SOS Free Vegan Lifestyle- Why it is working for me

At the beginning of this year, 2021, my body was sent into another spiral. Whether it be from added stressors or flare ups from my conditions, I knew that something had to change. I am always reminded of the healing power of nutrition and even though I really do eat well, I knew I could make changes to optimize my health. Last year I followed AIP Paleo for about 4 months and felt amazing. After that I continued to eat paleo with some things still omitted like night shades and nuts and seeds for the most part. Of course, I am human and indulged when it felt worth it, but everyone should be able to do that when accompanied by a nutrient dense, whole food diet and their bodies should be able to handle it. Mine still wasn’t, which meant to me that my allostatic load was still high and my window of tolerance low. When you have a body sensitive to inflammation and autoimmune attacks you have to be especially careful with stress and anything that contributes to it. As many of you know, lifestyle factors are huge but so is what you put into your body. I began to research even more what choices I could make to optimize my health, and to continue to heal my infertility and autoimmune conditions, and I landed on the SOS free vegan lifestyle. To be completely honest with you, about 3 months ago I told my sister “you won’t ever catch me being a vegan, I love meat.” Insert eye roll and never say never, because it has happened. This isn’t me telling you that you need to go fully plant based because I think for many people there is a place for meat in your diet, as long as you are doing it sustainably and ethically. But for me, going plant based could have been the best decision I have made up to this point in my nutrition, for ME. 

Not only was it from the elimination of meat, but also the elimination of added salt, sugar and oil. For individuals who have a hard time digesting, eliminating meat gives your body a break to optimize digestion, and learn how to properly digest again while also prioritizing and giving that energy over to other systems in your body to heal. One of the hardest parts for me, and what I still find myself craving is salt. I eliminated processed salts a while ago, but I was still salting my foods with Redmond's Real Salt on the regular. I carried around a little tube of it in my purse because I didn’t trust restaurant salts, but also during the pandemic I wasn't ever sure if I would be offered it, and like I said, I salted everything. Going added sugar and oil free wasn’t too hard because I have been paleo for about 5 years now and I have cooked with very little oil as well. I just had to learn to transition to either boiling, steaming or dry roasting my vegetables. 

With all of this being said, the transition for me wasn’t terrible because I have been making transitions towards this lifestyle (without knowing it) for about 5 years now. If you are coming from the standard american diet, going straight to being SOS free vegan would be tough. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but it would be a harder transition for you and might take some extended research and pantry clean outs. I am ALWAYS open to help if you believe this could be something for you, but I recommend starting small. You can start by beginning to eliminate processed foods from your diet, and even added sugars! Once you do this you are on your way! 

What does SOS free vegan mean simply?

Transitioning to a salt, oil, sugar free vegan lifestyle means you are removing all added salt, oil and sugar from your diet as well as animal products. Don’t get caught up in what you can’t have but focus on all of the amazing nutrient dense whole foods you CAN have. Foods including: Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts and seeds. Focusing on vegetables and fruits as the majority of your food intake during the day. 

You will be avoiding: any animal product, including meat, dairy, eggs and fish, all added sugar, oil and salt. As well as refined grains and other processed foods. 

So why eliminate salt, oil and sugar? 

One notable thing that I realized when I started eating this way was finally feeling fully satiated and knowing when it was time to stop eating and actually stopping. Like many Americans I struggled sometimes with over consumption. Over consumption can lead to many chronic illnesses and over consuming food for many people is something that is really hard to overcome, but there is a reason to it and a reason why will power alone cannot help us all of the time.  There was a mechanism that was developed in our brains from our ancestors when they feared starvation and survival. Nowadays because of our access to food many of us don’t fear starvation, but our brain still has the same mechanism that recognizes overly salty, sugary, and oily foods. Most salty, sugary, and oily foods are high in calories, so when our ancestors came across them they were to eat them in abundance because they weren’t sure when starvation would come. Back then though these foods high in salt, oil and sugar were still foods provided from mother nature like honey and fruits, not gummy bears and lays potato chips. Naturally though we still do the same thing, when we eat something that is high in processed sugar, oils and/or salt (mostly a combination of all three), we over eat them because our brain is signaling to us to keep eating because one day these might not be available. In reality they are everywhere. The food industry plays off of these mechanisms which is why they are continuing to make things that are high in all three of these compounds. When I stopped consuming things with added sugar, salt and oil even if it was something healthy, I realized that it was easier for me to tune back into my hunger signals and to stop eating when I was actually full. What is important to remember here is the removal of processed foods is a HUGE start to this, and even if this is something you can only commit to it is SUCH a great start towards health and will reduce your risk of chronic illness tremendously. 

