics of WFPB nutrition and why a large variety of whole foods are needed then check out Dr. Joel Fuhrman's videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?sear....+Joel+Furhman .

Some specifics:

Oats just about every morning for us. Mostly it's steel-cut or rolled oats "pancakes" baked in the oven: steel-cut or rolled oats, banana, chia, hemp, flax, cinnamon, nutmeg etc. & water all mixed together (mixer) then formed into small pancakes & baked. Topped with almond butter or 100% natural peanut butter, berries etc. Left over oat pancakes make for great snacks. Sometimes "overnight oats" prepped then left in fridge overnight. Sometimes overnight crock pot oat groats. Additions of hemp hearts, chia seeds, flax seeds, almond milk and topped with fruit or berries.

MsNomer - I think links between diet & disease are better understood now. All or most of the videos in the first post mention that doctors get little training in nutrition maybe measured in just hours over years of other training. The actual Doctors in the videos say that. Doctors are awesome at what they do but we can't expect them to know more than what their training taught them. Nutrition is coming to the fore now because disease prevention has become critical for a sustainable health system. Ever increasing rates of diseases like CVD, diabetes, autoimmune diseases etc. is not sustainable. I'm hoping to watch https://www.codebluedoc.com/ sometime. I think it explains the crisis. Insurance companies are even getting onboard with this. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...ealth-75443857 they're learning that it costs less to prevent disease with nutrition than to treat it after the fact.

Wow. Thank You Thank You Thank You for such a great, detailed response. You just gave me so much great information... and it lines up with so much of what I’ve been reading and watching. And thank you for sharing these new links. They are now saved and in my watchlist!

Thanks again!!

[markopolo]

Just adding some info to this topic. For those interested in a Nutritarian lifestyle, here are two very informative videos from Dr. Joel Fuhrman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOY80GUmIKU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNNMPpf9Lw0

You'll learn some specifics like why some raw onion is good for you and why cooked mushrooms are so beneficial etc.

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I've previously mentioned how useful Instant Pots are for us for this way of eating. Thanks again to those who recommended the them. Here are a few examples of my 3qt Instant Pot power usage when run off a battery through an inverter. My LFP battery BMS reports 730 watts when the 3qt Instant Pot is coming up to pressure. Typically that's around 57 amps from my small 58Ah battery.

#1. 2 cups water, 12 minutes pressure cook time, 13.95Ah total; 12.74Ah coming up to high pressure & 1.21Ah for the 12 min cook time

#2. 3.5 cups fridge cold veg broth, 6 minutes pressure cook time, 18.38Ah total; 18.16Ah coming up to high pressure & 0.22Ah for the 6 min cook time

#3. 2.5 cups water, 45 minutes pressure cook time, 17.53Ah total; 12.46Ah coming up to high pressure & 5.07Ah for the 45 min cook time

It's clear that volume and initial temperature of the liquid used and cook time all affect power usage but not enough to be too overly focused on. Our water comes from a well and is around 55F. Water in a van would likely be warmer than that.

I cook beans for 45 minutes plus 15 minute natural pressure release in the Instant Pot based on Dr. Michael Greger's advice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pumVPfVuQ6s

Transcript available here: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how...tin-poisoning/

For me, a 2:1 water/bean ratio works great. (2 cups water, 1 cup beans for example)

My top two go to sources for reliable information for this stuff are Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. Michael Greger. They both have a no BS style and the data driven information they provide is supported by links to qualified and critically analyzed studies.

[markopolo]

Figured I should post an update to this topic. I had my annual blood work done during this past summer and can report that this whole foods, plant-based diet did indeed lead to lower cholesterol numbers for me.
My Summer 2021 results:
Total Cholesterol 123
LDL Cholesterol 68
Blood Pressure 108/64

Great book here:
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. M.D. link -> About the Book | Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Program
Read it to find out why keeping your total cholesterol below 150 is probably the way to go if you want to try to avoid heart disease. Get your doctor involved if considering making major dietary changes.

