Plant base diet?

s_petkauskaite

Hi all. I have heard loads and loads benefits of plant base diet, does anyone propagate this lifestyle? How to start, is it really that good for you? Saw lots of movies, but movies are movies, not met anyone actually living like this. Share your opinion

janejellyroll

I've been vegan for about ten years. I would say that a plant-based diet can be really good for you, but so can lots of ways of eating.

I would disregard most movies about plant-based eating -- they're generally not reliable sources of information. If you're interesting in learning more about ways of eating that don't include animal products, I would recommend a science-based resource like "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina.

kommodevaran

You can have a healthy plant based diet or an unhealthy plant based diet, as well as a healthy omnivorous diet or an unhealthy omnivorous diet. Lots of people propagate their own diet. I do too: Eat what you like in the amounts you need.

s_petkauskaite

janejellyroll wrote: »

I've been vegan for about ten years. I would say that a plant-based diet can be really good for you, but so can lots of ways of eating.

I would disregard most movies about plant-based eating -- they're generally not reliable sources of information. If you're interesting in learning more about ways of eating that don't include animal products, I would recommend a science-based resource like "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina.

Thank you, I will look in to that! What's the reason you became vegan, was it hard & did it change your life in any way?

janejellyroll

s_petkauskaite wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

I've been vegan for about ten years. I would say that a plant-based diet can be really good for you, but so can lots of ways of eating.

I would disregard most movies about plant-based eating -- they're generally not reliable sources of information. If you're interesting in learning more about ways of eating that don't include animal products, I would recommend a science-based resource like "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina.

Thank you, I will look in to that! What's the reason you became vegan, was it hard & did it change your life in any way?

I went vegan for ethical reasons, I found I could no longer support unnecessary animal exploitation. It can be challenging at first because you're learning how to read labels to identify animal products and figuring out new things to eat, but after the first few months it wasn't really a big deal anymore. Depending on how you socialize with people and what you like to do, it can change your life somewhat. For example, if you're going out to eat with friends, you might have to do a bit more work to figure out places you can get a good meal (this is much easier in some parts of the world than others). If you're at work and they bring in a meal, you might still have to have your own food, etc. I consider these to be relatively minor things.

bonniepl

I think the eating more veggies and fruits is definitely a good thing on most if not all diets. Whether you get your protein from meat or beans/nuts I think the calories will be about the same. And lots of grains (even the healthy whole ones) seem to balance out the higher fat on low carb diets. So I guess I'm saying choose plant based or low carb or balanced diets for other reasons than weight loss.

bonniepl

I am not vegetarian or vegan but anti factory farming of animals myself. I don't drink dairy (and eat very little), choose fish/seafood or veggie mostly eating out and buy beef/pork/eggs locally from people I know treat farm animals like animals.

janejellyroll

bonniepl wrote: »

I think the eating more veggies and fruits is definitely a good thing on most if not all diets. Whether you get your protein from meat or beans/nuts I think the calories will be about the same. And lots of grains (even the healthy whole ones) seem to balance out the higher fat on low carb diets. So I guess I'm saying choose plant based or low carb or balanced diets for other reasons than weight loss.

Meeting your protein goal with nuts and hitting a calorie goal would be really challenging for most people. I recommend that vegans/plant-based dieters look at nuts more as a source of fat than of protein. They have some protein, of course, but the quantity you need to eat in order to meet your needs is pretty high.

Need2Exerc1se

If you mean a diet based on plants, but also including animal products, then that's what I do. I definitely believe it helps with nutrition and overall health, but whether it helps with weight loss still comes down to calories. I ate plant-based when I was gaining weight too.

If by "plant based" you mean plants only. I don't do that nor do I think it has a nutritional advantage. And for weight loss it will still come down to whether it helps keep you in a deficit or not.

