What Is a Plant-Based Diets?
At Verywell, we trust there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a healthy lifestyle. Successfull meal plans need to be individualized and include the whole person. Before starting a new diet, consult your health care provider or dietitian, especially if you have an underlying health problem.
Plant-based
diets focus on consuming mostly plants such as fruits, vegetables, tubers,
seeds, legumes, and grains. People who follow a plant-based diet generally
avoid animal products such as beef, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products, or
only consume them in small amounts.
The
Plant-Based Complete Food (WFPB) is a popular choice for the plant-based
lifestyle. It was featured in the 2011 documentary "Forks Over
Knives". A WFPB diet encourages avoiding meat, dairy, oil, and sugar, and
advocates eating whole, unrefined, or minimally refined plant-based foods.
Other
iterations of plant-based diets include vegetarian, vegan, raw, flexitarian,
pescatarian, fruit-eating, 2-motor and Mediterranean diet.
Plant-based
diets have a long history. The first logged vegetarian diet dates back to the
7th century BC. C., although the term "vegetarian" was not used until
the middle of the 19th century.
Followers of
various world religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, adhere to a
vegetarian diet as part of their practice. Some people chooses to follow an
animal-free diet for ethical reasons, while others may for health reasons.
Research has
repeatedly shown that a diet high in vegetable, fruit and whole grains can
improve heart healthy and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. A
WFPB diet low in animal protein, fat, sugar, and processed foods is generally
considered a healthy way to eat.1
Additional
research has shown that following a WFPB diet may reduce or eliminate the need
for medications, including statins, blood pressure medications, and some
diabetes medications. Always consult your doctor before changing your
medications.
What the
experts say
“A
plant-based diet seems to be inherently healthy, but that's not always the
case. Refined grains, added sugars, and vegan fast food are plant-based, but
not the healthiest. vegetables, nuts, seeds and some proteins make the
nutritionally healthier choices.
What box
you bother
The WFPB
diet focuse on whole grains, legumes, root vegetables, green vegetables,
fruits, nuts, and seeds. Minimize or exclude animal sources of fat and protein
(including dairy products) and highly refined foods.
There is no standard
diet for following a WFPB diet, but the guiding principle is a diet high in
foods of plant origin and low in foods of animal origin. This means that
adopting a plant-based lifestyle doesn't necessarily require you to give up
meat, fish, and dairy products forever. Plant-based diets are often more of a
general goal than a hard set of rules.
While foods
can be eaten raw or cooked in soups, smoothies, casseroles, baked goods,
pizzas, meatless burgers and more, the less processing, the better.
A plant-based
diet simply prioritizes foods of plant origin over meat, fish, and dairy
products, while a whole diet focuses on consuming foods that are as close to
the skin as possible. their natural state, avoiding processed foods, added
sugars and chemicals. .
What
would you like to know
Due to the
wide variety of plant food available, not all plant-based diet are careful
healthy. For example, a 2017 study available in the Periodical of the American
College of Cardiology compared the effect of a healthy diet with a plant-based
diet that included more processed foods.
Researchers
found that WFPB diets were associated with a significantly lower risk of heart
disease, while plant-based diets containing a lot of processed foods actually
increased the risk of heart disease.2
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