These food guidelines are advocated by American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and they are endorsed by many other organizations like AMA (American Medical Association), AICR (American Institute of Cancer Research), ACS (American Cancer Society), AACE / ACE (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists), ADA (American Diabetes Society), Kaiser Permanente and Whole Foods (the company). Since 2018, states like California, Washington, Oregon and New York have started started passing laws to make such meals available in hospitals! The state of California leads such efforts. For example, in 2022, they allocated 700 million dollars of their budget to set up plant-based meals for school lunch programs.

We eat plant foods: (a) whole grains & beans, (b) fruits & veggies, (c) nuts & seeds, and (d) herbs & spices. We are careful with nuts & seeds — we eat them in small quantities so that our food plates are very low fat (with target fat percentage set at 10% to 12% of calories).

ZERO Animal Products: This means no meat, no fish, no eggs, no dairy. Specifically, no milk, no butter, no 'ghee', no 'paneer', no cheese, no buttercream, no curd, no buttermilk, no 'khoya', no 'mawa', no evaporated milk, no condensed milk, … not even 1 teaspoon.

No ultra-processed foods from the supermarket. These are often sold in colorful packages and have chemicals whose names we don't recognize.

No oil: Oils are fat extracts. We are strictly no oil (no olive oil, no coconut oil, no avocado oil, no oil whatsover). We use nuts and seeds instead, in small quantities so that our overall food plates are very low fat.

No sugars: Sugars are carbohydrate extracts and labeled as 'Added Sugars' in processed foods. We avoid sugars. We use only dates and blackstrap molasses. Sometimes, we use maple syrup and agave syrup and other comparable foods in small quantities for sweetening. Dates are the best sweeteners. We may also use raisins, dried figs, dried peaches … in small quantities — real fruit is better than dried fruit.

Minimum salt: Zero salt is best but zero salt is difficult to follow; most preparations at the potluck will have some salt in them.

How to make Whole Food Plant-Based recipes? That's a big topic. Please come to the potluck to meet others who make such meals at home, and browse through recipe sections at Thankful2Plants.

Feb 2020 (Soups n Sandwiches) — Jan 2020 (Iron Rich Recipes) — 9 Feb 2020 (Salads) — 16 Feb 2020 — 23 Feb 2020

In my view, simplifying our food plates in the direction of 'Kand-Mool, Phal-Phool, Patti-Pani' system has profound impact on many aspects of our existence. Towards that goal, adopting strict Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines is a good preparatory step.

• Our Health: Our food choices impact our physical health 💪 and our emotional health 😇 in a big way! Many people don't seem to know this. The vast majority of articles at Thankful2Plants focus on physical health, especially chronic lifestyle diseases. The impact of our food choices on mental health is less studied in science; we don't know that much.
• Compassion for Others: Our food choices impact other sentient beings in a big way! If we choose to consume plant-only meals, then we need not raise millions and billions of animals on animal farms! That includes chicken 🐓 (and baby chicks 🐥), ducks 🦆, pigs 🐖, rabbits 🐇, turkeys 🦃, goats 🐐, sheep 🐏 and cattle 🐄. And we need not deplete our oceans of marine life. This means whales 🐋 and sharks 🦈 and fish 🐟 and octopus 🐙 and myriad other marine creatures could continue to thrive in our oceans, undisturbed by humans.
• Our Environment: Our food choices impact our environment in a big way! Many people don't know that climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution of natural resources (land, air, water) — all of these are intimately connected to our aggregate food choices!
• Infectious Diseases: What's the origin of emerging infectious diseases? Again, there is a deep connection with our collective food choices! And let's say we experience the misfortune of contracting an infectious disease. At that point, we need a robust immune system — our body's abilities to fight off infections. Our food choices impact our immune system in a big way!
• Spiritual Pursuits: Finally, our food choices have a profound impact on our spiritual journeys. For progress in meditation, the simplest possible food plates are best. Along these lines, I'm inspired by the 'Kand-Moola, Phal-Phoola, Patti-Pani' system — the peaceful forest dwellers food system from India, which happens to be the foundation for Nature Cure or Naturopathy systems.

Interestingly, what's good for our health — both physical and emotional — is also good for other sentient beings and good for the environment! I find this pretty amazing!

My guiding mantra for food plate construction is: simplify, simplify, simplify. What is the simplest conceptual framework to construct our daily meals? At the potluck, I'll share my personal strategy with you. Maybe it resonates with you too!

Breakfast: Very easy to make. Outlined here.

Lunch: This is a key meal and more difficult to prepare than breakfast. A simple strategy is outlined here. Basically, we have to make 4 decisions:

• Which tubers am I eating? [Sweet potatoes are awesome!]
• Which beans am I eating? [Garbanzo are awesome for getting started! We have many other beans.]
• Which leafy greens am I eating? [Lots of choices! Keep experimenting.]
• What does my salad look like? [Rainbow veggies, maybe tofu, fresh herbs, berries, spices.]

Smoothie & juice: See Green Smoothies and Beverages.

Dessert? There are many dessert recipes online which we can pick up. Basically we have to mix some super sweet whole foods together: dates, mango, banana for example. And throw in interesting ingredients like cacao powder, vanilla extract and cardamom powder. It's easy to make dessert; breakfast is also easy. The meal that's difficult to prepare is lunch — I'll focus mostly on that in the potluck.

Note: There are many different ways of constructing Whole Fod Plant-Based meals. What I'm sharing with you is only one of several possible strategies. My goal is to showcase how dozens of nutritional guidelines are baked into the 2 simple recipes that I prepare for myself daily: breakfast and lunch. In my view, these two preparations are an elegant methodology of food plate construction :) With this methodology as a foundation, we can prepare thousands of actual breakfast and lunch plates.

Instagram: See @thankful2plants where we may see colorful, rainbow-colored food plates. In 2022, I became a raw vegan, but I don't insist that everybody become a raw vegan — it is a difficult food system to follow. Instead, I encourage people to adopt Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines, as advocated by ACLM. Such food plates have cooked foods — I am happy to showcase cooked WFPB meals to anybody interested.