Did you know that one change in your diet could reduce inflammation and help prevent cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease? It would also likely help you to live longer, lose weight, and lower your blood pressure? Sounds to good to be true? It isn’t. Simply make the majority of your protein intake plant based.
Healthy eating may be best achieved with a plant-based diet. According the the American Diabetes Association, plant based proteins are often the best protein. Many others trusted voices in the field of health and nutrition agree. WebMD, the Mayo Clinic, and Harvard Health Publications all advocate limiting the intake of animal meat (red meat in particular) and increasing plant based proteins. A bit of research on US National Library of Medicine produces dozens of scholarly articles on why plant based proteins increase health and prevent disease. Rarely does the nutrition community universally agree on one thing, but it does for increasing plant based proteins in your diet. This is because the research is overwhelmingly supportive of the benifets of plant based protiens.
Here are for studies, among thousands, that explain the health benefits of plant based proteins:
Increases in plant based protein showed a reduction of blood pressure levels in men during the 5 year Zutphen Elderly Study.
The NCIB Study titled, ‘Diet components can suppress inflammation and reduce cancer risk’ states that a, “plant based diet can contain many components that reduce inflammation and can reduce the risk for developing all three of these chronic diseases.” This three diseases being cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In short a plant based diet reduces inflammation and therefore helps prevent diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
The study, ‘Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets’ advises doctors to recommend plant-based diets to their patients, “Research shows that plant-based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C, and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates. Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.”
‘Move over Mediterranean—a vegetarian diet is equally good for health’ is the title of a Harvard Health Publication that supports the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet. The author, Heidi Goodman wrote, “This heart- and brain-healthy diet [the Mediterranean diet] includes olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish; occasional red meat; and a moderate amount of cheese and wine. Most doctors and nutrition experts I interview for the Harvard Health Letter tell me that the evidence points to a Mediterranean diet as the very best for our health. But there’s another diet that appears to be equally good: a vegetarian diet.” The article goes on to say that a vegetarian diet has “long been linked to reduced risk for hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease…. “A diet with meat in it raises the risk of heart disease and cancer, when compared with a vegetarian diet,” says cardiologist Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a Harvard Medical School professor. Red meat and processed meats appear to be the worst offenders as far as boosting the risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer.” The article also cited a JAMA Internal Medicine study that found that “people who ate a vegetarian diet were 12% less likely to have died over the course of the five-year study than nonvegetarians”
The proof is in the pudding! In addition to improving long-term health, eating less meat is better for the environment because it is more sustainable and has a much smaller carbon footprint. If you would like to decrease your meat consumption but are unsure how, take it one step at a time. Try having Meat Free Mondays, and experiment cooking vegetarian meals. There isn’t a need to start buying artificial meats if you despise fake burgers, but it can ease the transition into a plant-based diet. Start introducing more beans, such as garbanzo, lentils, and kidney beans. Here is a website with excellent low-fat bean-based recipes. Remember, vegetables don’t need to be a side dish! They can be the main attraction and provide an abundance of health and nutrition.
Kay’s Naturals is a high protein and vegetarian snack. Each 12 oz. serving of our crunchy pretzels, chips, and cookies are packed with 12 grams of lean soy protein. Kay’s is committed to providing healthy, high-protein and gluten free snacks and cereals, to help build happier and healthier communities. Visit our website to learn more.