Why wouldn’t someone at least try eating WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based)? I just don’t get it. My husband and I have been eating this way two years now and the benefits are amazing! So let’s check out the rest of the risk-reward analysis. The amount of work/time required to do this. Initially I thought it was a deal-breaker because I was spending a lot of time in the kitchen, but I actually like that but not everyone does. And then my tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking, gun-toting redneck Brother Chris decided to try it because he felt like shit. He had so much swelling in his lower body that he couldn’t even get his shoes on and therefore couldn’t walk to his mailbox. He actually thought that he was going to have to move from his home because he couldn’t go up and down the stairs to the basement to put wood in the furnace. He sold all of his farm/excavating/mowing equipment because he couldn’t get into the cabs. So like I said, he felt like shit. I went to visit him, to cook for him and show him what WFPB was all about. I told him that he had to eat anything that I put in front him and not complain. He really did well – but I don’t tell him that because he gets too cocky! After four days, he learned so much (‘cause he’s smart, but not gonna tell him that either!) and said to me, “Okay, Duck (that’s my nickname), I’m a believer but you’ve got to dumb the program down ‘cause I sure as hell am not gonna spend that much time in the kitchen.” So that’s what I did (and I will put the dumbed-down version in the next health post). On to the next reason.
Cost is too high. That’s not true. In fact, in Canada, where I live, I spend less money buying the items that I need than if I ate a SAD (standard American diet). I found the costs were less in Indiana too(where Brother Chris lives). Also keep in mind that this way of eating will improve your health and thus reduce your health care costs and likely reduce amount of medication that you’re purchasing so if you are going to cry, “it costs too much”, I say, prove it and make sure to include ALL your out-of-pocket costs.
Eating WFPB tastes likes crap – also not true. I will admit that at the beginning you may find things don’t taste salty enough or sweet enough and the reason for that is: YOU’RE ADDICTED TO SALT AND SUGAR! And that’s why you need to eat this way because those two ingredients are going to make you sicker. So give it a bit of time and allow your tastes to balance so that you can taste other flavours that occur naturally or that you can add in a healthy manner.
What about ‘I can’t cook’ or ‘I don’t know how to do it’? Easy answer for that is that if my beer-drinking, tobacco-chewing, gun-toting redneck brother can do it, ANYBODY can. At least anybody that really wants to do it. So just do it! Make it happen. Take control of your health.