Expressing love/care to our body and mind is a major duty in our belief system, and since diet is one of the most important factors in maintaining a healthy body and mind, thus we advise members to keep a plant-based whole foods diet.

What to Eat:

Below chart is a general guideline to our plant-based whole foods diet. Eat varieties of all the five categories each day.

Maintaining a healthy gut is essential for our overall bodily health. The gut contains the enteric nervous system which is often called the second brain, thus diet is also interlinked with our mind and our mental health. Eating fiber plays an important role in maintaining a healthy gut. Thus we focus on eating foods that are rich in fiber such as legumes and vegetables. Choose the more nutritionally dense vegetables like the cruciferous and dark leafy greens.

For grains: eat whole intact grains that have not been processed. Moderation on heavily processed grains like white flour derived foods, better to choose the whole grain kinds.

For fruits: eat them whole. Moderation on fruit juices as most of the healthy fiber in fruits is removed in juicing.

Avoid processed sugars, especially the ultra processed ones. Use whole-food sweeteners like dates, figs, raisins, bananas, pineapples, etc.

Avoid all forms of oil. If desire, do so in great moderation using the least processed ones. Stay away from the ultra processed oils. Ideally, we want to get fats/lipids from whole plant foods like raw nuts and seeds, not from processed/extracted oils. Avoid all fried foods.

For nuts and seeds: prefer in raw form (unroasted). Moderation on roasted nuts.

Again, we emphasize our diet is to focus on eating plant-based foods that are whole/intact/unprocessed, while keeping the processed foods to a minimum. The more highly processed the foods are, the more cautious we should be, even if they are derived from plant-based.

No dairy products.

Small quantity of seafood such as fish, mollusks, and crustaceans may be optional, with moderation. Perhaps once a week or occasionally. For both health and ethical reasons, choose smaller fish that are lower on the food chain like sardines. If choosing to incorporate seafood, a good rule of thumb is that at least 95% of our overall diet should still be derived from plant-based foods.