Eat Your Vegetables!
What is a plant-based diet? A plant-based diet doesn’t mean solely consuming vegetables.
A plant-based diet means that you:
- Eat a variety of foods. Enjoy a colorful plate, including fruits and vegetables sourced according to seasonality.
- Eat meat in smaller amounts. Animal protein should account for no more than one third of the volume of each meal.
- Eat less processed food — replace refined grains with whole grains.
- Buy food that meets a credible certified standard.
- Add sugar and salt sparingly and choose dairy products that are lower in fat.
- Serve standardized portion sizes and waste less food.
Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet
Vegetables provide nutrients such as potassium, fiber, folate and vitamins A, E and C. These nutrients are vital to maintaining healthy blood pressure, reducing cholesterol levels, maintaining regularity, red blood cell formation and protecting against infections and illnesses. Eating more vegetables also reduces the risk for a multitude of diseases. Plant-based diets are proven to prevent, treat and even reverse the effects of heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Consuming a diet higher in plant-based foods also increases your intake of antioxidants that provide energy.
The environmental impacts of producing plant-based foods are lower than producing meat. A plant-based diet can help decrease these greenhouse gas emissions.
When we consciously go for plant-based proteins, we are reducing our ecological footprint and supporting environmental sustainability.
