Plant Rich Diet
What is a Plant Rich Diet?
A Plant Rich Diet prioritizes plant-based foods, like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, while reducing or excluding animal products (such as meat, seafood, dairy, and eggs). It's a flexible approach to eating that emphasizes plant foods as the foundation of one's diet. Some common plant-based eating patterns are:
- Semi-vegetarian or Mediterranean Diet: includes mostly plant-based foods, with some fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy, and limited meat and sweets
- Pescatarian Diet: includes dairy, eggs, fish and other seafood, but no meat or poultry
- Vegetarian Diet: includes plant-based foods, dairy products and eggs
- Vegan Diet: includes only plant-based food (no animal products, no dairy and eggs)
Why Eat a Plant Rich Diet?
1. Good for the Environment
- Consumption of animal products, especially beef, is associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, greater agricultural land use and deforestation, lower biodiversity, increased water consumption, and overfishing in the case of seafood consumption. Project Drawdown’s science-based modeling lists a Plant Rich Diet as the 2nd most important way to drawdown greenhouse gases. Reducing Food Waste is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gases. https://drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions
- Pound-for-pound beef might be the most climate-polluting substance people regularly use. In a Science article from 2018, researchers found that beef emits – on average – roughly 100 kilograms of greenhouse gases per kilogram consumed. That’s a staggering amount. By comparison, burning one kilogram of coal – the dirtiest fossil fuel – releases about two kilograms of greenhouse gases. This means that kilogram-for-kilogram beef produces 50 times the emissions of coal.
- Estimates vary, but it is clear that livestock production systems are responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gases, likely contributing roughly 14–15% of global emissions. For reference, the entire United States emits 10–11% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
- A modeling study has found that reducing animal product consumption would save fresh water supplies by reducing use of surface water (rivers, lakes, groundwater) and water held in soil and plants by 21% and 14% respectively. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/7/074016
- More people eating meals with no animal products could reduce diet-related land use by 76%, and help to reduce deforestation and increase biodiversity. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614
From: OurWoldInData.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
2. Good for Your Health
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8210981/
article called “A Look at Plant-based Diets”
Is a plant-based diet always healthier for you and the environment?
No, not necessarily. It depends on what plant-based foods you eat.
Whenever possible, you should try to select organic food products. High levels of pesticide use in agriculture are contributing to the biodiversity loss crisis and the runoff of these pesticides contaminates streams, rivers, and lakes. (https://www.beyondpesticides.org/programs/biodiversity) Pesticide residue on produce can be hard to completely remove. Even trace amounts could have cumulative effects on your health over time. Consumer Reports has rated the risk level of some favorite fruits and vegetables. (https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/produce-without-pesticides-a5260230325/) So a plant-rich diet based on organic food is better for the environment and may be healthiest choice.
How to Start Eating a Plant Rich Diet
1. Try making one day a week meat free
A good resource is Meatless Mondays, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University
There are helpful menus and recipes on this great website.
https://meatlessmonday.publichealth.jhu.edu/
2. Start with small changes:
Make gradual changes to your diet; add one more fruit or vegetable to each meal have fruit for dessert once in a while, replace a meat dish with a plant-based protein (try veggie burgers, vegetarian chili, veggie burritos).
3. Try new plant-based foods
Buy different vegetables, legumes, nuts, or other plant-based foods at the farmer’s market, grocery store or salad bar.
Try different restaurants that serve lots of plant-based foods, like vegan, vegetarian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, or Ethiopian restaurants.
Is there enough protein in a diet which is mostly plant based? Emphatically yes.
How vegetarians can get enough protein:
Plant-based protein sources are abundant:
Vegetarians have access to a wide range of plant-based protein sources, including legumes (beans, peas, lentils), soy products (tofu, tempeh, edamame), nuts and seeds, whole grains (quinoa, oats, rice), and pseudo-cereals (amaranth).
Complete proteins:
Some plant-based foods, like soy products, quinoa, and amaranth, are complete proteins, containing all nine essential amino acids.
Variety and distribution:
Consuming a variety of plant foods throughout the day ensures that the amino acids are available when the body needs them, even if no single food contains all nine essential ones.
