Holistic nutrition or a whole foods plant-based diet is one that prioritizes eating plant foods in their whole and natural forms (i.e. unprocessed) and eliminates animal products as well as highly processed foods.
In today's modern world, processed foods have become so common place that the current generation of children do not know where their food comes from as eating packaged foods is considered the norm. Processed foods are definitely a convenience but they come at a hefty price in the form of chronic illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
While there is a growing awareness of the link between denatured foods and chronic illnesses, most people remain uninformed and the ones that do have an idea of what course of action to take, find the thought of giving up meat and dairy too daunting to even fathom and thus never try.
Before I became a vegan, I was under the assumption that people who followed a plant-based diet, ate plants exclusively, which did not sound very appealing to me. I thought that vegetarians, ate vegetables exclusively since the name "vegetarian" seemed to imply that and thus I assumed vegans were just an extreme form of vegetarians until I began to educate myself on the subject matter and found out that this was not the case at all.
If you have similar assumptions as I did about what a plant-based diet is, you are sadly misinformed and I can assure you that there are loads of healthy and delicious plant-based alternatives for your favorite meals from burgers to chocolate cake!
I will admit that eating healthy does take a lot more effort than consuming the standard American diet as you will have to cook most of your meals yourself, but with proper planning, it doesn't have to be as inconvenient as it sounds. In my case, I do my meal prep every Sunday and it only takes me three hours to prepare food for the entire week. I'm sure most of you reading this have three hours to spare every week for your health.
Lots of studies (most notably The China Study), have come to the conclusion that a whole foods plant-based diet is the most optimal for preserving human health and after experiencing a health scare of my own that made me confront my own mortality, I was forced into action and became a vegan two years ago which I now consider as one of the best decisions I've made in my life!
I am so grateful to be alive and will never ever take my health for granted again. If this message resonates with you, be sure to follow me for posts on holistic nutrition and how you can get started with your own transition.
Until next time, let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food ;)
