Our current terminology and classification of nutrition in the medical literature relies on labels of different “diets”.  Examples include: The Mediterranean Diet; The Keto Diet; The Paleo Diet; The Vegan Diet; The Whole Food Plant-Based Diet; as well as others.  Such labels lack adequate specifications about the foods included in them such as preparation, place of acquisition, extent of processing.  Hence, individuals consume diets under the same “dietary label” but consume foods of completely different levels of health.

Both our clinical experience and the medical literature support “diets” that consists of either mostly plant foods or only plant foods are the healthiest.  However, this characteristic alone isn’t enough to determine the level of health of the “diet”.  We have seen many individuals in our clinical practice who state that they have followed a whole food plant-based diet for many years without adequate improvements in their health.  With further inquiry, we find that the foods they are consuming are overly processed.  We further find significant improvement in their health by removing excess processing of their food.   

Our long clinical experience and scientific evidence has shown that the most nutritious foods to consume are characterize as being whole, plant-based, and as close to their natural state as possible.  Hence, over the years, we have developed a classification for foods as a more accurate way of precisely describing the specific type of food and its level of processing at the time of consumption.