Iamnotasenior

I've been an ovo, lacto (eggs and dairy) vegetarian for 20 years now. I don't eat a lot of dairy, but I do eat a good amount of soy protein and I eat products like the Ezekial bread that is high in natural plant-based protein with a serving of peanut butter for breakfast every morning, soy protein at lunch and cottage cheese at dinner and I meet my protein macros every day quite easily. If I'm ever really craving cooked protein, I have a nice piece of salmon on the grill. Basically, a plant-based diet does not have to be restrictive, you don't have to go full on vegan and you don't have to eat anything you don't like. It is simply an attempt to base most of your diet on plants and less of your diet on meat. For me, the advantages are that even though I'm overweight and pushing 60 years old (and you can be an obese vegetarian/vegan for sure), my blood sugar is normal, my blood pressure is normal, and my cholesterol is in the normal range. Whether or not that's due to a diet that's low in animal fat, I can't say, but it's working for me and I'll probably eat this way for the rest of my life.

shaumom

re: the movies - I'd agree wth janejellyroll. The movies really seem to be nothing more than propaganda, at best. Lots of half truths and sometimes outright falsehoods, sadly.

I'd say this about the plant based diets: it's a diet like any other. And IMHO, each person has a diet that works best for THEM.

I have a couple disorders, both of which involve a lot of gut based issues or dietary challenges, and as a result, I've met a lot of people who have altered their diet to try and feel better/get healthier. And what I've seen is that NO diet works for EVERYONE. But that ALL diets will have at least a few people that do amazingly well on them.

I know folks on vegan diets that were SO much happier and healthier on them, and I've known some on vegan diets who grew sicker and weaker and had to stop (and sometimes, these were folks eating almost identical diets in terms of nutrients and vitamins). I know folks who did great on paleo diets, or high protein, or low protein, or low carb, or anti-inflammation diets, or low histamine diets, or low glycemic index diets...the list literally goes on.

And some folks in all of these feel SO much better. And some folks in all of these feel much worse.

So for this diet, I would honestly say if it's interesting, you should totally give it a try, but also pay attention if you are not feeling great on it (as an example of why a vegan diet might not work for someone, you have to have a healthy gut to properly break down some of the plant based sources of some nutrients. If you don't have the right gut bacteria, it can make it so you actually have less nutrients you can break down properly).

But as an interesting aside that supports the idea that each person may need their own personal diet, a study a couple years back in Israel were studying blood sugar levels, and were trying to figure out what the range was on how much someone's blood sugar rose after eating certain foods. The results were completely unexpected, because some foods that everyone 'knows' raise blood sugar actually had the opposite effect in some people. And some foods that don't raise blood sugar caused some people's to spike. The researchers concluded that we actually still have a lot to learn about how the body works when it comes to food and how the body is processing it, and that it may be far more individual than we have previously thought. :-)

timtam163

I'm mostly plant-based these days, still transitioning but I plan to always have a small amount of flexibility in my diet. Doing it for environmental reasons primarily; ethical and health reasons secondly. Feel free to add me to see my food diary; I warn you though sometimes I eat like a college student!

If you're overwhelmed, it's also helpful to look at traditional dishes that are plant-based: indian, chinese, african, japanese, and mediterranean cuisines all have foods that happen not to contain animal products. Grains and legumes, potatoes, hummus, veggie sushi, noodles, etc. This style of eating has been around for years.

motiv8ed2motiv8

I've been vegan for 4 months and it was much easier to transition than I thought it would be. I switched for health reasons mostly and now wouldn't look back for the both ethical and health benefits.

Sunnybrooke99

I follow a mostly plant based diet, for health reasons. I believe in the Eat to Live philosophy of getting the most nutrition per calories. I get blood work every year. I followed a tradiational well balanced diet before. I wasn’t overweight, but my chloesteral was moderate, and my vitamin d was low, and so was my calcium. My iron was borderline low, but I really did eat plenty of protein and dairy.

After switching to plant based, with very little meat or dairy (I eat what I want within reason if I go out, or go to a friend’s house), my blood work was Perfect! I felt great and I’d trimmed up nicely too. My calcium was good, and my chloresteral was excellent. My b vitamins did dip pretty bad. And I was using nutritional yeast. So, I added canned salmon and herring to my homes snack cabinet.

I maintained like that for about five years. I’m back here bc I’m a dancer, and I need to be in top shape. I’ve had a life change, and my boyfriend isn’t used to being plant based, and I need to get into a new fitness routine. I really recommend the method I use of being plant based at home, but relaxing a little on date night, vacations, etc, but every has to do what works for them.

