Challenge: Too many food groups! If we study WFPB Food Groups, we have so many of them! The four main food groups are (1) Whole Grains, (2) Beans, (3) Fruits, (4) Veggies. Plus two ancillary food groups: (5) Nuts & Seeds, and (6) Herbs & Spices.

But berries are special fruits, soy beans are special beans, flax seeds are special seeds, green tea is a special beverage, and turmeric is a special spice! So some WFPB doctors carve them out as food groups by themselves! Why? So that we remember to consume these special foods on a daily basis.

Veggies can be sub-divided into interesting groups like tubers, cruciferous, alliums, and so on. And then, we have mushrooms, algae and beverages too!

If we list all these food groups and special foods, we get 17 of them: (1) Whole Grains, (2) Soy Beans, (3) Other Beans, (4) Berries, (5) Other Fruits, (6) Tubers, (7) Leafy Greens, (8) Cruciferous, (9) Alliums, (10) Other Veggies, (11) Flax seeds, (12) Other Nuts & Seeds, (13) Turmeric, (14) Other Herbs & Spices, (15) Mushrooms, (16) Algae, (17) Green Tea, (18) Other Teas. Phew!

Challenge: How may we possibly construct our breakfast, lunch and dinner by keeping so many food groups in our mind?

Breakfast strategy: Check out the Sweet Porridge Recipe I make every day. This recipe covers quite a few food groups like Whole Grains, Berries, Fruit, Flax seeds, Mushrooms (yeah, I put some mushroom powder into my morning breakfast), Spices. I also add some soy milk to the breakfast.

Lunch and Dinner strategy: Instead of thinking about so many food groups, I focus on 4 things: (A) Greens, (B) Beans, (C) Tubers, and (D) Salad. Every day, I combine these four in interesting combinations to make lunch! Leftover lunch suffices as dinner :)

Dr Greger's Daily Dozen has Greens, Beans and Tubers: My daily lunch and dinner is centered around 3 main food groups: Leafy Greens, Beans and Tubers. In the process of preparing these, I use Nuts & Seeds and Herbs & Spices in small quantities. And often, I introduce additional food groups like Alliums, Cruciferous, Citrus, and so on. But the predominant ingredients in lunch and dinner are Leafy Greens, Beans and Tubers.

Salad: In addition to Greens, Beans & Tubers, I also prepare a Salad (or sometimes a salad sandwich) by the side which is described here.