Plant Based Eating

In recent times, especially after COVID pandemic, there is a shift in the mindset of people. There is a lot of awareness about health & fitness. People are willing to change their lifestyle, eating patterns & are also giving physical activity importance since they are aware that it will improve their overall health, fitness levels & also immunity. Also the concept of "Plant based eating" has gained a lot of attention from health-freaks & is also recommended to people looking forward to manage their lifestyle related disorders. We often refer to "Plant based eating" as being vegetarian or vegan but it's different. A person who is a vegetarian may eat food that comes from plant origin & also dairy & a person who is a vegan skips the latter & sticks to eating only food that is from plant origin. Plant based eating on the other hand is a choice that one consciously makes aiming good health & fitness. In plant based eating one mainly focusses on getting nutrition from plant origin foods like grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds & limits the intake of dairy as well as animal meat. Evidence suggests that a plant-based diet can help patients with type II diabetes achieve weight loss & improve glycemic control whereas meat consumption has been linked to an increased risk of developing diabetes. Also consumption of dietary cholesterol found in meat & dairy products contributes to atherosclerosis & heart disease. Evidence also suggests that plant based eating is beneficial in other health conditions like hypertension, cancer, inflammatory conditions & can also help fight obesity. It's also important to remember that plant based eating may not always be a healthy choice especially if one includes a lot of junk food in their diet. Technically even that can be plant based, but may not help in achieving any of the above mentioned health benefits of plant based eating since junk food is generally loaded with sugar, fats, salt & overall calories. Also if not planned well, plant based eating may also lead to nutritional deficiencies. So to get full benefits of plant based eating, it's important to balance the diet & include a variety of foods like vegetables, nuts & seeds , fruits , cereals, legumes, dals & pulses.