A Guide to a Plant Based Diet

Have you heard of a plant-based diet? A plant-based diet or intake includes whole or minimally processed vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes and wholegrains — basically anything that is a plant or that grows on a plant.

Do you want to know more? Accredited practising dietitian, nutritionist and now author,  Caroline Trickey, writes a guest blog post outlining the health benefits of engaging a PLANT-BASED lifestyle. This coincides with her new E-Book, "Veggie-licious: Autumn & Winter", which is full of information and resources to help you eat more plant-based foods and enjoy their many health benefits.

I am a dietitian who is very passionate about getting people to eat more whole, plant-based foods.

Why?  Because it truly is the healthiest way to eat.

BETTER FOR US

Eating mostly a plant-based intake is the one commonality that the longest living, healthy populations around the world have (such as the Okinawans and Cretans), so it’s actually not a new fad or a passing trend!

The  health benefits of eating a high plant-based intake is also backed up by many thousands of good quality studies, showing that it can:

• prevent cancer heart disease and type 2 diabetes
• increase your energy and vitality
• improve circulation, sleep and mood
• promote healthy digestion

It is not necessarily about becoming vegetarian or vegan either. It means basing your intake on plant foods and, if you choose to include them, using meat/chicken/fish etc. more as a condiment, rather than the usual Australian way of using meat as the focus of a meal! Typically this way of eating is based on foods that are  minimally processed, and if well balanced, a plant-based intake will provide all the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) required by the body for its many metabolic processes.

Plant-based foods are also rich in important  vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants and phytonutrients, all of which are required for the body to function optimally, and are best sourced from whole foods.

BETTER FOR OUR PLANET

Legume, grain and vegetable crops have a  much smaller ecological footprint in comparison to the impact that stems from livestock farming. A plant-based diet requires only one third of the land needed to support a meat and dairy diet (which seems to be ever-increasing). I am not at all suggesting that everyone become vegetarian, but we need to decrease our current intake of meat in a collective effort to reduce further damage to our planet...

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To find out more great information about how you can start incorporating more plant-based food into your eating lifestyle (plus loads of delicious, healthy recipe inspiration), you can get Caroline's new E-Cookbook  "Veggie-livious: Autumn & Winter" online for only $9.99. Buy it here >>