Here I have tried to answer some of the questions I have been asked and address some concerns that have been raised, in my various interactions on the subject of WFPB diet.
Q1: How do I transition to a primarily raw plant based whole food diet?
Develop a deep conviction
Based on my experience the main battle is within our own mind. Our ‘normal’ food habits, what are considered ‘mainstream’ by the society, are certainly extremely unhealthy and cause of all our current and future health problems, as I have explained my previous blog on the subject matter. But they are very deeply entrenched in our own minds and are constantly reinforced at all levels by the society we live in.
So, when you want embark on a journey that requires a drastic break from the present, it’s a prerequisite that you develop a deep conviction, based on a sound understanding of the issues involved. You need to be convinced that what you are going to embark on is the right path and that it will benefit you immensely. Towards this, I strongly suggest that first you read the book ‘The China Study’ by Dr. Colin Campbell. This will provide you a solid foundation of the issues involved on a purely scientific and rational basis. Follow it up by reading ‘Become Healthy or Extinct’ by Darryl D’souza and listening to YouTube videos of Dr. Biswaroop Roy Chowdhurry.
What we are dealing with are very serious issues with profound implications for our short as well as long term health and well-being, which need to be studied and understood properly and not through the WhatsApp University.
It’s essential that we spend that time and effort to develop this understanding. Otherwise given our deeply entrenched food habits and powerful, all-round societal influence and pressure, any steps towards this diet are likely to be short lived and we are likely to reverse back to our old comfort zones sooner than later.
3 Step Transition Plan Based on my own experience, I suggest that you embark on a 3 step transition.
Step 1 – Go vegetarian & fresh food
If you are a non-vegetarian or eggetarian, I suggest that as a 1st step, you transition to a purely vegetarian diet. Cut out all the meats, fish, eggs from your diet.
As regards milk and milk products, you certainly need give it up, but If you can’t give them up suddenly altogether, then try to restrict them to the bare minimum. Preferably stop butter, paneer and milk altogether, other than a little in your tea or coffee (if you are used to it and can’t do without it) and restrict the consumption of curds, buttermilk and ghee.
Stop consumption of white sugar, table salt, maida (refined white flour), white rice and refined oils. Try to switch to honey/jaggery, non -iodized sea/rock salt, whole grain flours, red rice/ragi/millets and cold pressed oils instead.
Try to reduce or restrict as much as possible all processed and packaged food and switch to fresh food instead. In your vegetarian diet increase the quantity and variety of vegetables. Atleast try to have a raw vegetable salad with your every meal. Increase the quantity and variety of fruits, especially in the morning.
Please do not drink tea or coffee first thing in the morning. Its highly acidic and will create a lot of problems. Instead drink lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in warm water (add a little honey if you want). Try to restrict your tea/coffee to a maximum of twice a day. Gradually try to reduce the quantity of cereal and increase the portion of vegetables and fruits. Overall your cereal should be within a max of 25 to 30% of your diet.
Stop using the microwave altogether and try to restrict deep fried food. Try out seaming, baking, boiling and avoid repeated reheating. Reduce the use of oils.
Continue on step 1 diet for around a month and during this time try to progressively move towards the various Dos and Don’ts listed for Step 1 above.
If you are already a vegetarian, then move towards cutting out milk and milk products, processed and packaged foods and substantially increasing the quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet as well as other Dos and Don’ts listed above. By the end of the month you should see a remarkable improvement in your over all health with increased energy levels and better bowl movements.
Step 2 – Transition to WFPB In this step
Cut out all milk and milk products and replace them with almond/cashew nut/peanut milk or coconut milk Eliminate processed and packaged foods replace them with fresh food, local and seasonal
Cut out all deep-fried food
Try to avoid tea/coffee altogether. Instead use green tea and herbal teas.
Let fruits be the main part of your diet till 12 noon and raw vegetables for your lunch. Add sprouts, nuts and seeds and plenty of greens to your diet.
This step should again last around a month with you making steady progress in the direction listed above. Health benefits will just keep accruing
Step 3 – Primarily raw plant-based whole food diet
Now is the time to make the final switch.
