A plant-based diet may be thought of as a boring and restrictive way to eat. But the truth is that this way of eating can help you to lose weight, fight disease, and reduce your carbon footprint. You can also save money by cutting down on processed foods and animal products.
What is a plant-based diet?
A plant-based diet is a diet that includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. A vegan diet also excludes all animal products (such as meat, eggs and dairy) while a vegetarian diet excludes meat but keeps animal products like eggs and cheese.
There are many benefits to eating plants: they’re low in calories but high in nutrients so you can eat more without gaining weight. Plants have been shown to reduce risk for heart disease and diabetes and some studies have found that eating more plants may help fight cancer. If you don’t adopt a full plant-based lifestyle, adding more vegetables into your diet will make it easier for you to meet your daily nutrient requirements without consuming higher fats and sugars.
A plant-based diet can improve your overall health
A plant-based diet is not only good for your health, it can also prevent and treat many diseases. Plants contain abundant amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that help to lower cholesterol levels, reduce blood pressure and prevent heart disease. Plant-based diets are low in calories and high in nutrients such as potassium (good for maintaining healthy blood pressure) or magnesium (which helps to build bones). They’re also low in saturated fat and high in soluble fiber.
A plant-based diet may be beneficial for weight loss since it tends to be low in calories but high in nutrients so you’ll feel satisfied after eating less than before.
The benefits of a plant-based diet
- Plant-based diets can help improve your overall health. A plant-based diet is one that focuses on eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables and beans instead of animal products like meat and dairy. The American Heart Association has stated that a plant-based diet can reduce your risk of heart disease by as much as 32%, which is twice the reduction you get from taking cholesterol-lowering medications!
- Plant-based diets can help reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Studies have shown that people who eat more fruits and veggies have lower risks for these diseases than those who don’t eat many fruits or veggies at all (1). In fact, one study found that men with high vegetable intake had a 36% lower risk for developing prostate cancer versus men who ate few vegetables (2).
How a plant based diet can help our planet
- Reduce your carbon footprint.
- Reduce your water footprint.
- Reduce your waste footprint.
- Reduce your land footprint.
- Reduce your energy footprint.
A plant-based diet can reduce the food consumed by up to 80 percent. This means there’s less land needed to grow crops, feed animals, less transportation requirements, and reduce fertilizer and pesticides in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also cuts down on packaging waste since most meat comes prepackaged at the grocery store!
How a plant-based diet can save you money
You may be wondering whether a plant-based diet is more expensive or less expensive than an omnivorous one. The answer to this question depends on how you eat. If you eat out often and purchase pre-packaged, processed foods (like frozen pizza), then it’s likely that eating plant-based can be cheaper than your current diet. However, if you cook homemade meals at home and buy fresh produce on a regular basis, then it’s possible that moving toward a plant-based lifestyle will actually cost more money in the short term (though it will save you money in the long run).
Here are some key tips for saving money while following a vegan lifestyle:
- Purchase what’s in season so that fruits and vegetables are at their lowest price point of the year. Buy extra produce when they’re cheap and freeze them for later use all year round! You can also preserve some of your harvest by making jams or freezing sauces from them (like pesto).
Reversing Type 2 diabetes with a plant-based diet
In fact, a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways to reverse type 2 diabetes. This is because it not only improves your blood sugar levels, but also helps to regulate your insulin resistance.
In addition to reversing type 2 diabetes naturally, a whole food, plant-based diet can also provide you with many other benefits including:
- Lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels
- Losing weight (if you need to)
- Being more energetic and feeling better overall.
Helping your heart by switching to a plant-based diet
Switching to a plant-based diet can help reduce cholesterol levels.
It can also lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease, strokes and cancer.
Getting started on a whole-foods plant-based diet
- Plan and prepare. It’s important to be prepared when beginning a plant-based diet. Do your research, plan weekly meals, shop accordingly and create a stockpile of staples. This ensures you have plenty of healthy food in the house at all times.
- Buy whole-foods over processed ones. Whole-foods include plants or animals (or both) while processed foods have been altered from their original state through manufacturing techniques like heating, pressing, grinding and mixing ingredients with chemicals in order to extend shelf life or improve flavour. Whole foods are usually cheaper than their packaged counterparts because they don’t require any extra packaging materials or preservatives for them to stay fresh—which also makes it easier on your wallet!
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day: Fruits provide vitamins A through C as well as fiber while vegetables contain calcium along with potassium which helps regulate blood pressure levels inside our bodies
Conclusion
Getting started on a whole-foods plant-based diet can be overwhelming, but it’s not impossible. The most important thing is to remember that you don’t have to do this alone! You are not alone in your journey towards a healthier lifestyle, and there are plenty of resources at your disposal. If you have any questions about what to eat or how to get started eating more plants, please feel free to leave them below! We hope this guide has helped answer some of your questions about going vegan or vegetarian (or if not yet ready for that step but considering it!), so now we just need one more thing from all of us: action!