Although plant-based diets seem increasingly popular these days, they have been around forever - at least since ancient Greece. If you’re curious about exploring a plant-based diet, or just looking to incorporate more plant-based meals into your life, this guide is for you.
What is a Plant-Based Diet?
Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. The key ingredients of a plant-based diet vary depending on who you ask. Some definitions specify that the diet include only plants. Minimally processed vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices are included in a plant-based diet.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. Plant-based diets offer all the necessary protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for optimal health, and are often higher in fiber and phytonutrients.
Types of Plant-Based Diets
Plant-based diets come in various forms, offering flexibility to suit different preferences and ethical considerations. Here's a breakdown:
- Vegan: This lifestyle is probably the strictest form of a plant-based diet. It doesn’t include any animal products at all. That means no meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, or honey.
- Vegetarian: There is a variety of vegetarian diets, but all forego meat:
- Lacto-ovo: The diet includes dairy and eggs but no flesh of any kind.
- Lacto: This diet includes dairy products, but no eggs or flesh of any kind.
- Ovo: This diet includes eggs but no dairy or flesh of any kind.
- Flexitarian: These diets include eggs, dairy, and occasionally meat, fish, seafood, and poultry.
- Pescatarian: This includes fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy, along with what vegans or vegetarians may eat. It avoids all meat and poultry.
- Fruitarian: This diet consists of fruits, nuts, seeds, and other plant food.
- Mediterranean Diet: This way of eating focuses on plant-based foods but also includes fish, eggs, poultry, yogurt, and cheese a few times a week. Meat and sweets aren’t eaten much.
Why Choose a Plant-Based Diet?
There are many reasons why one might be interested in exploring a plant-based diet.
Read also: Delicious Plant Paradox Breakfasts
- Ethical Considerations: You might be interested in exploring a plant-based diet because you are concerned about animal welfare.
- Environmental Impact: Maybe you’re looking for ways to reduce your environmental footprint.
- Health Benefits: If health is your motivation, there are lots of health benefits to choose from. Changing to a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet can give you more energy, prevent many health issues and help you live a healthier life.
Health Benefits of Plant-Based Diets
Eating a plant-based diet can lower your risk of serious health complications like:
- Heart disease: Research shows that plant-based diets can help ward off or reverse heart disease, help with cholesterol, and lower blood pressure.
- Diabetes: Plant-based diets also can help prevent, manage, and reverse type two diabetes. This is because they tend to lower body weight, improve insulin function, and boost your body’s ability to manage blood sugar.
- Cancer: If you eat mostly plant-based foods and avoid animal products and high-fat foods, you can lower your risk of certain cancers, like breast, prostate, ovarian, and colorectal cancers.
- Obesity: Plant-based diets can lead to weight loss, even if you don’t exercise often or count calories. That’s because when you swap high-fat foods with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, you’ll naturally reduce your calories, which can help avoid obesity.
- Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive conditions: Many dairy, meat, and fried products have saturated and trans fats, which can raise your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other brain conditions. Plant-based options help avoid these risks and contain high levels of antioxidants, folate, and vitamin E, which may help improve brain health.
Financial Benefits
There may also be financial benefits. One study showed that people who eat plant-based diets save money, compared to those who eat meals made mostly of animal products. Experts found that you could save a yearly average of $750 with a plant-based lifestyle.
Getting Started with a Plant-Based Diet
If you are new to plant-based eating, it might be easier to start and stick with it if you take a gradual approach. The good news is that even small steps toward eating more foods from plants can benefit your health.
Gradual Approach
- One Step at a Time: For a slower pace, make one smaller change each day.
- For some people, this could mean making one meal a day, like breakfast, plant-based.
- For others, this could mean dedicating one or two days per week to eating fully plant-based.
- If you like cereal for breakfast, switch to a plant-based milk.
- If you like chili for lunch, use your usual recipe but just stick with beans or swap in a ground beef substitute.
- If you like chocolate cake for dessert, use our simple Swaps and Substitutions guide to help you make a plant-based version that tastes the same.
All-In Approach
Most people need drastic change in their habits to make it long-lasting. Consider picking a specific day for your switch!
Essential Nutrients on a Plant-Based Diet
Speaking of nutrients, it can take a bit of planning to ensure you have what you need. Vegan and vegetarian diets can cut out natural sources of some essential vitamins and minerals. Plant-based diets offer all the necessary protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for optimal health, and are often higher in fiber and phytonutrients.
Read also: Nutritious Granola Recipes
Protein
Is it possible to get enough protein from a plant-based diet? Absolutely. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults eat a variety of proteins that add up to about 50 grams a day. Other acceptable options include consuming protein as 10% to 35% of your calories, or at least 0.8 grams of protein a day for every kilogram of body weight.
Calcium
Calcium doesn’t have to come from dairy products. Vegan diets don't typically have enough calcium, so supplements are important, along with eating foods higher in calcium like tofu, butternut squash, dark green vegetables, soy nuts, edamame, and calcium-fortified non-dairy beverages.
