Welcome to Green Regimen’s Guide to a Plant-based Diet. We congratulate you for making this decision to learn more about completely switching to a plant-based diet. For those still having second thoughts, we’d like to congratulate you as well for being here. Trust me, we’ve had our share of doubts before making the switch, but here we are, living the healthy life. We encourage you to continue reading this guide as we help you understand the basics of a plant-based diet. We included in this guide the benefits of a plant-based diet and its advantages to other food groups.
First, we must get to know the different food groups. To put it simply, there are three different food groups. Animal-based food, whole plants and processed plant fragments. Take a look at the illustrations below.
Animal-based food
The image above shows a few of the different categories of animal-based food. Animal-based food is simply food that is derived from animal sources. We get eggs from poultry, meat from livestock, dairy from the milk of cows, etc.
Whole plants
These are just some of the most well-known whole plant categories. This food group is centered on whole, unrefined, unprocessed plants. It constitutes the roots, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, mushrooms, nuts, legumes and whole grains. The above image shows a few examples for each category.
Processed Plants
The last food group is called processed plant fragments. Processed plant fragments means that a part or component of a whole plant is processed either mechanically or chemically. This process creates many varieties of food that still prove to be very beneficial to our health. Making juice and shakes out of whole fruits is an example of processed plant fragments. Another example is flour, which is used to make bread and pastries. Flour is made from grinding different kinds of grains.
Thus, this food group is still considered to be part of a plant-based diet, depending on your preferences.
What do you mean by preferences?
There are two widely accepted plant-based lifestyles. One is a whole food, plant-based diet. This means that only whole plants are accepted in this diet. This type of plant-based diet fully utilizes what whole plant foods can give for all the dietary needs of a person.
The other one is Veganism. Vegans eat both whole plant foods as well as processed plant fragments. So, a Vegan can eat cookies, while a person who has a whole food, plant-based diet can’t. Well, technically they can but they prefer not to.
Either way, both are great ways to start a plant-based diet. It all depends on your preferences and motivation on which lifestyle to choose between the two.
Benefits of a plant-based diet
Simply put, you can get the exact same benefits (and even more) in a plant-based diet than from an animal-based diet. Minus the risks of chronic illnesses of course. Excessive consumption of animal protein is linked to carcinogenic activity. Additionally, animal-based foods do not contain fiber, while plant-based foods are full of fiber.
Fiber has the following benefits:
- normalizes bowel movements
- lowers cholesterol levels
- controls blood sugar levels
- weight loss
Additionally, dairy, which is an animal product known to be a top source of Calcium, are also linked to causing diseases such as breast cancer. Dairy products are known to produce growth hormones that hasten tumor growth and proliferate cancer cells.
These are just a few of the benefits that makes plant-based diets a great choice of lifestyle in the long-run.
Plant-based food recommendations for optimal health on the daily
To complete this guide, we have provided a table with different plant-based food groups with daily serving recommendations. Table 1 shows these recommendations. You have the freedom to choose between any of the food groups listed in Table 1, but for a more detailed reference regarding nutrients, refer to Table 2.
In Table 2, we provide a reference of Nutrients and its plant-based food source. With this, you will no longer have to go back to eating animal-based foods. Plants can provide a complete dietary profile. Everything you need for your daily nutritional needs, you can get from plants.
Plant-based Supplements
When choosing what supplements to get for your workouts, always go for the organic, plant-based option. Organic supplements provide a more dependable source of nutrients than their animal-based counterpart.
Take for example, plant-based protein vs whey protein. Whey protein is made from dairy products. Looking back at our points made previously in this guide, dairy products are known to produce growth hormones that hasten tumor growth and proliferate cancer cells.
Additionally, there are many people who don’t have the ability to digest Lactose. They are called lactose-intolerants and they lack the enzyme lactase to digest dairy products. These people are left with only one option for their protein source and that is through plant-based supplements.
Many people complain of a lack of amino acid profile in most plant-based proteins. However, this is not always the case. For instance, our product, Elite Protein has a complete amino acid profile due to the Pea and Hemp protein combination.
Additionally, plant-based protein is not strictly protein alone, but it is jam-packed with many other benefits such as fiber, vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants.
For plant-based protein supplements, we highly recommend Green Regimen’s premiere product, Elite Protein. It checks all the boxes needed for a plant-based lifestyle and is certified healthy and delicious. The fact that it can be used as a Meal Replacement drink makes Elite Protein a complete and healthy package for plant-based diets.
Interested in a plant-based diet? Check out more of our plant-based lifestyle articles:
Recent Comments