Introducing Forks Flex Recipes: Why Some Forks Over Knives Recipes Now Include Optional Oil

Since our founding in 2011, Forks Over Knives has followed the guidance of whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) pioneers Caldwell B. Esselstyn, M.D.; T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.; and Dean Ornish, M.D., who advise heart disease patients to avoid all added oils, even olive oil, because they are highly refined, calorie-dense, and stripped of most nutrients other than fat. Until now, Forks Over Knives recipes have always been oil-free.

But not all WFPB experts agree that it’s necessary to avoid oil to reap the benefits of the diet. We also recognize that a strict no-oil stance can deter newcomers from adopting or even trying a healthy plant-based lifestyle. Our mission is to help people embrace a diet rich in whole plant-based foods—whether or not that includes small amounts of oil.

To keep in step with that mission, we are introducing Forks Flex Recipes into our recipe collection. Like all FOK recipes, every Forks Flex Recipe is built around whole or minimally processed plant-based ingredients. The difference is that a Forks Flex Recipe will include a modest amount of optional oil, usually extra-virgin olive oil. The choice is yours: Exercise the oil option, or leave it out. The oil-free version will be lighter, but both versions will be vegan and cholesterol-free, with nutritionally conservative levels of fat and sodium.

The guiding principle of the WFPB diet is a focus on whole (or minimally processed) plant-based foods. Oil is not a health food and not essential to a healthy diet. For people with heart disease or major risk factors such as hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes, or obesity, avoiding or minimizing added oil is beneficial. For others, research suggests a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil or other vegetable oil is unlikely to be harmful. That being said, oils remain the world’s most calorie-dense foods, so replacing them with whole foods is always a win.