The Vegan Junk Food Trap: How You Can Eat Plant-Based and Still Feel Terrible
If you’ve ever gone plant-based with the best intentions but still felt bloated, tired, and no better than before, you’re not alone. And, you didn’t fail.
It was the food that let you down.
This is one of the most common and least talked-about experiences in the plant-based world. People make a genuine, motivated decision to change the way they eat. They cut out meat and dairy. They fill their trolley with vegan alternatives - the cheese, the sausages, the ready meals with a green leaf on the packet. And then, weeks later, they actually feel worse than when they started.
They start thinking it’s a willpower problem, but it’s not, it’s a processed food problem. And understanding the difference between vegan eating and whole food plant-based eating is the thing that changes everything.
Why This Matters More Than People Realise
During my own pregnancy, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which is a form of high blood sugar that develops when pregnancy hormones create insulin resistance, meaning the body can’t regulate blood glucose effectively. Managing it sent me deep into the research around food, blood sugar, and whole plant eating. What I found was both fascinating and frustrating: the evidence for whole food plant-based eating was overwhelming, but almost nobody was talking about the difference between that and simply going vegan.
That gap between what the research actually shows and what most people understand about plant-based eating is a big part of why Mell’s Kitchen exists.
What Gestational Diabetes Has to Do With All of This
Gestational diabetes affects a significant number of pregnancies in the UK, and its long-term implications are far more serious than many people realise.
Research published by Cambridge Population Health Sciences (2021) found that a third of women who develop gestational diabetes will go on to develop type 2 diabetes within 15 years and that risk continues to grow each year. A study published in PLOS Medicine (2018) found that women with a history of GDM were significantly more likely to develop hypertension and ischaemic heart disease.
According to research published in the International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (2023), women with a history of GDM have an 8–10-fold higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a 2-fold higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared with women without prior GDM.
In other words, gestational diabetes is a warning signal. It’s a moment where the body is asking for a different approach and the research is increasingly clear about what that approach looks like.
A healthy plant-based diet prior to pregnancy has been associated with a 19% reduction in risk of gestational diabetes, according to researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Crucially, the benefit was seen specifically in healthy plant-based diets (those rich in whole foods, not refined grains, sugary drinks, or processed alternatives).
The Vegan Junk Food Trap
Here’s what the trap looks like in practice.
Someone decides to go plant-based. They’re motivated for their health, for the planet, for the animals. They swap meat and dairy for what’s readily available: vegan cheese, plant-based burgers, meat-free sausages, oat milk lattes, biscuits that are dairy-free, crisps with a vegan logo.
Technically plant-based.
Nutritionally it is often a completely different story.
The majority of processed vegan products are made with refined grains, seed oils, emulsifiers, flavourings, stabilisers, and added sugars. The fibre has been stripped out. The micronutrients are minimal. And the body responds accordingly - blood sugar spikes and crashes, energy is unpredictable, weight doesn’t shift, and the person is left wondering what they’re doing wrong.
They’re not doing anything wrong. They’ve just been sold the idea that vegan and healthy are the same thing. They’re not.
A 2017 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine followed over 200,000 people and found that those eating diets rich in whole plant foods had significantly lower rates of coronary heart disease. Those eating diets rich in unhealthy plant foods (refined grains, juices, sugar-sweetened foods) saw no such benefit. (Satija et al., 2017)
What Whole Food Plant-Based Actually Means
Whole food plant-based eating (WFPB) is not the same as vegan eating. Understanding this distinction is one of the most useful things anyone interested in their health can do.
Vegan means avoiding all animal products. 0That’s the only requirement. It says nothing about nutritional quality, processing level, or health impact.
Whole food plant-based means eating food that is as close to its natural state as possible (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, pulses, nuts, and seeds) with minimal processing, no added oils, no refined sugars, and no artificial ingredients.
Whole plant foods are naturally high in fibre, which feeds the gut microbiome, supports blood sugar regulation, and promotes real satiety. They’re rich in polyphenols and antioxidants. They contain the full spectrum of micronutrients, intact and in the form the body knows how to use. Processed vegan foods, by contrast, often spike blood sugar quickly, contribute to inflammation, and leave you reaching for something else an hour later.
The Oil Question
One of the cornerstones of whole food plant-based eating that surprises people most is the avoidance of added oils, including olive oil, which has long been positioned as a health essential.
Oil in its extracted form is a processed food. When oil is separated from its whole food source (the olive, the seed, the nut) the fibre and most of the micronutrients are removed. Research published in Nutrition Reviews (2020) found that low-fat whole food plant-based diets showed significant improvements in insulin sensitivity, while diets high in total fat (including plant-based oils) were associated with increased insulin resistance. (Barnard et al., 2020)
At Mell’s Kitchen, I use no oil in any of my cooking processes. Everything is prepared using whole food methods like roasting, steaming, dry-frying, water sautéing which preserve the nutritional value of the ingredients without adding unnecessary fat.
What Whole Food Eating Actually Looks Like
Whole food plant-based eating looks like a chickpea curry fragrant with turmeric, cumin, and garam masala over brown rice. A rich lentil-based stew with roasted vegetables and fresh herbs. A tofu teriyaki with sesame, ginger, and sticky rice. A hearty potato casserole. A warming Thai-style curry. A rainbow lentil salad packed with colour and texture.
It looks like food you actually want to eat, food that satisfies you properly, that gives you energy rather than taking it away, that you look forward to at the end of a long day.
The meals at Mell’s Kitchen are all high protein, under 500 calories, and made without a drop of oil. But beyond the numbers, they’re made with real, whole ingredients that are prepared in combinations designed to nourish, sustain, and genuinely taste incredible.
The Bottom Line
Plant-based eating is not a guarantee of good health. The supermarket is full of products that are technically plant-based and nutritionally hollow. Swapping a processed omnivore diet for a processed vegan diet doesn’t address the root of the problem, it just moves it.
Whole food plant-based eating is different. It is backed by decades of research and is consistently associated with benefits for weight, blood sugar, inflammation, cardiovascular health, and gut microbiome diversity. And when done well is genuinely one of the most enjoyable, varied, and sustainable ways of eating available.
If you’ve tried plant-based before and felt terrible, it wasn’t the plants. It was the processing. And the difference is worth understanding.
Ready to try whole food plant-based eating without the guesswork? Everything at Mell’s Kitchen is high protein, under 500 calories, and made with no oil. It is real food that is ready to heat and eat. If you’re new to Mell’s Kitchen, use code MONTH25 to get 25% off your first four subscription boxes, that’s 4 for the price of 3.
Sources Referenced
Cambridge Population Health Sciences (2021). 33% of Women Who Have Gestational Diabetes Will Develop Type 2 Diabetes Within 15 Years.
Daly et al. (2018). Increased Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease, Hypertension, and Type 2 Diabetes in Women with Previous GDM. PLOS Medicine.
Adam et al. (2023). Pregnancy as an Opportunity to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: FIGO Best Practice Advice. International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics.
Satija et al. (2017). Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease. JAMA Internal Medicine.
Qian et al. / Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2024). Plant-Based Diet Before Pregnancy Reduces Gestational Diabetes Risk.
Barnard et al. (2020). Low-Fat, Plant-Based Diets and Insulin Resistance. Nutrition Reviews.
PMC / NCBI (2021). Impact of a Plant-Based Diet on Gestational Diabetes