Quick Take
Making the switch from vegan to whole food plant based? The best plant-based diet for your health is a WFPB one.Eating whole plant-based foodscan help you prevent and reverse disease, lose weight, sleep better, feel better, the list goes on and on. But if you're new to this WFPB lifestyle, you may be wondering how to make sure you're compliant. The good news is, it doesn't have to be hard with thesehacks for making any plant-based recipe 100 percent WFPB.Enjoy!
BeforeWe Begin: Make Eating WFPB Super Easy (and Delicious)
Want to go whole food plant based but need a helping hand? MamaSezz makes WFPB fresh, ready-made meals and delivers them right to your home! It's really that easy.Get Started Today.
On this page:
Why Transition to WFPB
What toUse Instead of Processed Vegan Cheese
What toUse Instead of Processed Vegan Meat
What toUse Instead of Refined Sugar
What toUse Instead of Refined Grains
What to Use Instead of Oil
KeyTakeaways
Why Transition to WFPB?
Plant-based diets can improve your health, but as veganism and plant-based diets have become trendy, so has vegan junk food. And look, no judgment if you enjoy your Oreos or vegan faux meats (I mean, they tasty pretty darn good, after all), but ifgetting healthier is your goal, swapping the vegan junk food for WFPB options is a good idea.
Here's why...
Vegan processed foods are often high in refined sugar, which typically comes from sugar cane or sugar beets. Wait a minute...that sounds pretty darn "plant-based" doesn’t it? Well, not so fast. "Plant-based" doesn't always equal healthy.
To make these refined sugars, everything goes through an extraction and purification process, and the fiber and nutrients of the sugar cane or sugar beet are lost. Fiber stabilizes blood glucose levels by slowing the rate of absorption of that sugar into your bloodstream.
This lack of fiber is why your energy spikes and dips when you drink a soda but not so much when you eat a whole food source of sugar, like a banana (which has 14 grams of natural sugar, by the way!). The fiber in the banana regulates the way your body processes that sugar and lets you use the energy in a more sustainable way. Not to mention bananas, and other whole foods, are packed with nutrients to help fuel your body and reduce your risk for many of the serious chronic diseases that refined sugar can bring on, like...
Refined sugar isinflammatoryand associated with the risk of developing health issues, like obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers like breast, prostate, uterine, colorectal and pancreatic. Plus, refined sugars arephysically addictiveas heck!
Can’t shake sugar? Learn how toovercome your refined sugar addiction here.
And refined grains work the same way!Not all grains are created equal.
Snacking on chips, doughnuts, and pizza? Then yes, chances are you’ll gain weight and see no health improvements as a vegan — in fact, you’ll most likely see your health decline. Not only are these foods smothered with oil, butter, sugar, and cheese (all very high calorie, high fat, low nutrient foods), they’re all made with refined carbs.
Refined carbs — the ones used for processed and packaged foods like white pasta, crackers, white rice, cakes, cookies. — have been stripped of their fiber and nutrients. They enter the blood stream quickly and cause blood sugar spikes and drops.
This is why it's healthier to stick to whole foods.Butlook, please don't beat yourself up if you've been snacking on more processed stuff. Do your best to eat as many fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds as possible, and don't sweat the small stuff.
Need help making the switch to WFPB? This is where we come in...
What to Use Instead of Processed Vegan Cheese
- Cashew Cream (Blend soaked, raw cashews with enough water to cover until smooth)
- Nutritional Yeast
- MamaSezz Mac Sauce
- MamaSezz Vegan Sour Cream
Not sure why vegan cheese isn't WFPB? Here's what's in most store-bought varieties of vegan cheese.
What toUseInstead of Processed Fake Meats
- Walnuts
- Mushrooms
- Zucchini
- Baked Potato
- Tempeh
- Tofu
- MamaSezz Walnut Taco Meat
- MamaSezz Veggie Burgers
- MamaSezz Breakfast Sausage
- MamaSezz Tuna "ish" Salad
- MamaSezz Aunt Mary's Chick'n Salad
- MamaSezz Jerk Spiced Protein Strips
- MamaSezz Garlic Ginger Protein Strips
- MamaSezz Lemon Pepper Protein Strips
- MamaSezz Italian Herb Protein Strips
Seeing more and more plant-based options in the meat section at your grocery store and wondering if they're actually good for you or not? Here's what you need to know about most store-bought faux meats.
What toUseInstead ofRefinedGrains
- Brown rice pasta
- Brown rice pasta
- Lentil pasta
- Quinoa
- Ezekiel bread
- Whole grain bread
- Whole grain crackers
- MamaSezz Lazy Lasagna
- MamaSezz Mama's Mac
- MamaSezz Bag of Brown Rice
- MamaSezz Buddha Bowl Base
Need guidance? Here's how to choose healthy WFPB pasta at the grocery store.
What to Use Instead ofRefinedSugar
- Date syrup
- Date sugar
- Mashed fruit like bananas or apple sauce
Need help getting started with your WFPB baking? Get our pro tips for baking without refined sugar here.
What to Use Instead of Oil
- Saute in veggie broth
- Use nut butter in baking
Still not clear as to whyoil isn't included in a WFPB diet? Here's the skinnyon oil and why it's not a whole (or particularly healthy) food.
See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Just add these swaps to yourvegan diet and BOOM: You're now whole food plant-based (or WFPB as we like to call it).
Key Takeaways
- Not all plant-based diets are equal from a nutrition standpoint. Adding more whole foods to your vegan diet can be beneficial to your health!
- Simple swaps can make transitioning from a plant-based to WFPB diet easy
- Use MamaSezz foodto make the switch from junk food vegan to WFPB super simple!
- Don't sweat it! Just do your best to eat as many whole foods as possible :)
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By The MamaSezz Team
