Advancing Plant Based Diets and their Top 5 Health Benefits

Plant based diets have emerged as a savior for the people who prefer living a sustainable life and  believe that animal cruelty should be kept at bay. The rise has been evident in the market giving wings to a lot of kinds as well.

Plant based diets refer to the diets that include food derived only from plants. Such diets include products like legumes, grains, oil, seeds, beans, nuts, roots,  fruits and vegetables. This does not refer to a life completely  free of  animal products like dairy and meat but instead it promotes the over weightage of plant products over animal produce in the diets.

People are willingly opting for such a diet in order to reduce animal cruelty and try living a sustainable lifestyle.  These diets were earlier not as famous as other diets due to their lack of options but these days every food item can be curated into an extremely health and delicious dish within no time. The different diets are focused on the main reason but with different  restrictive products and their reasons. These diets are also said to improve health, environmental concerns, economic reasons, cultural and ethical benefits. 

Popular plant based diets:

Vegan diet

This type of diet excludes any kind of animal products whether it be procured by them or for them. Any sort of  product cooked or uncooked, processed or unprocessed should be free of any animal provided composition. 

Vegetarian diet

This diet includes a vegan diet along with dairy and eggs. So basically any  produce by the animal is allowed, exempting meat. 

Whole-food diet

This type of diet includes plant based food but without any processing i.e. it includes food which is not processed and is raw. So whole foods like fruits, veggies, nuts,  grains and legumes are included. 

Ketogenic plant based diet

This type of diet includes high levels of fat in food and low levels of carbs so that the body is trained to burn fat for energy.  This diet has generated a lot of speculation in and around the country but has worked wonders for some people. 

Starch based diet

This type of diet focuses on the consumption of starchy foods like potatoes, rice, corn etc. and can be topped with fruits an vegetables. 

Pescatarian diet

This is a type of diet that includes fish and poultry along with a vegan diet. This diet highly excludes other kinds of meat.

Mediterranean diet

This type of diet includes a moderate amount of fish and poultry along with an entire range of plant based products like legumes, grains, veggies, fruits etc. 

Health benefits from plant based diets:

Digestive health: The plant diet has higher fiber content which makes digestion of similar foods really easy and helps to improve the gut health and improves digestion. 

Weight loss: Plant products ideally are rich in fiber that help in proper digestion and maintaining the satiety of the meal for a longer period of time. Hence it keeps you full and avoids overeating and helps to either control or reduce weight. 

Diabetes prevention: The plant based diets respectively have aimed at improved insulin sensitivity. It even helps to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Heart health: The plant based diets give a rest to the heart and improve blood pressure levels which eventually helps in reducing the heart diseases. It even works with lowering cholesterol levels. 

Cancer risk reduction: The clean diet even helps lowering the risk of  certain cancers as only plant based diets reduce the level of antioxidant levels in the body. 

Plant based diet offer a lot of benefits economically and environmentally apart from health benefits but overtaking an entire responsibility of food habits is a big task. But the benefits have certainly overlaid the responsibility.