Eatone19

Thanks for recommending the book vegan for Life. I'm always looking for new books to read.

susu2u

this has a movie but there is a lot of info on the site and i've gotten the books at the library. there is a local restaurant where i live that is based on this info totally plant based. it's for health reasons vs ethics. i do a primarily plant based diet no meat but some dairy. https://www.forksoverknives.com/

vingogly

I think the evidence all suggests reducing the amount of meat and animal fats we consume is better for our health. That's one reason I eat less meat and animal fats in recent years (very low LDL has been the result). The second reason is: eating further down the food chain is cheaper and takes a lot fewer resources than things like cattle ranching. The third reason is: I've increasingly found it difficult eating birds and mammals for ethical reasons - they have emotions, intelligence, and (from recent research) some degree of self awareness. I'm moving therefore toward a lifestyle that includes dairy products and fish but little to no mammal or bird meat. Hardest part: avoiding chicken, turkey, and bacon. Delicious bacon.

MelanieCN77

I was thinking recently that I actually do something approaching plant based. I like the idea of it from an animal welfare standpoint but I'm not sure I could/want to make the move 100% as I am conscious a lot of the meat replacements I eat are due to convenience (I like frozen manufactured protein way better than frozen meat, e.g.). I do like the idea of plant based if we must have labels, as every step towards it counts even if you're not all in.

JustRobby1

There is no reason you can't get all the nutrition you need from such a diet. It may prove more challenging and inconvenient, but I am sure you can pull it off. Many people here certainly have little difficulty thriving this way. My only word of caution to someone that is just starting out is that unless you have some sort of ideological hang up that you can't reconcile, try to make things as easy as possible on yourself. Radical change and lots of restrictions increases the chance for failure dramatically. I have had literally hundreds of people formerly on my friends list here that serves as a case in point. Like any other way of eating it all comes down to calories at the end of the day if you want to drop pounds. What constitutes those calories is largely irrelevant.

As for me personally, I don't believe in any of the named or politically motivated regimens. I guess you could call me an agnostic in that sense.

squirmmonster

I've been following a largely plant-based diet and am feeling better all the time. About 3 months in now. I still eat a little dairy, but giving up 95% of the meat I was eating has been one of the best things I've done. I still have a sardine or a piece of salmon, or an egg from chickens on an omega-3 rich diet, from time to time, because I don't want to take fish oil caps to keep my omega ratios correct. I feel like it's better to just have a fish or a free range egg once in a while. You do have to consider that. One of the risks on a plant based diet is definitely throwing your omega ratios out of whack, eating too many vegetable and plant oils. Just 2-3 small servings of omega rich fish or egg per week should do you, though. Unless you eat a LOT of fat, ratio-wise to your calorie intake.

I'd prefer we were perfect animals who could live in perfect health without having to nibble a fish occasionally, but almost all cultures and humans have lived near water and the ocean. You can argue that meat isn't part of our ideal health diet, but fish probably is. Now if you're full vegan, and you eat an almost fat-free diet, like 80:10:10, you probably have no worries. Vegetable and fruit fats have a good omega ratio. But if you wanna eat a little olive oil and stuff, you'll have to balance it with the fish, most likely.

janejellyroll

squirmmonster wrote: »

I've been following a largely plant-based diet and am feeling better all the time. About 3 months in now. I still eat a little dairy, but giving up 95% of the meat I was eating has been one of the best things I've done. I still have a sardine or a piece of salmon, or an egg from chickens on an omega-3 rich diet, from time to time, because I don't want to take fish oil caps to keep my omega ratios correct. I feel like it's better to just have a fish or a free range egg once in a while. You do have to consider that. One of the risks on a plant based diet is definitely throwing your omega ratios out of whack, eating too many vegetable and plant oils. Just 2-3 small servings of omega rich fish or egg per week should do you, though. Unless you eat a LOT of fat, ratio-wise to your calorie intake.

I'd prefer we were perfect animals who could live in perfect health without having to nibble a fish occasionally, but almost all cultures and humans have lived near water and the ocean. You can argue that meat isn't part of our ideal health diet, but fish probably is. Now if you're full vegan, and you eat an almost fat-free diet, like 80:10:10, you probably have no worries. Vegetable and fruit fats have a good omega ratio. But if you wanna eat a little olive oil and stuff, you'll have to balance it with the fish, most likely.

Someone can maintain good health on a vegan diet while still consuming some olive oil. Fish isn't required for health.