5 reasons to eat a whole food plant based diet.

5 reasons to eat a whole food plant based diet! So you have heard that eating a whole food plant based diet is the best diet for optimal health! You are right, and you are in the right place!

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‘There are 3 known causes of most disease. Breakfast, lunch and dinner’ – Dr John McDougall.

You can work out every day, do all the yoga in the world and meditate until your heart’s content, but if your diet isn’t on point; your health won’t be either.  Eating well is a form of self-respect and when you have an autoimmune disease or a chronic illness, diet can help to manage it.

A plant based diet is different for different people.  Some people see it as a diet that is predominantly plant based but they may occasionally eat meat, fish or dairy.  Others eat zero animal products but still eat a high amount of processed food, like meat and dairy alternatives.  Some people focus on their diet being whole food plant based.  This is when the focus is on whole, unrefined and unprocessed foods and for some this includes the elimination of refined oils, sugar and gluten.  The gold standard of plant based eating, if you like.

The devil is in the detail though; it is not enough to be eating what you THINK is good.  Thinking you pretty much eat a whole food plant based diet isn’t enough. After all you can call yourself a plant based eater and eat chips and Oreos all day long!  That isn’t going to benefit you.  It is the whole food, plant based diet that you should be aiming for.

One step at a time

Now, I’m not saying that you should be perfect from the get go, far from it.  It takes time and it is a definite learning curve. Do not go into it thinking of replacing all of your favourite foods with non-meat and dairy alternatives.  This will just send you down the processed / junk food route.  Think nutrition, and what will benefit you.  It’s a mind-set.

Every step towards a whole food approach is a step in the right direction.  Taking control of what you eat is immensely empowering and this feeling will give you the confidence to continue on this journey when it gets tough.  It will spur you on; the changes in your health will be all you need to continue.  You won’t need willpower.

Start with small steps and think of what you can do today.  What changes are you ready to make.  How can you get on the path today to start moving in the right direction?  Aim high but be patient with yourself, safe in the knowledge that you are doing something amazing. You are taking control of your health.

So with all of this in mind, here are five reasons to go plant based.

Never count calories again

When you eat a whole food plant based diet you automatically eat less calories, for two main reasons.

1. Plant based foods generally have fewer calories than non-plant based foods.
2. Plants based foods fill your stomach up, making you feel fuller, in comparison to the same number of calories from non-plant based foods.

The added benefit of this is that weight management becomes easy. You do not need to count calories.  According to the NHS website there are lots of health problems linked to being overweight including back problems, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.  People who eat a whole food plant based diet tend to be leaner than those who don’t.  Add to this other well-known benefits we all know, of being a healthy weight and you are on to a win-win situation.

Nutrients

Most people know that they should be eating a nutritious diet for optimal health.  Most people also know that fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  However many will not eat enough of them, and really don’t know how to incorporate more into their diet.

What you may not know is that a whole food plant based diet will offer all of the necessary protein ( yes you read that correctly), carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals you could possibly need.  Eating a diverse whole food plant based diet means that you will be eating a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and will be reaping all of the benefits that they bring.  Without even thinking about it, it just so happens that you will get all of this as a consequence of choosing to eat this way.

The only thing we cannot get on a plant based diet is vitamin B12, but we can supplement it well.  Don’t be fooled though, most meat eaters are deficient in this too, the difference is, they generally do not supplement, so stay deficient.

Disease prevention

Eating this way can prevent or reverse chronic illnesses like Type 2 diabetes & heart disease. It can even put autoimmune diseases into remission.  There is evidence to suggest that the hardening of our arteries begin in childhood and gets worse as we age, leading to heart attacks or strokes.  This is really scary but we can do something about it if we know the facts.  There is also research to show that putting people on a whole food plant based diet can actually reverse heart disease. The researchers were only hoping to stop it from getting worse!  Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer globally.

There are also medical doctors who have autoimmune diseases and have reversed them with a whole food plant based diet!  Too many to list here in this one post but one such story involves a medical doctor who had severe Lupus. She adopted a plant based diet initially to lose weight but ended up feeling great and her symptoms started to disappear!  She is now, clearly, a strong advocate for eating this way.

There is no shortage of papers published annually on how to use plant based living to improve, prevent and eradicate certain diseases.  There is no lack of data, just a lack of Doctor’s paying attention to it.  This isn’t necessarily a criticism; a single doctor cannot possibly read all papers published annually. However, if you suffer from an illness, why not become your own researcher and read everything you can get your hands on about it.  What is there to lose?  How many of you have been told that taking medication is the only way to help?  Or that there is no evidence that diet can help your illness?  I certainly have and it is simply not true, the research is there if you choose to look.  I for one can happily say that eating this way has had a dramatic effect on my pain levels from inflammatory arthritis.

Reduce inflammation

Inflammation is not actually always a bad thing.  It is your body’s natural way of protecting itself when you are sick or injured.  However when the inflammation is chronic, in other words it is around for long periods it is linked to an increased risk of certain diseases.

When we eat a typical western diet we are inflaming our bodies, it is scientifically proven.  When you have a chronic illness your body is already in an inflammatory state. So eating inflammatory foods will make it worse.  Many different foods are inflammatory to the body, so those of us who have chronic illnesses or an autoimmune disease have to be careful.  For those of you who are not unwell, you have to be careful too.  Eating too many of these foods can contribute to the creation of chronic illnesses and disease.

Some known dietary causes of inflammation are: meat, dairy, gluten, processed foods, sugar and alcohol.  I will, in a future post go into much more detail about each of these. For now, let’s just try and remember what Hippocrates said all the way back 400 BC.  ‘Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’.

Is it really a coincidence that where the average western, heavily processed diet is the norm, the chronic diseases are also on the rise?  I think not.

Enough?

If these four reasons are not enough to convince you that eating a whole food plant based diet is the best way to treat your body then do it for the fifth reason, to save our planet!

Helping to save our planet

From the destruction of animal and plant habitats by deforestation to the worrying predictions about global warming. Most of us have some idea about the impact we as humans are having on our planet.

Humans currently take up around 70% of the land on our planet, half of this is used for agriculture. 70% of global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture. Also 78% of global ocean and freshwater pollution is caused by agriculture.  Clearly, the way we eat needs to be looked at in regards to helping to tackle climate change.

There has been research to suggest that the emissions created from agriculture matches or is worse than that of the entire worldwide transportation system.  This piece of research has been used a lot but has actually since been disproved. However, just because it has been disproved in that context does not mean that keeping livestock in the quantities that we do is good for our environment.  Livestock emissions are still thought to make up to 14.5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

For me it is simple, choose something that you can do to help.  Maybe for you, giving up your car is easier than giving up meat.  Or maybe you will choose not to fly to holiday destinations anymore to reduce your carbon footprint.  I think everyone needs to do something, and with eating a whole food plant based diet having so many health benefits, giving up animal products seems like the obvious choice.

So there you have it.  Five reasons to adopt a whole food plant based diet.  I hope this has given you some insight into the impact a plant based diet can have on your life.

Warmest wishes

Laura