How to Follow a Whole Food Vegan Diet

If you have been following a vegan or plant-based diet for a while, you might be getting 
used to grabbing convenience and packaged foods, or getting your vegan meals from 
the freezer section in your local Whole Foods. While this is fine just to be vegan, there 
may come a point when you want to increase your health a bit. This is when you can 
think about doing a whole food vegan diet. The majority of your foods will be fresh and 
whole, without any processing or preservatives.

Shop the Grocery Store Smartly

This is definitely one of the easiest ways to stick to a whole food vegan diet. You should 
become familiar with where all the healthiest, unprocessed foods and ingredients are. 
On a vegan diet, this is primarily going to be your produce section. A lot of your diet 
consists of fruits and veggies, so the bulk of your shopping is done here. You can also 
get organic nuts, seeds, and grains typically in the same area, only going to the middle 
aisles for some staples. You may need chia seeds or olive oil for your dressing, but for 
the most part, avoid all the processed food aisles.

Focus on Your Starches

One area where people go wrong with a whole foods vegan diet is assuming regular 
fruit and veggies is all they can eat. While this does make up a good portion of your diet, 
you won’t get adequate calories and nutrition on those alone. Even while doing a whole 
foods version of the plant-based diet, you still need some starches to go with it. This is 
when you can get some vegan pasta noodles, make your own enchiladas, or use 
chickpeas to make hummus for a veggie wrap. Make sure everything you used is 
natural and not processed, and you’re good. 

Don’t Go Wrong Just Yet

Many people on a vegan diet will get curious about a raw diet. This is great for your 
health, but it is a major commitment. Before you try to do something so extreme, just 
stick to a standard whole food vegan diet first. This means enjoying your cooked foods 
from heating up zucchini noodles as pasta to cooking beans, legumes, and rice. You 
can then decide later on if you’re interested in attempting to do your vegan diet 
completely raw without any cooking.
