The World's Finest Diet

Episode 4. Getting Started with the 4LeafSurvey.

Episode Summary

The first stage in your journey towards better nutrition is to establish just where you are on this road already. Usually anyone wanting nutritional advice would attend a consultation with a nutritionist or diet specialist and spend perhaps over an hour completing a vast amount of form filling gathering data on your eating habits, nutritional requirements and so forth, however with the whole plant diet it is possible to gain sufficient information from a very simple questionnaire based on just twelve questions about your normal eating habits. This questionnaire is called the 4LeafSurvey and it is based on an eating concept designed to make it easy for everyone to learn how to eat a near-optimal diet.

Episode Notes

The Worlds Finest Diet. Episode 4. Getting Started with the 4LeafSurvey.

The first stage in your journey towards better nutrition is to establish just where you are on this road already. Usually anyone wanting nutritional advice would attend a consultation with a nutritionist or diet specialist and spend perhaps over an hour completing a vast amount of form filling gathering data on your eating habits, nutritional requirements and so forth, however with the whole plant diet it is possible to gain sufficient information from a very simple questionnaire based on just twelve questions about your normal eating habits.
This questionnaire is called the 4LeafSurvey and it is based on an eating concept designed to make it easy for everyone to learn how to eat a near optimal diet.

Well, what in fact is an optimal diet for humans? This has been the basis of many thousands of hours of debate discussion and argument over the years but to cut to the chase let's just take a statement from the Cornell Professor who led the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted. He summarizes his conclusions after half a century in a career as a nutritional scientist as follows:

“The closer we get to eating a diet of whole, plant-based foods, the better off we will be” Dr.T.Colin Campbell, Ph.D., nutritional biochemist.

So the 4LeafSurvey is a guide to where a person is on this journey towards the optimal diet. There are six levels that are based primarily on the percentage of calories derived from whole plant foods.

At the bottom we call this a typical Western diet or the SAD Standard American Diet, it is the unhealthy diet and this usually contains a combination of meat, dairy, eggs, fish and more highly processed foods for almost every meal. This is probably the most popular diet style and is associated with a whole series of serious health problems and less than 10% of calories are derived from whole plants.

At the next level, which is better than most, the percentage of calories derived from whole plants ranges from 10 to 20%, and those at this level are trying to eat a little healthier diet but they do need a better understanding of what promotes good health.

At the one-leaf level we are looking at a diet that consists of between 20 and 40% of calories derived from whole plants. Although this is eating more plants than the majority of folks, people at this level are not consuming enough to provide much protection against disease.

At the two-leaf level the percentage of calories derived from whole plants has risen to 40 to 60% and you are now eating 4 to 5 times more whole plants than most. Those at this level are still falling short of ensuring long-term vibrant health.

At the three-leaf level 60 to 80% of calories are derived from plants. These people are getting over half the total calories from health promoting whole plant-based food and are experiencing many of the benefits of healthy eating.

At the four-leaf level over 80% of calories are derived from whole plants. In the West this represents a very small minority of the population, and these people tend to be trim and enjoy vibrant health, lots of energy, take no medications and rarely have any disease and are likely to live a long and healthy life.
So proceeding to complete this questionnaire, you will need to give your best estimate of your daily consumption of just twelve food groups. These are the questions you will need to answer:

1. Fresh fruit. On average, how many daily servings of whole, fresh fruit do you eat? (fruit juice doesn't count as is not the whole plant.)
   2.Whole vegetables. On average, how many daily servings of whole vegetables do you eat.
2. Whole grains, legumes, potatoes. On average how many daily servings of these do you eat.
3. Omega-3s. Are you getting all you need from whole plant-based sources like flax seeds, walnuts and chia seeds?
4. Dairy foods. How many days per week do you eat dairy foods like cheese and yoghurt and ice cream?
5. Eggs. How many days per week do either eat eggs or add them as an ingredient when cooking?
6. Cows milk or cream. How many days per week you drink or add these to your food like cereal, coffee, etc?
7. Added sugar. Are you really serious about eliminating added sugar at home and in food products that you buy?
8. White flour. Bread, pasta, cakes & biscuits made with white flour. How would you describe your consumption level of these foods?
9. Sweets and salty snacks. How would you best describe your consumption level of these foods?
10. Meat, poultry and fish. How many of your meals per week include any animal flesh? (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey or fish)
11. Vegetable oil. How many of your meals per week include any oil, like olive, canola or coconut? All oil is 100% fat not a whole plant.
    So now you know what questions you will be asked to go to the 4LeafSurvey online HEREor complete the 4leafsurvey questionnaire HERE
    Whichever route you take you will find your 4LeafSurvey score that can range from -44 to +44.
    The six levels on the 4leafsurvey score system correspond to the following scores.
    A score of -21 to -44 is the bottom level and the most unhealthy diet.
    A score of -1 to -20 is in the second level and is better than most.
    A score of 0 to +9 is the one-leaf level,
    A score of +10 to +19 is the two-leaf level,
    A score of +20 to +29 is the three-leaf level
    A score of +30 to +44 is the four-leaf level.

Now that you have your 4LeafScore the next episode will give you the advice as to how to improve on it and so progress to an optimal diet for your health and wellbeing.