Just “you” are all clear on who I AM. I AM a whole food and plant based pescetarian. I eat whole foods and plants!

Whole food and plant-based eating aren’t exclusively synonymous.  Yet, they have been clumped or perhaps dumped together and sold as a package deal.  The fact is, they’re very different.   While they do mesh well together, they are different.  So, what is considered to be whole food and what is considered to be plant-based?  In order to explore this question, let’s divide it into two bite size pieces.  Once again, they are two different entities.  Let’s look at plant based first.

1:  Plant Based

Plant based eating is simple.  If it doesn’t come from a plant, then it’s not plant based.

Choosing a plant based dietary lifestyle means you eat fruits, berries, vegetables, legumes, grains, cereal grains, seeds, nuts and foods that have been produced from plant material.  That can be tofu, tempeh, miso, soy sauce, almond milk and things like tofurky, beyond meat etc. All the above have plant-based origins.  Sounds healthy doesn’t it?   

That being said, don’t confuse plant-based eating with having a “healthier” dietary lifestyle. While for the majority of people who have adopted plant-based as their preferred dietary lifestyle, it is, but sadly, for many it’s not.  You have to have an understanding of what plant-based is and then define for yourself, within that understanding, what you consider to be healthy eating.

2:  Whole Food

Whole foods speak to the individuality, purity and integrity of growing, cultivating, harvesting/slaughtering and the selling of the food to be consumed. 

Whole Food Diets

There are many different types of whole food diets or eating styles for people to choose from.  Some don’t use oil and others do. Some don’t condone the use of nuts and or nut milks and some do.  Some say no to natural sweeteners, even honey or maple syrup and some say yes.  Ironically, some whole foodists have issues with foods that have been “naturally” fermented like sauerkraut, kimchi, soy sauce, yogurt.  Even though fermentation is an ancient process and has been proven to provide many health benefits, including supporting a healthy immune system and vibrant brain function, they have issue with it.  While this debate can rage on and on, what is true, whole food eating is all about consuming foods that haven’t been processed or only minimally processed. 

What A Whole Food Isn’t

Whole Food eating does not include, unless you want it to, foods that have been chemically enhance to create longevity of its shelf life.   And foods that have been chemically induced to initiate premature decaying, before its naturally occurring life span.  But that is all about the bottom line and economics.  A food that has been artificially colored or sprayed with E’s, to make them appear ripe and appealing to the shopper and or consumer.

A whole food is a food that hasn’t been genetically modified to make it grow bigger, quicker and last for longer in the grocery stores.  A whole food definitely isn’t a food that started life in a petri dish. 

2: What A Whole Food Is

Many people have said that whole foods cannot be meat, fish, poultry and their byproducts, milk and eggs etc.  In fact, they say a whole food can only be a plant or plant-based.  For me, that’s bullshit!  But, I’ll address that in a second. 

“A whole food is any living edible sentient thing that has grown in the wild, or has been cultivated, or raised with attention to compassionate organic farming practices focused on the purity and the integrity of the food to be consumed.  In short, a whole food is something edible that hasn’t been chemically manipulated or enhanced; it’s food in its purist and most natural state.“

Meat, seafood and poultry are all whole foods.  An egg raised on a farm that is truly free range, organic and are compassionate in their farming practices, produce a whole food.  The same applies to fish, poultry, or meat and their byproducts.  Once again, whole food eating is about how, what and where the food was grown and processed and then how it is packaged and sent to market, not whether it is animal, vegetable, seafood or mineral.

Sashimi, eating raw seafood is whole food eating.  As are these other methods for preparing meat and seafood; tartare-meat and or seafood, ceviche-shrimp/seafood or carpaccio (car patch o)–raw beef are all methods of preparing raw animal protein.  Again, what makes a whole food a whole food is how it was raised, captured, harvested, slaughtered and processed, and then how it is packaged and sent to market.

Once again, just so we are on the same page, meat, poultry and seafood that has been chemically enhance to create longevity of its shelf life or chemically induced to initiate premature decaying, before its naturally occurring life span isn’t a whole food. 

Caution
A word of caution:  
Don’t confuse whole food eating with veganism, vegetarianism, pescetarianism and flexitarianism.  Those are labels designed to let people know which dietary group you belong to. 
Don’t confuse eating a plant-based diet with eating healthily.
Don’t confuse eating a vegan diet with whole food and plant-based eating or healthy eating for that matter.

And as an FYI: You can be a
1: Whole Food and Plant Based Pescetarian
2: Whole Food and Plant Based Flexitarian
3: Whole Food and Plant Based Vegetarian
4: Whole Food and Plant Based Vegan