Here is one thing you need to remember: just because we are removing salt, oil and sugar from our diets doesn’t mean that we won’t get it at all. Almost everything that exists in nature has the PERFECT and BALANCED amount of salt, oil and sugar in it. Mother nature gives us everything we need, perfectly! Second, getting rid of animal protein doesn’t mean we will be deficient in our protein needs as well. As i mentioned above, plants have protein in them and if we are eating them the way we should be we will be supplied with adequate amounts of protein as well. 

Living the SOS Free Vegan lifestyle encourages you to eliminate animal foods and eat whole plant foods found in nature that provide you with a dense amount of nutrients that are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. These substances have been found to help reduce the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, kidney dysfunction and some types of cancer. A diet that is plant based and high in the nutrients provided by plants found in nature are correlated to many different types of disease reversal, the reduction of oxidative stress in the body and lowered cellular inflammation. 

Why Salt Free?

We eat so much salt without having to even add extra salt to our food in the society we live in. Anything that is processed almost by definition has way too much salt in it. No wonder why we have a problem with high blood pressure in our nation and why people have become so addicted to salt, to be honest I probably was one of them! Diets that are high in salt have been shown to spike blood pressure, and decrease arterial functioning and antioxidant activity (Goldhamer & Myers, 2019). Diets high in salt are also shown to negatively affect the gut microbiome and immunity leading to many different chronic illnesses. 

Why Sugar Free? 

Natural sugars in whole foods from nature, like fruit, isn’t the enemy here, it is the added processed sugars that we find in almost everything. Diets that are high in indeed sugars have been shown to be associated again with many different chronic illnesses like nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes, CVD and cancer (Goldhamer & Myers, 2019). There are so many foods that have unnecessarily high amounts of added sugars in them, so make sure you check your labels. 

Why Oil Free?

We can go down a rabbit hole here, but bottom line the oils we see in the stores are far from their natural forms. Many oils we use to cook with have been processed and denatured in a way that takes most of the benefits away from them and also leaves them toxic before we even put them in the frying pan. Many of us are also unaware that each oil has a different smoke point and if that point is reached or if we have gone over its smoke point the oil becomes extremely toxic in our bodies because of the free radicals it has created. Oils are not inherently bad, but what has been done to them as they are processed into the oils many of us use today makes them rancid and toxic in the body. Diets that are high in oils and fats are associated with an increased risk of many chronic illnesses that are plaguing our world today. These are diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease (Goldhamer & Myers, 2019). There are different sorts of fats which we won’t get into here, and some are better than others, the point we are making here is we are naturally getting the fats we need without adding them to the diet and we are getting them in the form nature intended us to by eating a whole food, plant based diet.  If you are going to continue adding oils in our diet, make sure you do your research on which are better to cook with and which are processed in a way that in turn protects the oil and protects your body. Olive oil for example needs to be cold pressed and needs to be stored in a container that protects it from the sun so it won’t be oxidized. This oil is also lower in steam point so shouldn't be used to bake or fry, but for dressings. Coconut and avocado oil have higher steam points so are a better choice for cooking uses. Please do your research! 

Again, start small! I know this can be a lot, but knowledge is power and you can be in control of your health and your choices. You can start by just replacing one meal a day SOS free, or even one day a week without any processed foods. The choice is yours and when we make small sustainable changes this is when the true transformation begins. 

Goldhamer, A., & Myers, A. (2019, September 24). An introduction to the whole Food, plant-based, SOS-Free Diet. Retrieved February 22, 2021, from https://nutritionstudies.org/an-introduction-to-the-whole-food-plant-based-sos-free-diet/