When we think of ‘vegan or plant-based food’, we automatically think ‘processed’. Why is that? And what do we lose out on, as a result of this belief?

Lets consider the facts first:

1. 90% of vegan (plant-based) food is non-processed (whole). This includes beans, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, lentils, nuts, seeds, tubers etc. All of these wholefoods promote health, power and longevity.

2. Just because a certain food is ‘processed’, it doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy. Just because you struggle to pronounce an ingredient, it doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy. These are examples of classic misinformation spread by social media influencers.

3. The actual meaning of ‘processed’ is ‘having been subjected to a special process or treatment’. With this definition, many foods are processed to some degree including brown bread, vinegar etc. that are perfectly healthy for human consumption. And no one has a problem with the ‘processing’ of these vegan foods that everyone eats.

4. Other minimally-processed plant foods include tofu, seitan, tempeh, brown pasta, hummus etc. These are also healthy and perfectly fine to consume in abundance.

5. Highly-processed vegan foods like biscuits and crisps, are high in sugar and salt, and are best kept to minimum or occasional.

6. When it comes to certain plant-based meat alternative brands like Beyond Meat, they can be consumed occasionally and used as transition foods to enable the shift to wholefoods plantbased nutrition.

7. These plant-based meat alternatives have a superior nutrient profile and provide better cardiovascular outcomes compared to animal flesh, in addition to providing fibre and phytonutrients (which are both absent in animal-based products).

Therefore, even the ultra-processed vegan foods (which consist of only 1% of all the vegan foods available to you) are found to be healthier compared to animal meat.

So, we don’t need to go with a magnifying lens, trying to find the healthiest vegan foods. 😊

The real danger:

8. More than salt and sugar, it is cholesterol and saturated fats and that are main villains to human health and longevity.

- All plant foods (whole or processed) have zero cholesterol, and minimal saturates, if any (e.g. coconut oil, palm oil and cocoa butter)

- While ALL animal foods have significant amounts of cholesterol, and varying amounts of saturated fats (from moderate to high). Regardless of how ‘organic’ or ‘local’ they may be.

9. On the other hand, processed meat like bacon, sausage, hot dogs, ham, pepperoni, canned beef and beef jerky etc., are deemed highly carcinogenic.

10. And ALL animal foods significantly increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Chicken and fish flesh have the same amount of cholesterol as ground beef – so beware of any health professional who recommends ‘white meat’.

In summary, the optimal nutrition for human health, and the only foundation to address the life-threatening climate and ecological emergencies is plant-based/vegan nutrition (while keeping ‘junk foods’ to a minimum, for obvious reasons).

It’s really as simple as that.

(The only reason we as a society think ‘processed!’ any time ‘vegan food’ is mentioned, is because the animal food media complex has successfully managed to distort the word ‘processed’ into meaning ‘unhealthy’, and then perpetually associated it with vegan/plant-based foods, because it is the biggest threat to their profits.)

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