On Cooking - Veganism and Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet

Interests > Food

I'm vegan. I approached this from a health-perspective first (WFPB), which led to a gradual transition to eating more plant based foods. Then I learned about the ethical philosophies behind resisting animal exploitation and went fully strict on following veganism.

When I cook for myself, I prefer to follow the principles of a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet as much as possible. When I eat at a restaurant, I just follow veganism but not WFPB.

What is WFPB

I don't follow WFPB 100% strictly all the time. But, these are the core principles of the WFPB diet:

* Technically, someone can follow a WFPB diet but not be fully vegan. The WFPB diet's principles say you should minimize animal products due to their health concerns. However, since I also am a strict vegan, I adhere to completely cutting out animal products. [3]

So what can you eat on a WFPB diet? The standard list is: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. More broadly, it's any foods derived from plants which are minimally processed. The list may sound small, but there's a lot of variation in ingredients and there is a huge variety of dishes to be enjoyed. Many, if not most (if not all) cultures around the world have dishes which are already vegan (if not WFPB) or easily modifiable to be so.

Getting back to my own cooking philosophy -- as mentioned, when I cook for myself, I prefer to adhere to WFPB as much as possible, but I do make small exceptions on rare occasions. When I eat at a restaurant, I don't think much about WFPB[4] and I primarily focus on finding vegan options.

Why WFPB

Experimentation + Cooking for others

There's another big exception to WFPB that I make: when I want to follow a vegan but non-WFPB recipe to create something more tasty (or just tasty in a different way) than a WFPB counterpart would be, either to experiment for my own understanding of the possibilities of food and cuisine, or to create positive experiences with vegan food for friends or family or others who may be tasting the food I prepare. If I am to have a "mission" related to cooking, it would be to help others to see that vegan foods can be delicious.

WFPB is very much about health and longevity for me. Veganism on its own is about doing what's right for the sake of fellow animals that can't speak for themselves - drawing attention to and making efforts to stop their unnecessary suffering and exploitation (when plant-based alternatives can provide 100% sufficient nutrition for humans)[5]. In other words: WFPB is for myself [6], whereas veganism is to help other sentient[7] beings who are in need.

What I'm trying to say with the above: I'm willing to violate my WFPB principles when I'm aiming to cook delicious things for other people. I want people[8] to have as positive a perception as possible of vegan foods. Making things "healthier", though I can deeply appreciate the tastes for myself (and do hope others can too), sometimes or often does not lend to the tastiest, at least in a mainstream way[9], dishes.

Why do I want people to have as positive as possible a perception[10] of vegan food? It's not like I think I'm going to directly convert people toward veganism like this. But even planting a seed in someone's head that maybe possible there could be a chance that they could survive with maybe even just this little percentage of a type of food that they eat, without an animal being involved, could be okay and enjoyable.

Talking about veganism & Challenging yourself[11]

Whether this is true or not, I imagine some discomfort, if not stronger emotion, when someone reads this and notices that I wish for more people to become vegan.

Well, I'm not going to deny that it's true that I want more people to become vegan.

That's my stance. What's yours?

Can we have an honest conversation about our food systems and ways of eating and move towards a mutual understanding about each of our perspectives?

Can I challenge you? Are you open to being challenged?

Is your mind open to some ideas that might be different than what you're used to? Maybe different than what you've believed for your entire life? Can you evaluate these things with honest integrity and be open to change if what you hear is logical and reasonable? Maybe you're not ready for change right now, and that's okay. But if you really stop and genuinely think about the arguments for veganism, can you honestly and truly say that you shouldn't change something?

I'm not saying the answer should be 100% for sure one way or the other for you. But I do request, when you have the capacity to, to learn about the reasons for veganism, to question the norm, to fully and deeply engage with the issue and the discussion, and to have an open mind to the possibility of adjusting your course, if it makes sense to you to do so.

This is not a fully-fleshed argument for veganism. Mainly I wanted to discuss my mindset around cooking. It's inevitably tied to the vegan discussion though.

Resources about veganism and WFPB

Since we're here, then, some resources:

  1. "processed" can mean a lot of things. Cutting a vegetable is processing it. In the context of the WFPB diet, "processed" is usually taken to mean "heavily" processed or having many additives ↩︎

  2. this doesn't mean avoid all sources of fat. You get lots of good, healthy fats from peanut butter and avocados, for example. Refined oils are empty calories without nutritional value, and can cause buildup of health issues. I acknowledge that I am not backing these claims with direct sources right now, but a search for wfpb health benefits should bring up more info about this and the other points. ↩︎

  3. I would say it's a good thing for the principles to have this laxness about not needing to go 100% vegan right away. It makes it less intimidating. It gave me the opportunity to slowly transition away from animal products, without feeling intense pressure to immediately give up all animal products, a drastic change that may have scared me away. I slowly realized that I didn't need animal products in my life, before making the full switch. ↩︎

  4. It's just less realistic to expect restaurant dishes to be oil and sugar free, unless the restaurant specializes in that ↩︎

  5. This is basically my "why am I vegan" summed up in a sentence, but I eventually will expand and write more on this. ↩︎

  6. (my own selfish desire to increase the length and quality of my life by eating as healthy as possible to reduce the chance of dietary-related illnesses later in life) ↩︎

  7. I know what you're thinking. How can I claim that animals are sentient? This is too deep of a discussion for a footnote. But I'll just say: You wouldn't like if I kicked a dog. Why? Because it displays visual evidence of its suffering. Surely a pig or cow would display something similar. And yet we (non-vegans) are okay with (albeit indirectly) paying for someone to hurt and kill them? Something doesn't align here. (Ok that wasn't exactly about the term 'sentient' but it's related. Perhaps instead of "sentient", I mean "creatures who we understand to be able to feel pain, experience suffering, and have a desire to not die.) ↩︎

  8. I'm tempted to say "the world" but realistically, my sphere of influence is the people that I interact with in my direct small community. Which is a great impact to make, in my opinion. Change starts small and local. ↩︎

  9. because seriously, even with 100% WFPB, things can be incredibly tasty and I wouldn't want them in any other form ↩︎

  10. (apapap) ↩︎

  11. This section is (maybe obviously) aimed at people not already vegan. ↩︎

  12. yes there are several other aspects of this, to be expanded on elsewhere ↩︎

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