A plant-based diet is a diet focusing on increasing the percentage of your meals that come from two key groups: whole-foods and plant-based.
In its simplest form, a plant-based diet is centered around getting you to eat your veggies. If that wasn’t obvious from the title, we are going to dive into just exactly what it means and answer any other questions you might have along the way.
Why Go Plant-Based?
We aren’t scientists or nutritionists with excellent research or philosophies about what foods to eat. Honestly, science can’t seem to make up their minds about what is good for you to eat and what is not. However, I do have some interesting discoveries for you. Do you know what is the number cause of death in America? Heart disease. Also making the top 10 list are diabetes and strokes.
Here is our take: That sucks!
The reason this sucks is that a significant portion of these deaths is preventable. While genetics and other factors like that might be at play, a lot of these deaths could be helped by diet and lifestyle changes. In other words, a significant portion of our country is dying because of preventable deaths.
If you wanted to be a superhero and save lives, all you would have to do is convince America to eat their vegetables. Here at plant-based things, we are on a mission to help improve the health of a nation, one vegetable at a time. We have been through the process and no how hard it is to change your diet. It is an entire lifestyle and paradigm shift and that is never easy. But we believe it is an important battle and you will be happier and healthier for making this lifestyle change.
So what is it?
We are all familiar with the food groups. However, if you are like me and it has changed in your lifetime, here is a quick review. There are basically 5 food groups:
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Grains and Starch
- Milk and Dairy
- Meat and protein
- Fats and sugars (junk food.
Now I bring these up because when we talk about diets, we are talking about percentages of your meals from each of these food groups. Before I went plant-based, I would guess my average percentages to be something like this:
- 10% Fruits and Vegetables
- 40% Grains and Starch
- 20% Milk and Dairy
- 30% Meat and protein
- 20% Fats and sugars (junk food)
These numbers are going to be different for everyone, but if you are getting serious about your diet, I would track yourself and get a ballpark estimate for what your real percentages are.
Just track everything you eat for a week on a note on your phone or on some meal tracking app. Then figure out how much of your food is falling into these categories. It doesn’t have to be exact but gets a good idea for where you are.
A plant-based diet is all about focusing on categories 1 and only the healthiest things from 2. This means eating vegetables, fruits, and whole-grain foods. The concept is, we are trying to get away from processed foods as much as possible. The closer you can get to eating things from the ground as natural as they come, the better off you will be. When you can increase the number of fruits and veggies in your diet, regardless of how much, it is going to improve your life.
Plant-based diets are all about plants. Go figure. The main thing we want to do is live our best life. What we don’t realize, is that we cannot live our best life if our diet isn’t right. At plant-based things, we encourage people to include more plants in their diet and see if their lives aren’t improved.
What Foods Should I Eat?
One of the hardest parts of starting a diet is trying to figure out what to eat all the time. When I first started, I would get really frustrated because I felt like I had no clue what to eat. Here are some of the foods that you should focus on for a plant-based diet:
- Greens
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Whole Grains
- Beans
- Lentils
- Nuts
- Nut Oils
- Seeds
Greens
Heavy Greens are a must. Spinach, kale, broccoli and anything else that is dark green should become a staple. I recommend finding a great smoothie recipe with a lot of spinach and kale. Also, look for some salad recipes that have these items in them that you like and can eat on a regular basis. These are some easy ways to get a lot of greens.
Vegetables
Other vegetables are great for you too and can be an excellent staple. Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers are great examples. Almost any vegetable is going to be good for you, so experiment with different things. Try replacing pasta with spaghetti squash. Try doing cauliflower rice with your meals. This is where you can do a lot of experimenting in finding the vegetables you like. Also, avoid fried vegetables and you will be good.
Fruit
What is important about fruit is that you actually eat fruit and not fruit-like items. Fruit Juice, fruit snacks, fruit bars, are not fruit. You need to start liking apples and bananas. Find a smoothie recipe with some berries in it. Fruits are great for snacks because they often don’t need preparation.
