— Nikka Smith

You shouldn't feel guilty about that at all. In fact, the more you cook, uh, I'm guessing you're saying in this, uh, for a whole food plant-based, uh, lifestyle, the more you cook in that style, the better the flavors will get just because the more, uh, skill you're going to learn and the better you're going to be able to season your food, um, you know, you can still get really big flavor out of whole food plant-based. Um, though there are a couple areas that we, um, we lay back on on the whole food plant-based areas that, um, specifically for forks over knives, they don't use any oils at all. Um, and the reason that people do use oil is it helps, helps to kind of help fat, basically helps to spread flavor around in your tongue. Um, and you can still get fat, fat from other sources, from, you know, nuts, seeds, avocados are definitely the best sources for whole food plant-based diets to be able to get your fats. Um, so you can help, you know, spread flavors through those as well. But also I'm a very big proponent of using fresh herbs, um, and spices to be able to really get the biggest flavor out of your meals. Um, you know, just like we were talking about before with a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle, you could actually get a really big flavor just by, um, using spices that are whole and then grinding them up right before you're going to use them. You're gonna get a much bigger flavor out of those. Now, some of these little tricks you might not have done in some of the cooking you were doing before, but you'll notice that big flavor is a result when you're cooking in whole food and plant-based. Um, if you're not doing any oil, that's fine, just look at nuts season and avocados as uh, your fat sources and look for ways to be able to help incorporate those into your meals where you're looking to get some bigger flavor and, um, some flavors that are reminiscent of the ways that you used to eat. So I hope that helps. Um, don't feel guilty at all for wanting to eat food that tastes good. Uh, that's, you know, we're wired that way. Um, and you should be able to eat well and you should be able to eat wonderful flavored meals.