WFPB:
The Word of Wisdom
(Last updated 22 April 2025)
These pages document my personal experiences
in nutrition, specifically my experiences
with a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet. These pages
describe events I've experienced,
along with my personal choices, observations and
opinions. I am providing the information
on this website for informational purposes only.
I am NOT a medical professional and I have NO formal medical or
nutritional education.
Nothing on this website is intended or should be interpreted
as medical advice or recommendation.
If you have or suspect you have a medical problem, contact your
health-care provider promptly.
And I'll add a further disclaimer here.
I follow no religious doctrine, attend no church, and affiliate
with no organized religious group. I'm here only for the
nutrition, regardless of where that research leads.
But I was fascinated by the history and doctrines of two
American religious groups
whose teachings both embrace whole food, plant-based lifestyles.
(Updated 22 Apr 2025 to expand comments on Jane Birch's analysis of
the Word of Wisdom diet.)
My WFPB research often leads me to the Seventh Day Adventists of
Loma Linda, California. They are the longest studied, longest
lived population group in history. They are, possibly, the
last of the original five Blue Zones cited by Dan Buettener in his
initial research for National Geographic on the world's
centenarians. The Adventists adherence to a WFPB diet is based
on two specific verses in the Bible:
The Word of Wisdom
Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, given to the Saints in
1833, defines a law of health revealed by the Lord for the
physical and spiritual benefit of His children. Essentially,
this diet (actually, lifestyle) calls for eating lots of grains,
fruits, and vegetables (89:11, 16), and abstaining from wine (save
in sacrament), strong drink, tobacco, and hot drinks
(89:5-9). In particular, the Word of Wisdom admonishes
little or no consumption of meats, noting they should be used
sparingly and only in times of winter, of cold, or of famine
(89:12-13).
The Word of Wisdom basically defined a WFPB diet, but nearly two
centuries ago.
Two centuries is a long time, but the Mormon version of a WFPB
lifestyle tracks well with what decades of nutritional research has
shown. Those following a Word of Wisdom diet could not have
known about methionine, endotoxins, cholesterol oxidation products,
or palmitate, but they knew the flesh of animals was not good for
you. They may not have known the exact pathology that causes
alcohol to kill off your liver, but they knew to avoid it in all but
church sacraments. Perhaps they didn't know exactly the many
different ways that good fiber intake preserves and improves your
health, but they knew whole grains, beans, and vegetables were of
first importance to good health and long life.
This lifestyle is so in tune with a modern whole food, plant-based
diet that all Mormons have, built into their church doctrine, the
key to a long and healthy life.
And yet...
A lot has changed in two centuries, and science has provided greater
clarity on a few tenets in the Word of Wisdom diet.
For one thing, vitamins were discovered decades after the Word of
Wisdom was handed down. In particular, we now know B12 is
absolutely vital to anyone on a WFPB diet. Plants don't make
B12, only bacteria can do that. Two centuries ago, people got
their B12 by drinking unchlorinated water. Once cities began
treating their water supply, people stopped dying of cholera, but
they also stopped getting natural sources of B12. Today, those
who eat WFPB use supplements because we know how critical B12 is to
our health. I wonder, though, if there was an uptick in
mortality among those eating a diet similar to the Word of Wisdom
diet when the move to chlorinated water happened.
The Word of Wisdom is widely interpreted to include a prohibition
against drinking coffee and tea. Recent scientific research
has shown, however, that both beverages, especially green tea,
contain powerful phytonutrients that can prevent or reverse major
chronic diseases, including heart disease and various cancers.
And caffeine has been shown to provide strong protection against
onset of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Vegetables play a large role in the Word of Wisdom diet, and
doctrine urges eating a variety of veggies. But science of the
last few decades has shown the huge range of phytonutrients in
plants that make them such a powerful addition to your diet.
The sulforaphane in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli is a potent
cancer fighter, mushrooms are a major source of ergothionine (a
powerful antioxidant), and anthocyanins from purple sweet potatoes
(among others) can reduce risk of diabetes and protect against
certain cancers.
