The Gist of a Plant-Based Diet and How to Incorporate It Into Your Life

Choosing a diet that meets your physical needs and fits your lifestyle can seem complicated. There are many options out there, such as low-carb, no-carb, low-fat, high-fat, no-meat, no-sugar, and so forth. However, you don’t need a fancy and complicated diet to be healthy. Simply adopting a plant-based diet will give you energy and lower your risk for diseases -- and myPEAK! is here to show you how. 

What is a Plant-Based Diet?

A plant-based diet is not necessarily veganism or vegetarianism, although both of those diets are plant-based. Some people who choose to follow a plant-based diet also eat meat, eggs, and dairy. Eating a plant-based diet simply means adding more fruits and vegetables to your plate, as well as eating more whole foods and less harmful processed foods. 

To eat whole foods means to eat basically any food that you can grow in its original state. For instance, if you have a garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, and you pick them and eat them for dinner, that is eating whole foods. The same goes for purchasing produce at the grocery store. It’s important to note that all processed foods are not harmful. On a plant-based diet, you just try to minimize the processed foods that contain added sodium and sugar. 

Medical Benefits

Fruits and veggies have medicinal properties. A plant-based diet has been linked to the following health benefits:

• Lowering risk of cancer 

• Positive mental health benefits like reduced chance of depression

• Reversing advanced stages of heart disease

• Reversing and managing type 2 diabetes

• Managing weight

• Reducing weight of heart disease

• Treating hypertension 

• Reducing hypertension 

• Eliminating and reducing symptoms in chronic diseases

Seniors can particularly benefit from plant-based diets. Whole plant-based foods reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, help with bone density while maintaining muscle mass, and provide more energy to keep the body moving. 

Transition Smoothly and Slowly 

Two of the quickest ways to give up on a lifestyle change are to create too many restrictions for yourself and make too many drastic changes. If you enjoy eating meat, then start by adding more veggies on your plate than meat. Incorporate more salads as whole meals. Substitute one dinner a week for a full plant-based meal (i.e., Meatless Monday). Fruits make wonderful desserts, so here and there, choose a banana or pineapple instead of that pint of ice cream. 

Growing Your Own Garden

There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction you get from eating food that you grew with your own two hands. If your yard needs some work to get garden-ready, you can work with pros to help you clear out dead plants, build planters, and grade sloped parts of the land to level it out for your garden. Simply search Angi for “grading contractors near me” to get started. 

Environmental Benefits

Plant-based diets are not only good for your health, but they also benefit the health of the environment. If every person exclusively ate a plant-based diet one day a week, there would be a noticeable reduction in carbon emissions, land used up, water and land pollution, and energy required to care for animals and produce processed foods. Greenhouse gases, produced from a mainly meat-based diet, prevent heat from escaping the earth and cause climate shifts. By choosing a plant-based diet, you will not only see positive results in your life, but you will also contribute to the betterment of the planet as well. 

A shift to a plant-based diet is easy. Simply add more fruits and veggies to your daily meals. You can go as far as only eating plant-based whole foods or just eating more greens. Whatever you decide to do will result in personal health benefits and contribute to the good of the planet. Don’t wait — consult your healthcare provider and get on the path to a better, healthier you today.

myPEAK! was born through extensive research and development by a team of physicians, researchers, social entrepreneurs, eco-activists, athletes, and nutrition lovers passionate about living life at its peak. To learn more, contact us today!

Photo Credit: Pexels

Article Credit: Melissa Howard of Stopsuicide.info