Home Nutrition What is Plant Based Diet and What is its Benefits?

What is Plant Based Diet and What is its Benefits?

by Gauri Kolhe

Diet oriented discussions have a term plant based diet. What is it? Is it healthy? There are many questions focuses on plant based diet.

A diet having all components entirely from plant based food is plant based diet. Plant base diet includes all kind of fruits (berries, apples, bananas, citrus food, melons and avocado) and vegetables (carrots, kale, beetroot, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower).

This also includes nuts (almonds, pistachios, macadamia, hazel nut, brazil, cashews), herbs (basil, parsely, rosemary), beans, whole grain (buckwheat, barley, oat, brown rice, quiona, spelt), cereals, oils (canola oil, olive oil), seeds (chia, hemp, flaxseed) and legumes (peas, kidney bean, black bean, lentils, chickpeas).

Plant based milk is also a must having component such as almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk and soy milk. If you going to have Plant based diet, that doesn’t mean you can never have meat and eggs or dairy products.

Plant based diet consists proportion between meat and food comes from plant. Food from plants has a large proportion compared to meat.

Plant based diet are of Mediterranean and vegetarian kind of diet. Both have their own composition with various health benefits.

When you choose Mediterranean diet, you goanna have plant based food and this also consists eggs, poultry food, sea fish, and dairy products frequently.

Mediterranean plant based diet offers you all kind of essential nutrients and micronutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, and minerals.

Vegetarian plant based diet provides you all nutrient and micronutrients and assures protection from various diseases and make you living a healthy and happy life.

Vegetarian food have its own colours such as semi vegetarian or flexitarian which includes eggs, dairy food, poultry food , fish and sometimes meat.

Vegetarian food, sometimes referred as lacto-ovo vegetaraian, appends dairy food and eggs but meat, fish and poultry food are excluding.

Pescatanian is a category of vegetarian covering dairy products, fish and seafood but keep out poultry and meat.

Vegan which is most trending nowadays includes only plant based food and eliminate animal based food.

Benefits of plant based diet-

plant based diet

Each and every smallest nutrient has its own effects on body and plant based diet has many benefits on health as it is rich with phytonutrients and fibers.

Plant based food, have higher carbohydrate and water content, increase energy level. Protein rich plant based diet promotes muscle gain naturally and keep providing energy.

Food enriched with fiber promotes digestion and helps in better absorption of nutrients and helps to increase metabolism.

Peoples having plant based diet have a lower body mass index. Plant based diet assist insulin secretion and help in metabolism of glucose hence diabetes can be managed by plant based diets

In studies carried out in large population and randomized clinical trials, it has been found that Mediterranean plant based diet reduces the risk of metabolic diseases, diabetes, certain cancers and heart disease.  

In older patient, plant based diet helps to maintain mental and physical function. Regular consumption of plant based food promotes free radical destruction and reduces oxidative stress which is the key driver of various inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

Vegetarian diets have been reported to support human health in many ways such as reducing the risk of coronary heart diseases, high blood pressure, and hypertension. Plant based diet slower the process of aging and enhance longevity.

Second thing comes to your manner that, in which manner you should have eat plant based diet or how you should start it. Here are some tips to how can you customize plant based diet-

  • Take a lots of vegetables at lunch and dinner time and ensure you choose different colorful vegetables as they contains different antioxidants having distinct colors such as orange color and yellow colored vegetables and foods consisting retinols. Make lots of guacamole and salsa or lunch and dinner.
  • Have small portions of meat and than half of your plate full of vegetables. You can give a better look by garnishing in with meat.
  • Have lots if green leafy vegetables like spinach, collards, Swiss chard, kale with their original flavours protected by sta3eming, braising and grilling. Include salad in your meals with addition of herbs, peas, beans and tofu.
  • Includes whole grain in your breakfast such buckwheat, barely oatmeal or quinoa.
  • Instead of having cake puddings, muffins, cupcakes have some caramelised fruit. Juicy and refreshing melons, crispy pears and caramelised apple will be a sweet treat to you.

Regimen for eating plant based diet throughout a day

  • Only having balanced diet any plant based diet mot sufficient to get a healthy life. A proper regimen should have followed in order to uprising the benefits of food. It’s very easy to switch on plant based diet but not to start. So you can have some ideas how to start healthy plant based diet.
  • Get started with your breakfast with some easy food. Put together some oat with walnuts, bananas, avocado and sprinkle cinnamon.
  • Wrap some scrambled eggs, onions, tomatoes, beans, peppers in whole wheat wraps and put some salsa or chilli sauce on the top.
  • Include salads, soups and whole grain crackers in your lunch. Prepare some Greek salad by rolling together some freshly chopped green, tomatoes, olive oil, parsley and cheese. Garnish it with calamata olive.
  • Have some seeds such as chia seeds, sesame seeds sprinkling on the top of the salad as they are good source of fibre and fats.
  • Make some tomato, beans and carrot soups.
  • Have some pizza with lots of vegetables on topping with mozzarella cheese.
  • Whole wheat pasta, spaghetti with cannellini beans and peas is the best choice when it comes to dinner. A Romanian salad with freshly chopped tomatoes with mixed extravergin oil and balsamic vinegar is like cherry on the top
  • A salad of quiona and spinach, vegetarian chilli with spinach-orzo salad are best options for dinner.

Go for plant based diet and give colourful and healthy treat to your eyes as well as your health…..

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