It is surprisingly true that most of the chronic disease in human body comes from their diet. That is why it is always found that people of same region with similar diet have similar diseases. Meat and other animal products have been found to be the major reason for these. Many studies have been carried out in past and it was found that diseases such as heart diseases, cancer, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, Cholesterol, alzheimer are primarily caused due to heavy dependence on meat based diet. On the contrary, it was found that people living only on plant based diet live a much healthy life. If anyone has a chance of suffering from any of the disease caused due to consumption of excessive animal fat and protein, they should immediately shift to plant based diet. The switching over will not be easy. The digestion system of our body adapts itself with the nature of diet and it may malfunction primarily but after sometime it will again start working normally.
It is never late to start consuming only plant based foods and before that we should very carefully choose which foods to eat and which not. Plant based diet means everything which grows in a plant but highly refined foods despite being plant based are harmful. We should avoid foods such as highly refined flour, oil or sugar. You should remember the fruits you are consuming contain enough sugar for your body and adding sugar to your foods is absolutely unnecessary. For a beginner, plant based diet should include Fruits, Vegetables, whole grains, tubers and legumes. To start with a healthy lifestyle based on plants, the primary focus should be to consume whole foods as much as possible. At the same time meats, eggs, dairy products, refined foods and oil has to be completely eliminated from the food chart.
Let us find out what can be a beginner’s diet chart completely based on plant foods. The breakfast shall be heavy and should be rich in vegetables and fruits. Tubers such as potato, beet, carrot and legumes such as beans, lentils, peas should also be a major part of this. The lunch and dinner should contain cereals apart from the vegetables, tubers and legumes. While selecting the right cereal only whole grains should be chosen. Whole wheat, oats, brown rice, millet, barley should be the primary cereals to be consumed. In both lunch and dinner, just like the breakfast, loads of green vegetables should fill the plate. Most nutritionist suggest consumption of whole fruits at least five times a day and that should any fruit including apple, fig, orange, banana, papaya, watermelon, grapes. These should be consumed in between the meals as fillers.
The feeling of deprivation should be the most critical factor holding back the plans to start plant based diet. However, it is absolutely simple to replace every animal item with plant items. Food like tempeh can be an ideal breakfast item. Tofu can largely replace the need of cheese or chicken. A person living completely on plant based diet has much better health condition than others and this fact has been proven. The myth, that a meat eating person gets more protein, has also been proven wrong. It may sound surprising but it is true that plant based diet gives us lot more nutrients than the animal and dairy products.