Why is your diet so restrictive?

Life here is a blur. It's hard to mark the passage of days. I enjoy watching the steady improvement in the health of our guests, and am sad each time one leaves to return to life in the bigger world. I really hope people are maintaining the diet they started here, and with it their good health.
I freely admit that the diet here seems very restrictive. Not only is it a vegan diet, it's a healthy one without added salt, sugar, and oil. I've seen vegans come in and improve on the diet. Why the limitations?

Photo courtesy of Theodore Fields, Gout:Risk Factors, Diagnosis and Treatment.

Meat seems strongly linked to many of the prevalent diseases of today. Americans, and others, now face diseases of affluence. Gout is a prime example of a very painful diseases that is obviously influenced by meat and alcohol consumption.
Salt intake is strongly associated with elevated blood pressure. If you consume sodium, your body will work to maintain the correct percentage in the blood. To do this, you retain more fluid. Adding more fluid to a closed system (your blood vessels) will cause the pressure to go up.
Sugar is sticky. We all know this fact. We tend to forget though that sugar is sticky inside of us as well. When things in our bodies become sticky with sugar we call them glycosolated. Common things that get coated with sugars are our red blood cells (hemoglobin A1c measures how coated they are), blood vessels, and eye lenses (cataracts).
Fats are tasty. They are high calorie foods rich in flavor. However, fats in excess are bad for our health. If we meet our energy needs, extra fuel is stored as fat. Many of us live rather sedentary lives. People drive to work, sit at a desk, drive home, and relax on the couch. The food we eat provides more than enough calories to meet our needs.

Celery Root Slaw

Eating large quantities of fresh vegetables and fruits, with small amounts of nuts, seeds, and grains, provides all of our nutritional needs. However, the traditional salad bowl is not big enough. You should eat a good quantity of plant based foods. You will feel full, while eating a fraction of the calories a typical meal provides.
This is a quick overview of reasons to eat the diet we promote at TrueNorth. To find out more about the food visit, the TrueNorth Kitchen. If you would like me to expand on something please post a comment!

PS For those following my weight, its 121.6. I seem to be holding steady at this point. For those of you worried this diet would make me too skinny, I think its safe to say you were wrong.