Your local farmer’s market is the ideal place to stock up on the season’s bounty. Purchasing freshly picked vegetables, fruit, and herbs from growers in the community means you’re getting produce at the peak of freshness with all their valuable nutrients intact. You’ll also very likely pick up recipes and delicious new ways to prepare your plant-based food.
This brings me to the reason for this blog, have you ever considered trying a plant-based diet?
If you’re at all concerned about your health or the health of the planet, you’ve probably thought about it. Perhaps your doctor suggested it? It’s an eating style that’s all the rage, with 39% of Americans claiming they are migrating in its direction. (1)
For the uninitiated, what exactly is plant-based eating?
Vegans and vegetarians aside, plant-based eating does not entail forgoing animal products entirely. Instead, it’s about selecting plant-based alternatives whenever available with the intent of eating fewer foods that come from animals, including dairy and eggs. By default, it’s an eating lifestyle built around a plate filled with vegetables, whole grains, and beans.
Health experts widely agree that plant-based eating offers significant health benefits. The American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) reports that it lowers the risk for cancer and many other diseases. AICR also reports that eating primarily vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and herbs contributes to cancer protection. (2)
Plant-based eating also supports healthy weight โ one of the lifestyle factors linked to healthy longevity. (3)
Clearly, plant-based eating is kinder to animals; it’s also much kinder to the planet. Industrial animal processing accounts for 22% of our greenhouse gasses. Reports show that if we all replaced our beef with beans, the United States could reach its target for greenhouse gas reduction. (4)
So, let’s take a look at the easy ways you can incorporate more plants into your daily food intakeโฆ
6 Tips That Make Plant-Based Eating Easy
Making minor changes is the easiest way to introduce a plant-based diet into your life. Whenever you set solid restrictions on yourself, it’s harder to stick with them. Try out being a flexitarian first. Flexitarians eat mostly plant foods and eat dairy, eggs, fish, and occasionally meat.
Below are six (flexible) suggestions to get you on the road to plant-based eating.
1. Skip Meat One Day A Week
Once meatless Monday becomes a habit, adding another meat-free day to your week will be easier. Continue expanding the days of the week to become more meat-free until it’s the majority of your week. Then having meat become a reward or special occasion treat can become more exciting.
2. Give Plant-Based Food A Starring Role
Mix beans, veggies, and rice in a bowl, add only half the amount of meat that you normally would. Don’t focus on cutting out meat, but instead shift the proportions to more plants. Make plant-based foods the emphasis of your plate.
3. Find Easy Swaps
Swap cow’s milk for coconut, almond, soy, flaxseed, or oat milk to add to coffee, cereal, and smoothies, and use milk alternatives when you bake.
If you enjoy spaghetti bolognese, try imitation meat crumbles (from Quorn or Boca brands) with your sauce instead of the real thing. In recipes that call for ground beef, replace it with beans, lentils, chopped mushrooms, riced cauliflower, or crumbled tempeh.
4. Explore New Flavors
Spices, herbs, seeds, and nuts add delicious flavor and texture, and many have potent health benefits, too.
Generously cook with garlic, turmeric, rosemary, cilantro, and ginger to add bold flavors and health benefits.
Add toasted seeds and nuts to salads, mushrooms, and grilled vegetables.
Saute your vegetables in veggie broth for a richer flavor.
Get inspired by the varied tastes and spices of different worldwide cuisines.
5. Eat
Plant-based foods have few calories, so make sure you eat enough to avoid feeling hungry. The easiest way to get enough calories, protein, good fats, and other nutrients are to eat from various plant-based sources, whole grains, beans, veggies, and fruit.
Be careful not to substitute your lack of animal products with sugar-heavy snacks or complex carbs like chips.
6. Have You Tried Alternative Meat?
Spurred on by the mass migration towards plant-based eating, more and more alternative meat products are entering the market. Plant-based burger meat, crumbles, sausages, chicken strips, and other alternatives to meats can be flavorful, satisfying, and have similar protein content to meat products.
Hopefully, the suggestions above have convinced you that you don’t have to make drastic culinary sacrifices to eat plant-based. And when you consider all of the benefits of plant-based eating to your health and the world around you, perhaps now you’re ready to give this eating style a try.
Probiotics Keep Your Digestion on Track
In general, whenever you make changes to your diet, your gut microbiome and the balance of good bacteria are affected. Additionally, eliminating some animal products like dairy, which contain essential probiotic bacteria, can cause uncomfortable disruptions in your digestion, leading to irregularity, bloating, and cramps.
Plant-based foods like beans, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage (to name a few) are notoriously linked to intestinal gas. To ensure your digestion feels and flows smoothly, add a quality probiotic like Dynamic Biotics to your daily routine.
Dynamic Biotics contains 51 billion CFUs inside 16 unique probiotic strains. Don’t worry that your system might react to changes you make to your diet. These strains have all been proven to help keep your microbiome in balance, so you avoid any embarrassing disruptions to your digestive system.
Sources:
1. Vegan and Plant-Based Diet Statistics for 2022 | plantproteins.co/vegan-plant-based-diet-statistics/
2. mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/how-plant-based-food-helps-fight-cancer/art-20457590
3. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10555529/
4. pcrm.org/news/blog/5-ways-vegan-diet-helps-planet