Move to a full fruits diet in the morning till around 12 noon. I have found the Dr. Biswaroop Chaudhurry formula best to ensure a balanced diet. Based on this I suggest you try to have fruits =/> 1% of your body weight (e.g. For 60kg body weight, 1% of 60,000gms = 600gms). Go for seasonal and local fruits and variety. If you can’t get variety in a single day try to balance atleast over a week or fortnight. You can have your fruits in 2 or 3 tranches with a gap of around 1.5 to 2 hours. Occasionally if you cannot get enough fruits for some reason try to supplement it with mixed fruit-vegetable-greens smoothies, ragi porridge/ambali, red rice idlis/phoa, etc. Certainly, avoid white rice and oily preparation.
Switch to a full raw vegetable lunch. Have a mix of vegetables, greens, sprouts and nuts-seeds. Again, use the Dr. Biswaroop’s thumb rule of 1% of your body weight for vegetable (600gms in the above example of 60k body weight), 10% of the vegetable (i.e. 60gms in the above example) of greens, .5% of the vegetable i.e.30gms in the above example for sprouts and the same for nuts and seeds. Unlike fruits the above quantities can be distributed across lunch, evening snacks and dinner, as per your comfort.
For evening snacks, you can have some nuts (dried or roasted and not deep fried) and some herbal/green tea.
Try to finish your dinner latest by 8PM. You can either have the same menu as lunch for dinner, or a mixed vegetable-greens smoothie or some lightly cooked plant based whole food (a small portion of red rice/ragi/millet and pulses with lots of lightly cooked vegetables with no or bare minimum oil. Personally I prefer to have some lightly cooked vegetarian meal like above in cold weather and a salad/smoothie in summer months.
In case you are not able to have your raw veggies in the afternoon, due to some reason, then try to have them in the night.
Make sure you add fermented vegetables and drinks in the form of Kimchi, Kafir, Kombucha or fermented rice in your diet. This is a good source of probiotic bacteria and will increase the population of healthy bacteria in our gut leading to better digestion of food and better absorption of nutrients.
Like me if you have a sweet tooth, you can try many such sweets, some traditional and some not, made with either raw fruits and vegetables or ragi/red rice with some honey, jaggery or dates but without any oil or ghee (like raw carrot halwa, ragi laddu, etc.)
Some Tips
Make sure that you make your preparation healthy and tasty. This is important, as the transition should not appear like a punishment.
You can try making chutney or dip from various raw vegetables which otherwise you would not be comfortable to eat raw like ridge gourd, palak and other greens, beetroot and so on. You can add various ingredients like ginger, pepper, green chili, garlic, coconut, dates, nuts etc. to your chutneys to make them tasty and interesting, without adding oil or cooking them.
Similarly use smoothies to consume a lot of fresh raw greens. These are storehouses of nutrients. You can add some fruits, nuts, dates, etc. to make your smoothies delicious.
Never have fruits just before or after a cooked meal. Keep a gap of minimum 45 minutes before or 2 hours after a meal.
Eat organic as much as possible
I am sure that within a maximum of 3 months you should be able to make a smooth transition to a primarily raw plant based whole food diet.
And you will see immense health benefits accruing to you with every passing day that you are transitioning to this Diet. Your health will improve dramatically on all counts – all your vital parameters will move in the right direction (do a complete health check-up before and after the transition, so that you can see the difference yourself), you will automatically lose that extra weight and become lean and fit, energy levels will dramatically go up, most of your health troubles will start disappearing, your productivity will go up, you will be able to concentrate better and so on.
In my case my severe lower back pain just disappeared, my chronic constipation got cured, my dry skin problem disappeared, vertigo stopped, my cholesterol dropped from 240 at one point in time to 170 – and all without any medication or any specific treatment either allopathic or alternative medicine based.
So, what are you waiting for? Embark on this journey today! A journey where food in its pristine natural form is the only medicine, where doctors and hospitals become redundant, and which doesn’t cost you a penny but will save a fortune in the long run; and discover a whole new world of permanent good health and all-round wellbeing!!
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