And there are nuances to some elements of a WFPB diet that simply
could not have been foreseen two centuries ago. Rice is the
most widely consumed grain in the world, and the whole grain
version, brown rice, is a pillar of most WFPB diets; it would fit
perfectly in a Word of Wisdom diet. But modern agricultural
practices and climate change have impacted brown rice crops
worldwide. Today's brown rice contains elevated levels of
arsenic, to the point that the arsenic can impact consumers'
health. For now, you can mitigate this increased arsenic load
somewhat by parboiling your brown rice before you cook it, but brown
rice could well become the first unhealthy whole grain ever
developed.
The Adventists and the Mormons
If I do a search for "centenarians adventist", I get links to pages
celebrating the long lives of Adventists around the world.
Grandma Serya (Philippines) turned 100 in 2024. Elizabeth
Moses (The Bahamas) died at 104, much loved. Ann Bauer (USA?)
provided a video of advice to others upon reaching her 100th
birthday in 2014.
I also found a link to a review of a Netflix documentary, Live
to 100, by Dan Buettner (2023), examining the Adventist
lifestyle and containing interviews of long-lived Adventists.
Of course, I also get indirect links to the major health studies
involving Adventists, such as the Adventist Health Study 2, which
has been running since the 1980s and includes 96,000 participants.
If I do a search "centenarians mormon", I see a lot of pages
celebrating LDS President Russell Nelson reaching 100 years of
age. I also found a page from an Australian news service about
Edna Jackman, who celebrated her 100th birthday in 2012 by going for
a motorcycle ride.
From
Wikipedia, the Mormon membership in 2024 was just under 7
million. Wikipedia lists the Adventist membership as just over
22 million in 2022(?). Perhaps this population disparity
accounts for the relatively larger number of pages describing
longer-lived Adventists and wider nutritional studies of Adventists?
WFPB and the Word of Wisdom
I was frankly stunned by the depth and history of proper
nutrition embedded in the Mormon doctrine. For nearly two
centuries, this religion's followers have had the spiritual
guidance to live into their 100s and likely beyond. For
example, Jane Birch's Whole
Food, Plant-based (WFPB) Guidelines provides a modern take
on the Word of Wisdom diet, merging work by researchers such as
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. John McDougall with the original
guidance.
Ms. Birch's guidelines should help anyone with questions about
the healthiest way to eat a Word of Wisdom diet. For
example, the Word of Wisdom diet admonishes against meat, except
very sparingly. In line with current research, Ms. Birch
writes, "Meat has few nutrients, no carbs, and no fiber. There is
nothing in meat you can’t get from a better source." I would
also list the extensive negative impacts meat intake has on your
health, including saturated fats (plaque buildup in your arteries,
diabetes and obesity), methionine (systemic acidosis, acid reflux
and GERD), heterocyclic amines (various cancers), and arachadonic
acid (systemic inflammation).
I really like her take on grains. She is very clear about
the science that supports intact and whole grains, and stresses
the importance of the word "whole" in any ingredient list showing
grains. As she notes, "Eat WHOLE grains, the more
unprocessed the better." This tracks well with current
research showing the harm done by eating junk consumables, with
their high levels of refined flours.
She also comes down hard on dairy (especially ice cream!), and
rightly so. Besides having all the issues of eating meat,
she comments, "While the non-fat versions don’t contain the
harmful fats, they contain an even higher concentration of animal
proteins." I would note further that studies show increased
dairy intake is associated with higher levels of IGF-1 and mTOR,
both powerful accelerators of cancer growth.
As I see it, Ms. Birch's work essentially equates a WFPB diet
with a Word of Wisdom diet. This connection is huge!
Anyone struggling to follow a healthy version of a Word of Wisdom
diet can take advantage of the thousands of web pages, long list
of best-selling books, the many documentaries, and the millions of
hours of research behind WFPB diets. For example, Dr.
Michael Greger's website, NutritionFacts.org, has a
free app (The Daily Dozen) that helps you track your daily WFPB
food intake; this app should be a good fit for those eating a Word
of Wisdom diet. And there are many pages helping people
start and maintain a WFPB diet that would equally help anyone
starting a Word of Wisdom diet.
That's a wrap!
This has been a wonderful side trip in my WFPB research.
Sites promoting the Word of Wisdom diet to those in the Mormon
church have provided me with still more options in my studies and
my personal diet. Great fun!
Stay safe...
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