Up until the early 2000s, we’d been innocently and happily eating a whole-foods, sugar & red-meat–free, “healthy diet” for the preceding three decades; it included low-fat dairy, white meat chicken, fish, and lots of vegetables. But then, my husband “pushed through” on a New York Marathon feeder race, collapsed and was unceremoniously hauled off to a local hospital. That was when we learned that he had plaque on his arteries! I took this as a personal affront to my hard-won nutritional knowledge and culinary expertise.
After listening to my angst-ridden breast-beating, a friend handed me Mike Anderson’s “Eating” DVD (3rd Revision) – it was a revelation. The interviewees weren’t McDonald addicts or slab-of-beef on the plate types; these were people who’d been eating just like us. And their health profiles were just like ours. They then embraced a whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle – aka veganism – and their health improved: plaque disappeared from arteries, insulin requirements nose-dived, weight slid off…… We were smitten and embraced this new life-style with vigor and enthusiasm.
We knew that we were healthier on a vegan diet, that animals suffer less because of it and that the planet is better off (we could trade our Prius for a Humvee and our carbon footprint would still be impressive). But we began to lose the religiosity. We preferred the term Whole Food Plant Based over Vegan because it didn’t feel so loaded. We still used it in restaurants because plant-based does not compute with servers. But to the rest of the world, we called it a whole-foods, plant-based diet.
When we entertained, it was almost always a WFPB meal as well; that said, we worked hard at delivering luxuriously delicious meals that usually ended with a dark chocolate-based dessert – and, hopefully, made the lack of animal products unnoticeable and irrelevant.
We also tried not to wear the WFPB on our sleeve – when we dined out with friends, we’d always check the menu and ask any questions in advance. And when we were dinner guests, we’d call in advance, offer to bring a dish that worked with the menu and also assured our hosts that we were very happy eating all the sides. It usually went very well.
We still encourage any variation that encourages people to dip a toe into some piece of this lifestyle. It seems to us that the fewer animal products one eats and the more organic produce one consumes, the better off everyone is. For most of us, this is not a religion; it is a choice that is a win-win-win for you, for the animals, for the planet. Just make it work for you; no one is taking notes