Our View on Food/Diet

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.

Avoid processed sugars like high fructose syrup. Use whole-food sweeteners like dates, figs, raisins, bananas, pineapples, etc. Eat fruits whole to keep all the fibers. Moderation on fruit juices as most of the healthy fiber in fruits is removed in juicing.

Oil free diet is optimal, but if desired – do so in great moderation – perhaps not more than 2-3 teaspoons per day. And choose the better options like extra virgin olive oil. Generally, we want to get lipids from whole food sources like raw nuts and seeds, and not from processed oils. Avoid all fried foods.

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. Avoid coffee, tea is okay.

*(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.)