WFPB diet and vegan cheese

[Sunshine State Sue]

I follow a Whole Food Plant Based diet for weight maintenance and health reasons.  Dh, bless his heart, caters to my preferences when he cooks 1x/wk.  This week, he made pizza using So Delicious Mozzarella Style Shreds.  Ingredients: Filtered Water, Coconut Oil, Potato Starch, Modified Potato Starch, Potato Protein Isolate, Salt, Cellulose, Tapioca Dextrose, Natural Flavor, Cultured Sugar,  Yeast Extract, Xanthan Gum, Konjac Gum, Annoto Extract.

Somehow, I think dairy mozzarella would be closer to the spirit of "real food" than this vegan version.  Would you agree or disagree?

Bonus points for someone who can give me the words to nicely point it out to him.

[Spryte]

I think it depends if you are going for “real” food or a plant based diet? 

Do you ever eat plant based cheese at all? Or maybe you are going for no cheese-like substances? I don’t know where dairy falls on the whole food spectrum or if you consider it “real.” PB dairy definitely fits the plant based part though! I don’t consider it particularly healthy, though. More of an occasional treat food.

If it’s about a food preference… DD and I love pizza with no cheese at all, just other toppings - that could work. Was the So Delicious just not your preference? Totally understandable … we find they have two types, one is better than the other. But our preference for plant based cheese is Good Planet. We use plant based cheese all the time.

I have two kids who are anaphylactic to dairy, so this is a Thing in our house. We’ve spent way too much time discussing PB cheeses here. 🤣

[HomeAgain]

Real mozzarella is a chemical reaction between milk and rennet, bathed in salt water.  Even though it's not vegan, it's a simple food with 4 ingredients, each of which occur naturally with no or minimal processing.

The idea of creating a lab based replica with several processed pieces defeats the purpose, for me, of a whole food or simple food diet.  None of those ingredients are in their whole food form except salt and sugar.

[TheReader]

I'm with Spryte on this one. 

Your DH thought that he was being kind & considerate, in serving you a plant-based substitute for dairy (which is, presumably, not included in your diet). 

If you feel you must say something, I'd tell him thank you for thinking of you, and for forsaking real dairy cheese himself in order to help you stick to your diet. Then let him know that if he likes, next time he can do half real dairy, half cheeseless, so he doesn't have to go to that trouble again.  Or, offer to pick up your preferred plant based cheese.  Perhaps something like, "That was so sweet! I hate that you skipped cheese, too, though, dear; next time, let me know, and I'll get this xyz substitute I like -- you might like the taste of it a little better. Or we can just go half cheeseless/half real cheese, because honestly I enjoy pizza even without cheese on it." 

But I don't think I'd crap all over his kind gesture by telling how much he got wrong about it. 

[HomeAgain]

Another thought - In our family we prefer to make individual pizzas.  We divide two balls of dough to about flatbread size, and everyone can put what they like on theirs.  I don't often eat tomato sauce so mine uses things like a fig paste or pesto or even just a garlic oil before being topped.  It lets the rest of the family not have to miss out of things they like because of my preferences. 🙂

[Spy Car]

Could your grandmother have purchased the ingredients in a grocery store?

Heck, could we purchase the ingredients in a grocery store? Do you even know what they are?

I am curious why the fake mozzarella includes annatto extract? Annatto would make the cheese look like (artificially colored) cheddar instead of appearing white.

Bill

[bensonduck]

I was vegan for a while and made pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil leaves, spinach leaves (they get crispy when cooked at high heat...yum) and nutritional yeast. Taste wise I think most plant based cheeses are gross. And you’re right that they are often more processed than dairy cheeses. Nutritional yeast is a decent substitute if you want to experiment. It’s kind of salty, more like Parmesan. 

[happi duck]

It's just too processed to be considered a WF.

"I saw on the internet that vegan cheese is too processed to be considered a whole food.  Since WFPB is working so well for me,  next time you want to make pizza I'd like to try my portion "cheese"less." 

[fairfarmhand]

Would you feel better if you found a dairy that made cheese with 100% grass fed dairy products? Because they exist!

[Katy]

I’ve seen people make a tangy “cheesy” sauce with mashed potatoes, lemon juice, salt, and nutritional yeast.  I usually prefer skipping that & topping it with a little hummus in place of cheese, and sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. And the hummus is probably easier for a DH anyway. 
 

I’ve always hated vegan cheese, but one of my kids with a dairy allergy loves it. 

[Corraleno]

I'm not totally clear on the question — are you saying that you would rather he use actual cheese when he cooks for you instead of vegan cheese? If so, I would just tell him that although you lean towards WFPB, the WF part is more important to you than the PB part, and you will eat cheese if he cooks with it.

Whether it's "better" to consume animal products or plant-based versions of those products really depends on the reason a person chooses a plant-based diet. Cheese from cow's milk certainly has fewer ingredients than plant-based cheese, but the ethical and environmental costs are vastly different. And even if personal health is the sole reason, I don't think fewer ingredients necessarily equals healthier; the key issue is what that food does to your body once it's consumed. I use a variety of plant milks, some of which include thickeners or gums, so those definitely have more ingredients than cow's milk, but I have seen a huge improvement in arthritis symptoms since I gave up dairy, so there's no question that plant milk is a healthier choice in my case.

My own reasons for eating WFPB diet include health, environmental, and animal welfare concerns, so I am all-in on the PB part but am more flexible on the WF part. For example, I do use olive and avocado oil, which are considered refined products, not whole foods. I use small amounts of vegan butter and occasionally have some plant-based ice cream as a treat. Sometimes I add a scoop of Orgain organic plant-based protein powder to a smoothie. I don't personally use cheese or meat substitutes (I'd rather just use nuts and nutritional yeast in place of cheese and get my protein from nuts/seeds/legumes), but I think they can be really helpful for people who are trying to transition to a more plant-based diet and want familiar looking foods to start with.

[Drama Llama]

. . . 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[Sunshine State Sue]

I am not strictly vegan.  My goal is <12 oz animal product per week.  I eat 1 serving of chicken/beef per week, get 1 scoop of ice cream per week (sometimes cashew milk based), and maybe an egg sometime during the week.  Typically pizza is out of the house 1x/mo with dairy cheese and veges.

I guess the WF option is more appealing to me than the PB option when I have to choose.  I've tried nutritional yeast on pizza.  Maybe I should try it again, but I'm just not really a fan.

Thanks folks.

[Selkie]

I eat wfpb and don't eat any kind of cheese (obviously) or cheese substitute. However, if you are looking for a good vegan cheese, I have heard many vegans rave about Miyoko's.

[marbel]

So, your husband was cooking this meal (and presumably planned it out without discussing specifics with you?), and he went with what he believed to be the best thing since clearly dairy mozzarella isn't going to work.

I'd just thank him for it and then some other time have a discussion about what foods work and what don't, so when he is cooking for you again he doesn't make a similar mistake.  Unless he is generally jerky about your dietary choices, I don't think there's any reason to correct him about this particular instance.