Calorie intake:
If energy (calorie) intake is sufficient, vegetarian diets can meet or exceed protein requirements.
- Heart Health: Diets high in plant foods (especially those without meat) are associated with lower cholesterol levels, reduced blood pressure, and a decreased risk of heart disease.
- Weight Management: Plant-rich diets (those with lots of fruits and vegetables and, especially, vegan diets) tend to be lower in calories and higher in fiber, which can promote a feeling of fullness and help with weight loss or maintenance.
- Digestive Health: High fiber content from plant foods aids digestion and helps maintain a healthy gut microbiome, reducing the risk of digestive disorders.
- Reduced Risk of Chronic Diseases: A diet emphasizing plants is linked to a lower risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8210981/
article called “A Look at Plant-based Diets”
Is a plant-based diet always healthier for you and the environment?
No, not necessarily. It depends on what plant-based foods you eat.
- A Harvard study found lower rates of heart disease among people with plant-based diets that included whole grains, vegetables, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, and tea or coffee (Healthy) compared to those with plant-based diets with more refined grains, sugar-sweetened drinks, fruit juice, potatoes, and sweets. (Unhealthy).
- And, “Healthy” plant-based diets resulted in lower greenhouse gas emissions, less use of cropland, lower water use, and reduced use of nitrogen fertilizer than “Unhealthy” plant-based diets and animal-based diets.
Whenever possible, you should try to select organic food products. High levels of pesticide use in agriculture are contributing to the biodiversity loss crisis and the runoff of these pesticides contaminates streams, rivers, and lakes. (https://www.beyondpesticides.org/programs/biodiversity) Pesticide residue on produce can be hard to completely remove. Even trace amounts could have cumulative effects on your health over time. Consumer Reports has rated the risk level of some favorite fruits and vegetables. (https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/produce-without-pesticides-a5260230325/) So a plant-rich diet based on organic food is better for the environment and may be healthiest choice.
How to Start Eating a Plant Rich Diet
1. Try making one day a week meat free
A good resource is Meatless Mondays, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University
There are helpful menus and recipes on this great website.
https://meatlessmonday.publichealth.jhu.edu/
2. Start with small changes:
Make gradual changes to your diet; add one more fruit or vegetable to each meal have fruit for dessert once in a while, replace a meat dish with a plant-based protein (try veggie burgers, vegetarian chili, veggie burritos).
3. Try new plant-based foods
Buy different vegetables, legumes, nuts, or other plant-based foods at the farmer’s market, grocery store or salad bar.
Try different restaurants that serve lots of plant-based foods, like vegan, vegetarian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, or Ethiopian restaurants.
Is there enough protein in a diet which is mostly plant based? Emphatically yes.
How vegetarians can get enough protein:
Plant-based protein sources are abundant:
Vegetarians have access to a wide range of plant-based protein sources, including legumes (beans, peas, lentils), soy products (tofu, tempeh, edamame), nuts and seeds, whole grains (quinoa, oats, rice), and pseudo-cereals (amaranth).
Complete proteins:
Some plant-based foods, like soy products, quinoa, and amaranth, are complete proteins, containing all nine essential amino acids.
Variety and distribution:
Consuming a variety of plant foods throughout the day ensures that the amino acids are available when the body needs them, even if no single food contains all nine essential ones.
Calorie intake:
If energy (calorie) intake is sufficient, vegetarian diets can meet or exceed protein requirements.
From Meatless Monday website
Resources for a Plant Rich Diet
Books:
Drawdown, edited by Paul Hawken, 2017
Forks Over Knives, edited by Gene Stone 2011
Online Resources:
Meatless Mondays, https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/meatless-monday
Harvard University Health blog (search for plant-based),
https://www.health.harvard.edu/nutrition/becoming-a-vegetarian
Forks Over Knives, https://www.forksoverknives.com/
Project Drawdown, https://drawdown.org/
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, https://www.pcrm.org/
Source for photo at top of page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salad_greens_and_vegetables_-_Cambridge,_MA.jpg
Authors: Mark Marquardt & Rebecca Young-Marquardt