Whole Grains
These are your staples so learn them well. Brown rice, oats, quinoa. Whole wheat pasta and bread. Certain types of granola are great just make sure to check that they don’t have too much sugar. I recommend starting here. Switch your pasta and bread to whole wheat. Start making brown rice. Go from cereal to oatmeal. Find small changes to healthier, whole grain options in this category first because these are easy wins and I find a lot of grains to be tasteless. What I mean is that grains usually absorb the taste of the ingredients they are prepared with so this is an easy way to get started.
Nuts, Oils, and Butters
Nuts are a great source of protein and are really good for you as well. They make great snack food and go well with salads. Olive oils and other natural oils are also very good for you as well. Try using coconut oil to cook with. Also, try to find healthier dressings using vinaigrettes for your salads. I also recommend making the switch to natural peanut butter. These are some quick and easy changes that can improve your health.
Protein
There are several different ways to get protein in your diet. Tofu is a great one. Just a word of caution about meat substitutes. Not all of them are amazing. Even if they taste great or feel just like eating meat, they may not really be that great for you. So make sure if you are going to eat meat substitutes that you are reading the ingredients list. Meat substitutes are often expensive and don’t really always make your meal that much better for you so just be smart about it.
What Foods Should I Avoid?
- Desserts
- Soft Drinks (including diet sodas)
- Refined Grains
- Packaged Foods
- Chips
- Sugary items (cereals, fruit snacks, breakfast bars)
- Processed Foods
Sugars
Sugar is everywhere. Check every label for how much sugar there is. Ketchup, breakfast cereal, fruit drinks. There is just a ton of sugar in everything.
Avoid sugar as much as you can. If you don’t already, I would switch to drinking water as often as possible. Your default answer at the restaurant should be water. Soda and other sweetened beverages are very big no nos. It goes without saying but avoid desserts whenever possible. Try sharing a dessert for special outings with friends and loved ones. Do whatever you can to limit the amount of sugar you intake.
Refined Grains
White rice, bread, pasta. This category is where I struggled the most. It wasn’t as hard for me to limit the red meats I was eating, but it was hard to cook things without using rice, pasta or bread. Those three items encompassed everything I knew how to cook. Replacing them with whole wheat or brown rice can do you wonders.
Packaged and Processed food
If you look at the ingredients list, and there is anything you cannot easily pronounce, I would try to avoid it. Similarly, if you don’t know what an ingredient is, I would not eat it. Also, avoid corn syrup like the plague. Anything that even sounds like corn syrup is just bad for you and you should try to find healthier options.
Can I Still Eat Meat or other animal products?
We know it is hard to cut out meat entirely. Lifestyle changes can be gradual as well. I recommend trying to eat meat only on the weekends. This will give you four days (Monday through Thursday) to get yourself into the habit of eating better. We want lasting change here so do whatever you have to do to move the needle in the right direction.
A plant-based diet doesn’t mean you have to become vegetarian or vegan though. I would never say anything bad about those diets. In fact, I full-heartedly support anyone who practices them. A plant-based diet is simpler than that and we really just want to help people who are struggling to move the needle with their health and diet lifestyle changes.
If you can’t go without meat, try to stick with fish. Fish can be really good for you and are great companions for a nice veggie stir fry. Other non-red meats like chicken and turkey are better for you than red meat. If it comes from a cow or a pig, try to avoid it.
As far as other animal products, there is nothing wrong with including a little cheese and other dairy products. Just make sure you check your labels and avoid sugars and too many fats. If you can switch to almond milk that is awesome. Make sure you try to work in unsweetened and low-fat products when you can.
Just understand that where you get into trouble is when meat becomes your main course. Remember the percentages of food groups in your meals. As long as you are working to make vegetables, fruits, and whole grains your biggest percentage of your meal, you are following the plant-based thinking correctly.
Conclusion
A plant-based diet is really more of a lifestyle change focused on making healthier dieting choices. It promotes natural, whole foods that are good for you. Where it is really powerful is in its ability to enhance your life. So I encourage you to start today and find something in your life that you can change today to help improve your life and allow your diet to become more plant-based.