I'm going to have to disagree with SapphireLightening here at least on the
WFPB part. I went vegan just over 2 years ago and
- I didn't give up oil initially (oil is not a whole food). I still use it at times even though I have preached against it here.
- I didn't give up beer/alcohol at all (any alcohol is certainly not a whole food)
- I still occasionally ate/eat processed things made with processed food stuffs
like white flour.
I did however give up all meat, dairy, eggs and derivatives. For processed products,
if any were listed in the ingredients, I stopped using them.
I noticed a lot of health benefits just doing this.
I also noticed sometimes I was hungry even after eating. This was remedied
by upping more whole foods in my diet (which kept nutrients, including fiber which is super important, higher) and
adjusting for more consumption of calories - in general, more nutrient dense food
and the addition of higher calorie foods (nuts/seeds).
Now you have stated you want to work animal products back in if desired. Of
course as a vegan, I wouldn't suggest this. For starters, that might
mean 1 hamburger/piece of meat per month, per year or whatever. That's one
piece of meat that could be infected and make you violently ill. But even
if you avoid all that as many omnivores do, every time you eat any animal products
then your body adjusts for them. Un-beneficial bacteria in your gut develop
to process them, and these bacteria are at odds with the beneficial fiber
and resistant starch eating type. They compete for space in the gut and
are antagonists. They will make you crave more animal flesh and fat, and
if continued to be fed, they will create more problems over time. These
problems are many and varied, however the most obvious and immediate
minor one is bloating. Not bloating when you eat them, but bloating that will occur
when you stop and include more fiber, because when this is done the good bacteria
start to proliferate again and crowd out the animal flesh/fat eating kind. As a vegan,
bloating was part of my transition period and has not ever been a problem
since. However I do know at least one individual for whom it is a problem,
and the reason for this is that this person did not completely exclude
animal products, eating them less but not eliminating them, and as a result
experienced bloating every time they eliminated them for a while.
To sum up, I believe a degree of reduction, depending on how much of a degree
that is, will help improve your health if that is all you are after. But any
animal products in the diet present risk, that risk either being immediate risk
from things like salmonella, or the myriad of health risks that happen over time.
In any case, if you choose that risk, it's almost certain that even trying to
go 95% vegan is going to present difficulties, just from a microbiota point of
view.