Vitamin B12
It’s important to add a daily supplement or fortified cereals, plant milks, or nutritional yeasts to make sure you get enough vitamin B12.
Plant-Based Starter Shopping Guide
Making sure you have the right ingredients in your kitchen when starting (and maintaining) a plant-based lifestyle is essential to making delicious food at home and sticking to your plant-based goals.
- Vegetables: Choose a wide variety of colorful veggies on a regular basis, along with leafy greens like kale and collards. Eat lots of vegetables. Fill half your plate with vegetables at lunch and dinner. Make sure you include plenty of colors in choosing your vegetables.
- Whole grains: Become familiar with different grains in their whole forms. Experiment with ones like kamut, spelt, quinoa, and oats. Include whole grains for breakfast. Start with oatmeal, quinoa, buckwheat, or barley.
- Beans: Explore the diversity of beans. Beans can help you fill up.
- Healthy oils: Stock up on oils like olive oil, flax oil, and coconut oil. Choose good fats.
- Nuts and seeds: Keep a variety of nuts and seeds on hand. Almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and hempseeds are good essentials.
- In addition to having a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, seeds, and spices on hand, also make sure you stock your fridge, freezer and cupboards with plant-based milks, burgers, burritos, pizza, nut butters, dark chocolate, and so on.
Plant-Based Alternatives
Today’s grocery shelves contain quite a variety of plant-based products that mimic animal products. But these foods can be ultra-processed and high in sodium.
Read also: Advantages of a Plant-Based Cleanse
- Tofu: Made from cooked soybeans, tofu often comes in a block with texture ranging from soft or silken to extra firm. You can cube extra-firm tofu for a stir-fry dish. Or blend silken tofu to make sauces and smoothies.
- Tempeh: Tempeh is made from cooked soybeans that are then fermented.
- Plant-Based Milks: Milk is perhaps the easiest animal food to substitute. If a recipe calls for dairy milk you can usually simply use the same measurement of plant-based milk. Almond, soy and coconut are the most commonly found plant milks, but there are now many more to choose from including rice, cashew, macadamia, oat, flax, pea and hemp (take a look in both the refrigerator section and cartoned milk section at the grocery store to see what’s available).
- Egg Replacements: There are several options to replace eggs. Eggs in recipes can be replaced with mashed banana, unsweetened applesauce, silken tofu, chickpea flour (this works particularly well for omelettes and eggless scrambles), baking soda and vinegar and even canned pumpkin. Both flax and chia seeds can also be blended with water to create the consistency of raw egg white. There are also several brands of plant-based egg replacer (these can be found in the baking aisle of the grocery store or online).
- Butter Substitutes: Butter in recipes and for cooking can easily be replaced with plant-based butters, margarines, oils and sprays. Healthier alternatives include avocado or nut butters, depending on the recipe. Many of these options also taste great on toast, bagels, etc.
- Cheese Alternatives: Cheese can be swapped for one of the many different types of plant-based cheeses, including cheddar, mozzarella, feta and brie, are available in many grocery stores, ranging from more refined to less. Several brands make excellent plant-based parmesan, but for a simple and cost effective option try substituting nutritional yeast, which has a distinctive cheese-like flavor that can also be used to add depth and flavor to pasta dishes. Additionally, plant-based cheeses are simple to make at home from nuts or seeds. Almond cheese, for example, is a great substitute for ricotta, and cashew cheese can be used in place of brie.
- Yogurt Substitutes: As with milks and cheeses, there are a wide range of plant-based yogurts available in stores including almond, soy and coconut varieties.
- Meat Substitutes: The range of meat substitutes, both store-bought and home-made, are nearly limitless. While plant-based meats can range from healthy to healthier, many recipes work well with whole foods like tofu, tempeh, lentils and beans. Additionally, since the vast majority of the population are not gluten-intolerant, seitan (a wheat protein product) is also a great option.
- Fish Substitutes: While store-bought fish substitutes are fairly new to the market, there are many home-made recipes that imitate the taste and texture of various types of fish.
- Protein Powder: Many athletes and other active people use protein powder to bolster their daily protein intake. Whey, egg, beef and other animal-based protein powders can be easily swapped for one of the many plant-based protein powders available in stores and online, including pea, soy, brown rice, hemp, and blended proteins.
Tips for Success
- Variety is Key: Variety is key to meeting your nutritional needs with a plant-based diet.
- Plan Ahead: Make a list of your favorite plant-based meals and prepare your grocery list ahead of time.
- Cook a Vegetarian Meal at Least Once a Week: If you’re new to plant-based diets, slowly add vegetarian meals into your lifestyle. Build these meals around a base of beans, vegetables, and whole grains.
- Eat Fruit for Dessert: A ripe mango, slice of melon, or a crisp apple can satisfy your sweet tooth.
- Buy in Bulk: Buy from the bulk section to save money on staples. Purchasing some items from the bulk section of a store can be a great way to save money, even if you’re only buying a small amount. Look for nuts and seeds, spices and herbs, flours, grains and healthy snacks. If you don’t have much variety in your area when it comes to these foods, take a look at online bulk stores.
