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Guide to WFPB

A whole food plant-based (WFPB) eating pattern is a versatile, exciting, and enjoyable way to eat. It centres on unprocessed fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and other legumes. Other whole or minimally processed plant-based foods are used as occasional condiments. With a few straight-forward tips you'll be on your way to adding more whole plant-based foods to your plate.

Are you ready to eat your way to better health?

You’re in the right place. Adding more whole plant-based foods to your plate is a scientifically proven way to optimise life, prevent disease, and often improve or even reverse longstanding health conditions. Our downloadable 2-page ‘Going plant-based’ guide is a nutshell primer on how you can reap the powerful benefits of this vibrant way of eating.

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Going Plant Based Handout

Tools for health professionals

We have also developed a complete toolkit to support health professionals to incorporate nutritional approaches into patient care. Freely available for digital download, the toolkit includes:

  • A 12-page colour guide for health professionals
  • A colour poster to display in their clinic
  • A patient dietary assessment survey
  • Patient handouts

If you would like to provide these tools to your GP or other healthcare provider, access them now.

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Explore our other resources or search for a dietitian-approved recipe.

'Going plant-based' guide references

Sources cited in Doctors For Nutrition’s ‘Going plant-based’ guide

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  2. Kim H, Caulfield LE, Garcia‐Larsen V, Steffen LM, Coresh J, Rebholz CM. Plant‐Based Diets Are Associated With a Lower Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, and All‐Cause Mortality in a General Population of Middle‐Aged Adults. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2019;8(16). doi:10.1161/jaha.119.012865
  3. Ornish D. Intensive Lifestyle Changes for Reversal of Coronary Heart Disease. JAMA. 1998;280(23):2001. doi:10.1001/jama.280.23.2001
  4. Esselstyn CB Jr, Gendy G, Doyle J, Golubic M, Roizen MF. A way to reverse CAD? J Fam Pract. 2014;63(7):356-364b. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25198208.
  5. Qian F, Liu G, Hu FB, Bhupathiraju SN, Sun Q. Association Between Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. July 2019. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.2195
  6. Tonstad S, Stewart K, Oda K, Batech M, Herring RP, Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets and incidence of diabetes in the Adventist Health Study-2. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013;23(4):292-299. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2011.07.004
  7. Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJA, et al. A Low-Fat Vegan Diet Improves Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2006;29(8):1777-1783. doi:10.2337/dc06-0606
  8. Le LT, Sabaté J. Beyond meatless, the health effects of vegan diets: findings from the Adventist cohorts. Nutrients. 2014;6(6):2131-2147. doi:10.3390/nu6062131
  9. Matsumoto S, Beeson WL, Shavlik DJ, et al. Association between vegetarian diets and cardiovascular risk factors in non-Hispanic white participants of the Adventist Health Study-2. J Nutr Sci. 2019;8:e6. doi:10.1017/jns.2019.1
  10. Wright N, Wilson L, Smith M, Duncan B, McHugh P. The BROAD study: A randomised controlled trial using a whole food plant-based diet in the community for obesity, ischaemic heart disease or diabetes. Nutrition & Diabetes. 2017;7(3):e256-e256. doi:10.1038/nutd.2017.3
  11. Hastert TA, Beresford SAA, Patterson RE, Kristal AR, White E. Adherence to WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013;22(9):1498-1508. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-0210
  12. Ornish D, Weidner G, Fair WR, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol. 2005;174(3):1065-1069; discussion 1069-1070. doi:10.1097/01.ju.0000169487.49018.73
  13. Bouvard V, Loomis D, Guyton KZ, et al. Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat. Lancet Oncol. 2015;16(16):1599-1600. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00444-1
  14. La J, Roberts NH, Yafi FA. Diet and Men’s Sexual Health. Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2018;6(1):54-68. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2017.07.004
  15. Towe M, La J, El-Khatib F, Roberts N, Yafi FA, Rubin R. Diet and Female Sexual Health. Sex Med Rev. 2020;8(2):256-264. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2019.08.004
  16. David LA, Maurice CF, Carmody RN, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2014;505(7484):559-563. doi:10.1038/nature12820
  17. Clinton CM, O’Brien S, Law J, Renier CM, Wendt MR. Whole-foods, plant-based diet alleviates the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Arthritis. 2015;2015:708152. doi:10.1155/2015/708152
  18. McDougall J, Bruce B, Spiller G, Westerdahl J, McDougall M. Effects of a very low-fat, vegan diet in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. J Altern Complement Med. 2002;8(1):71-75. doi:10.1089/107555302753507195
  19. Blanchflower DG, Oswald AJ, Stewart-Brown S. Is Psychological Well-Being Linked to the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables? Soc Indic Res. 2013;114(3):785-801. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24720280.
  20. Tuso PJ, Ismail MH, Ha BP, Bartolotto C. Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. Perm J. 2013;17(2):61-66. doi:10.7812/TPP/12-085
  21. Melina V, Craig W, Levin S. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016;116(12):1970-1980. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.025

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