We’ve all heard of the “clean eating” trend. If you are one of those people, then you might want to read this article to learn more about plant-based nutrition. What is plant based food? It is a way many people choose to eat and it’s becoming a lifestyle. It is becoming a more and more popular way of eating.
It’s becoming more mainstream, even though many people still choose to eat the way they did before, without ever knowing it. This is because plant-based nutrition is a lot more healthy than animal-based nutrition. A plant-based diet is free from all the additives, sugars, and preservatives that are found in animal-based diets. Plant-based diets typically have more fiber and antioxidants than animal-based diets.
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What is plant based food? – History
Thinking about what is plant based food let’s take a look at its history. Plant based nutrition is not anything new, it’s been present in people’s lives for a long time. For instance, the gladiators of the Roman Empire were mainly on plant-based food.
They are not the only ones, back in the old day’s majority of people had such a diet, unfortunately not by choice. Poverty was globally spread, food was scarce, and thus people had to rely on the food that was available. Plant-based diets use fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and nuts to provide the body with nutrients and energy.
Difference Between Plant Based, Vegetarian, and Vegan Diet.
It is well known what is the vegetarian and vegan diet. Vegans don’t eat meat and they don’t eat dairy products, they avoid fish and eggs too, so it’s a diet that includes no animal products. Vegetarians don’t avoid fish, eggs, and dairy products, but they aren’t eating meat. In general, vegetarians may eat products that come from animals, but they don’t eat the animal itself.
What is plant based food? A plant-based diet does not just mean no meat, it simply means the majority of food comes from plants. A small amount of meat and animal products are allowed but it’s actually focused on whole foods and meat is avoided as much as possible.
What is plant based food? – Benefits
For a long time, it was thought even by professionals that eating meat is the way to get stronger and build muscle. The game is changing and there are more and more people like bodybuilders, athletes, and other sports professionals who are transitioning to plant based nutrition and still getting the results they want, often even better ones. It’s a big misconception that in order to have endurance and strength we need animal protein.
Plants have enough protein and more efficient ones I may say because a lot of people in sports are getting better results on plant based nutrition. Another benefit of this kind of nutrition is heart and cardiovascular health, in fact, plant based nutrition is the only one that is capable to not only preserve heart health but to reverse the damage done by western nutrition.
An interesting thing is that our body isn’t capable to produce vitamin C on its own, instead, we rely on plants to get it from. That just proves how much we need to eat plants. When it comes to hormones, more specifically testosterone, there is no advantage to eating meat to get more testosterone, it’s just the opposite.
Meat eaters should also be aware that their nutrition increases the stress hormone cortisol levels and thus causes loss of muscle mass and gaining of fat in the body. They also have a higher risk of inflammation and chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes.
Meat Industry
Back in the day tobacco companies sold the idea that smoking is good for health. That went to the point where successful athletes were promoting smoking. We all know what smoking does to the body, but the problem is that similar things started to happen in the meat industry as well.
The meat industry is founding a lot of sports events under the pretensions that meat is healthy and should be consumed even more because it’s the ultimate fuel for the body. A study published by the American Dietetic Association states that meat is not the ultimate fuel for the body; rather, “vegetarian diets rich in fiber carbohydrates.
There is a lot of studies and it’s a well-known fact but it’s being buried somewhere in the fine print of meat products and people don’t know that. The latest research has found that there are traces of antibiotics in meat products.
What is plant based food? – Facts
Three-quarters of all the agricultural land in the world is used for livestock production, which is a huge cost on biodiversity. That is the single biggest source of habitat destruction. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the natural environment, led by large-scale livestock production. Meat, dairy, egg, and fish farming use 83 percent of the world’s farmland and provide only 18 percent of the world’s calories.
Livestock requires so much land because animals are just a middleman, they use six times more protein than they produce. 70 billion animals are consumed globally each year, growing animal feed to sustain them requires vast amounts of land making it one of the leading causes of deforestation.
It also needs huge amounts of water, causing the overuse of the water. 25 percent of the rivers in the world no longer reach the ocean because we are taking out so much water to produce animal feed. Water is fed into the grain that’s been fed to the cattle, and then the cattle are made into beef.There are 2400 liters of water in one hamburger, now, that’s a lot of water. Over a quarter of all fresh water goes into the production of animal foods. Another problem in all of that is also water pollution. Farm animals produce 50 times more waste per year than the entire human population, and that’s the US only.
Now you know what is plant based food, and how that piece of meat comes to your plate, something to really think about, isn’t it?
What is plant based food? – Conclusion
You have found out a lot of information about what is plant based food and its benefits. Now you know the health dangers of eating meat and the huge cost for our planet it imposes. I know it’s not easy to just transition to that kind of nutrition, nor am I saying that you should stop eating meat and meat products completely.
You know the facts and you have a choice, what are your thoughts on it? Feel free to comment and express yourself. Stay healthy.