- Explore Different Stores: Plant-based alternatives vary between stores both in variety and price point. If you happen to live in an area with more than one grocery store, it is definitely worth the time to check out the options in each one. There are also a number of online retailers that sell plant-based foods, which can be a convenient and cost effective option, particularly if you live in an area with limited in-store choices.
- Don't Deprive Yourself: The foods you get started on should taste good and fill you up, even if they aren’t perfectly healthy. Deprivation diets never last long, but eating patterns that taste good, feel good, and yield tangible results (improved energy, fitness, appearance, health, etc.) create a positive feedback loop that get stronger and stronger over time.
- Experiment with Flavors: You will likely also be surprised by just how varied plant-based eating actually can be, with literally thousands of new flavors, textures and combinations to try.
- Don't Get Discouraged: It can take weeks, months or even years for many people to dial in to a new way of eating, and judging yourself for ‘giving in’ to cravings or convenience is neither fair nor effective.
- Use Frozen Fruits and Vegetables: Frozen fruits and vegetables can be a convenient and affordable alternative to fresh, and often contain more nutrients because the foods are picked and frozen when they are their ripest and most nutrient-dense.
- Embrace Plant-Based Dining Out: If you can, try a plant-based restaurant. Eating at a plant-based or mostly plant-based (i.e. vegan or vegetarian) restaurant is a simple way to make sure you have plenty of options to choose from on the menu, and can be a great way to explore new plant-based flavors and textures.
Plant-Based Eating When You're Out and About
When planning your day of plant-based eating out, you ideally want to think about how you can choose a balance of meals that offer your body enough variety to keep you satisfied and full.
- Check Menus in Advance: As plant-based eating becomes more and more popular, the range of restaurants dedicated to entirely or predominantly plant-based foods is increasing. Keep an eye out in your local area or when traveling. You might be surprised by how many restaurants and fast food chains now offer plant-based options, ranging from plant-based burgers and pizzas to burritos, tacos and bowls. including Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and African. Planning ahead by checking the menu online and finding out what the options are makes ordering much easier when you get to the restaurant.
- Don't Be Afraid to Ask: Because plant-based eating is becoming increasingly common, most restaurants will be more than happy to accommodate you if you request a plant-based meal, even if they don’t have one on the menu.
- Offer to Bring a Dish: Not everyone will know how to make plant-based food, and some hosts will be too busy to make a separate meal, so if you’re visiting friends or family the best way to ensure that your tastes are catered for is to bring your own dish, or offer to help with the cooking. This can also be a great way to introduce others to plant-based eating.
- Catered Events: Professionally catered events such as parties and weddings will usually accommodate any special requests in advance, and many people now offer plant-based menu choices to everyone.
- Holidays: Holidays can be intimidating for people who want to eat meat or animal-free. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of plant-based alternatives for all of your holiday favorites, including plant-based turkey and other meat options, as well as simple whole foods-based ways to replace meat and common holiday side dishes. If you’re spending the holidays with friends and family, offer to bring some plant-based dishes along to cater for yourself and anybody who wants to try them.
- Travel: Virtually every airline that offers meals has plant-based options. If you can’t see a way to make a meal selection via your airline’s online portal, contact the airline customer service line at least 48 hours before departure to find out more. Many hotels offer plant-based meal options, but consider packing a few basics and taking them with you. You can also find a local grocery store and stock up on arrival. Many hotel rooms will have small fridges that can be stocked with keep-cool items. If you want to prepare your own meals altogether, book hotel rooms or Airbnbs with kitchens. A little planning goes a long way. As well as looking online for plant-based or plant-friendly restaurants and cafes in the area you are visiting, there are a number of apps that can help you find plant-based options nearby. If you’re travelling to a country where you don't speak the language, try using the Google translate feature on your phone or tablet to translate questions, statements and requests about your food preferences that you might need in local restaurants, such as “‘is there egg/milk/butter/meat in this?’ or “I don’t eat meat”, or “No cheese, please”. Markets, grocery stores and restaurants in most places will usually offer fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and legumes that can be made into simple meals or snacks until you can find exactly what you need.
Sample Plant-Based Meals
- Greek salad: Chopped mixed greens with fresh tomato, Kalamata olives, fresh parsley, crumbled feta cheese, extra virgin olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
- Vegetarian pizza topped with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, peppers, and mushroom.
Is a Plant-Based Diet Right for You?
When planned appropriately, plant-based diets can be right for people in all stages of life, including children, pregnant or breastfeeding people, and competitive athletes. If you’re in charge of meal prep in your household, invite your family members to join you in your quest to make more plant-based meals. You might also invite a friend to join you for a meal out at a restaurant that features plant-based foods.
Maintaining Your Positive Plant-Based Attitude and Energy
The process of transitioning to a plant-based diet can be as big or small a deal as you want to make it. It’s just about how you approach it and want to make it happen.