If anyone here watched the Eating You Alive documentary ( https://tubitv.com/movies/475193/eating-you-alive ) mentioned in the first post in this topic you'll probably remember Sheanne & Dan Moskaluk. Here's a great followup interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4EfaMPjMyQ

The interviewers, Dr. Riz & Maya, post lots of interesting content. I just read the following in their newsletter:

Dr. Riz and I are proud owners of a camper van. For years we have played with the idea of owning a van. Last year just before the pandemic hit, we had viewed a van that we were so close to purchasing. Well, it sold in three days. We spent the rest of 2020 regretting that we were not able to get away so easily.

and

Our van has motivated me to spend more time in the kitchen! This means I am not only testing out delicious recipes that are easy to make on the road, but I am also testing out the use of an induction stovetop and the instant pot for times when we are plugged in. I hope to share those recipes in the next few weeks and in future newsletters.

From the photo in the newsletter, it looks like their new van is Ram ProMaster based.

Here are the links: Dr. Riz & Maya's ( https://plantbaseddfw.com ) Youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpe...ctearYhcgMmlfQ )

[AlexJ]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Figured I should post an update to this topic. I had my annual blood work done during this past summer and can report that this whole foods, plant-based diet did indeed lead to lower cholesterol numbers for me.
My Summer 2021 results:
Total Cholesterol 123
LDL Cholesterol 68
Blood Pressure 108/64

Great book here:
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. M.D. link -> About the Book | Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Program
Read it to find out why keeping your total cholesterol below 150 is probably the way to go if you want to try to avoid heart disease. Get your doctor involved if considering making major dietary changes.

If anyone here watched the Eating You Alive documentary ( https://tubitv.com/movies/475193/eating-you-alive ) mentioned in the first post in this topic you'll probably remember Sheanne & Dan Moskaluk. Here's a great followup interview:

The interviewers, Dr. Riz & Maya, post lots of interesting content. I just read the following in their newsletter:

and
From the photo in the newsletter, it looks like their new van is Ram ProMaster based.

Here are the links: Dr. Riz & Maya's ( https://plantbaseddfw.com ) Youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpe...ctearYhcgMmlfQ )

Check out Dr. Esselstyn’s son Rip and his slew of Engine 2 books/cookbooks along with his Plantstrong podcast.on Apple Podcasts. Plantstrong.com. It changed our family’s life.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by AlexJ

Check out Dr. Esselstyn’s son Rip and his slew of Engine 2 books/cookbooks along with his Plantstrong podcast.on Apple Podcasts. Plantstrong.com. It changed our family’s life.

Just adding Plantstrong links:

Website: https://plantstrong.com/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Engine2PlantStrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9LMezWH5DA

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Here's an interview with full time RVers Clyde and Kay Miller:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5fwv1xxnAo

[ArtDeco]

Irregardless of what you cook in it, a small oven like this pizza oven at Amazon is a great think to carry in the van. Not just pizza ... cookies, biscuits, tarts, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Courant-Pizza...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[JessA]

I heard about this diet when researching Ayurveda (Ancient Indian medication) for my dad's condition. I read about it on iahas.com where they have plenty of recipes that are WFPB and use several therapeutically herbs and spices. It has really helped my dad to recover from his kidney condition.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by ArtDeco

Irregardless of what you cook in it, a small oven like this pizza oven at Amazon is a great think to carry in the van. Not just pizza ... cookies, biscuits, tarts, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Courant-Pizza-Maker-Cooker-Calzone/dp/B07J488P82

That does look useful & easy to store in a Class B because it is so flat.

Originally Posted by JessA

I heard about this diet when researching Ayurveda (Ancient Indian medication) for my dad's condition. I read about it on iahas.com where they have plenty of recipes that are WFPB and use several therapeutically herbs and spices. It has really helped my dad to recover from his kidney condition.

Thanks for the Ayurveda link. I had heard of ayurvedic medicine but didn't know anything about it. The recipes appear to be vegetarian and lacto-vegetarian so very different in some ways than a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet (no added oils, no dairy in WFPB for example). It's great that it helped your dad.

There's a good description of WFPB here: https://nutritionstudies.org/what-is...nt-based-diet/

A really great book to read is The China Study by T. Colin Campbell PhD & Thomas M. Campbell II M.D. - https://nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study/ I was able to get it through my local library as an eBook. It's on Amazon etc. also.

A fantastic documentary is Forks over Knives - free at https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/ and also free on Tubi https://tubitv.com/movies/557399/forks-over-knives