Eating plant-based food helps your mental and body health, and it’s good for the environment. A plant-based diet includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also oils, seeds, nuts, whole grains, and legumes.
Eating plant-based is more than a weight loss diet, it is a life style and it is a special outlook on life. When you eat plant-based you don’t need to consider how many calories you can eat. The only goal is to eat everything that came from plants. Many researchers claim that a plant-based diet can help you with your health and weight if you do it in the right way.
Let’s talk about some benefits of a plant-based diet.
Rich in certain nutrients
If you organize your diet and include everything important, your way of eating can be full of various nutrients.
A good plant-based diet is full of fiber, rich in vitamins and minerals, low in calories and saturated fat, and free of cholesterol. If you think plant-based food can’t give you enough protein and calcium, you are wrong.
What ingredients to include to get the various nutrient from this type of eating?
- Protein – nuts, seeds, legumes, soy, spinach, peas, yellow sweet corn, broccoli.
- Iron – tofu, soy milk, tempeh, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, nut, and seeds
- Vitamin C – red peppers, kale, spinach, papaya, orange, lemon,
- Calcium – kale, broccoli, almond, almond butter, black beans
- Zinc – grains and legumes
Reduce the risk of medical issues
People who follow a plant-based diet have a lower risk of getting heart disease, improve cholesterol, and lower blood pressure.
Also, it prevents, manages, and reduces type 2 diabetes – improves insulin function, and increases beta-cells ability to regulate blood sugar. Lower risk of developing certain types of cancer if you eat plant-based, and stay away from animal products and high-fat food.
Following a plant-based diet leads to weight loss because the elimination of high-fat foods and the introduction of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains naturally reduce calorie intake.
Affects mental health
After all those body-health benefits, the question is how a plant-based diet can help mental health? As food affects the body, it also affects mental health, temperament, and mood. We hear a lot of ‘’You are what you eat’’ or ‘’Good Food Good Mood’’. And that is true. Besides getting all the good nutrients from plants you know that you are doing something good for yourself, people, the planet, and animals, and that’s the strongest thing that influences your mental health. When you are starting a plant-based way of living, you work so much on yourself as a person. That’s because you need to organize and plan your eating habits, you always look for motivation, and your eating lifestyle has a certain purpose. Also, you are influencing your family members, friends, and everyone that are near you. Besides, we can all agree that there isn’t anything better for mental health than the awareness that you’re helping someone.