The Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet: Lifestyle Switching Project

When thinking about a plant-based diet, what comes to mind is a hard-core vegan who protests PETA events. This is not necessarily the case, some primarily use a plant-based diet to provide their body with the necessary nutrients without ingesting processed foods. In this case, I stray away from assumptions of a moral diet and focus on the benefits and nutrients of a plant-based diet. Plant-based diets have helped many to reduce high health risks that run in their family genome. From cardiovascular health risks to obesity, this type of lifestyle change has helped with many other health factors that it has become popular to lifestyles. According to an article in the Harvard Health Letter, if diets include a large percentage of red meats it could increase the chances of an early death.

Project Preparation

To better understand healthy eating, I decided to remove all meats from my diet for thirty days. In order to accomplish my project, it became necessary to start making meal preps to get me through the day. My meals would be altered to a plant-based diet. Each meal will need to be made as efficiently and nutritious as can be. In order to make sure that I am getting an efficient amount of nutrients from my meals, I had to do some research that would help prepare me. My idea to do a plant-based diet had originated from my coworker, who is a vegan, so I made sure that any extra information and support I needed I asked him. While researching online meal plans, and gaining information from my coworker, I also found information on how the production of meats has been having not only a negative impact on the population but also to the planet.

Before beginning this project, I had little to no true understanding to what it means to be vegetarian or to have an all plant-based diet. I decided on this project to further my knowledge on what it meant to have a plant-based diet and how consuming red meats affects our bodies. Although I already had a balanced diet, going into this helped improve my diet to being healthier. I did have a difficult time from switching to eating chicken and fish to not getting to eat any, so it was difficult to make sure that my meals were exciting. One advantage that I did have was that I lived alone so I didn’t have any temptations around me that would cause me to break my diet.

In order to succeed in this project, I needed to cook up meal preps at home for the entire week of work. While at home it was easier to just put something together. While learning how to meal prep, I was also learning what are important foods to consume. Each meal prep would need to include a healthy protein, whole grain, vegetables and healthy fats. Fish, lean meats, beans, and tofu are considered a healthy protein; Farro, brown rice, sorghum is an example of some whole grains; peas, cauliflower, greens are some vegetable ideas; and avocados, walnuts, and olives are an example of healthy fats (Ruhs). According to an article called Vegetable Diets: Health Benefits and Associated Risks, an improperly applied vegetarian diet can be harmful to the body. Other considerations to keep in mind is making sure that each meal has either canned food or vegetables to enhance the nutrition of each meal. One meal that I enjoyed the most was red lentils with potatoes, white rice cooked with chicken flavor and cilantro, and corn.

While learning about the different options of meal prepping, I also learned about what the major health benefits can be gained from a plant-based diet. The information that stuck to me after my research was that plant-based diets are a natural anti-inflammatory, because of the high fiber, antioxidants, and other phytonutrients. By decreasing the amount of saturated fats within the diet, it also helps in the reduction of cholesterol. In McMackens article she stated how studies have shown that people who have switched to a plant-based diet had up to a 35% drop in their cholesterol. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, ten percent of global diseases is due to diet. Even though diabetes doesn’t run in my family, by reducing the consumption of red meats and high processed foods, I would also be reducing my chances of contracting type two diabetes. McMacken mentioned that scientific studies have shown that by making this lifestyle change can help lengthen the telomers and improves the cells within our bodies to repair damaged DNA.

By making sure that I am getting enough vitamins, my consumption of vegetables and fruits also needed to increase. I needed to increase my vegetable and fruit intake so that supplements won’t be needed. They already have such a high volume of proteins that if I consume more protein supplements, I wouldn’t be helping my body on the road to getting healthier. By making sure my every day meals are balanced meals, it will also help to satisfy my hunger.

A health risk commonly known to be connected to eating red meats are parasites. Undercooked meat is not recommended by doctors; the recommendation is to cook the meat to ‘medium’. In Australia, the most common meat eaten is lamb and they usually serve it undercooked. According to Dawson and the research done the most common parasite found in lamb is a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite is found mostly in cats. Dawson didn’t explain how cats contract it but usually livestock will contract this parasite when they are grazing through the fields and eat grass that may have been infected by a cat that left their feces there. Then when the lamb is killed for their meat, humans contract the parasite by not getting the meat cooked to ‘medium’. This parasite can cause eye infection and inflammation, destruction of retinal tissue, retinal detachment, cataracts, and retinal occlusions. This parasite is just one of the foodborne pathogens that is causing so many deaths in Australia.

Switching to a Plant-Based Diet

During this research I got information from my school library and from the internet, but I also received some insightful information from my dearest friend Raymond Aguirre. Through my interview with him he explained to me how his lifestyle used to be before he transitioned to a plant-based diet. During the interview, I not only asked what his turning point to a vegan lifestyle was but how he prepares his meals each day. When I had asked about why he chose a vegan diet, he wanted this change to be more of a lifestyle change instead of a temporary diet change. His main reason to change was due to his obesity and how it was affecting his passion for running. His goal with this lifestyle change was to be able to run a marathon again without any struggles that he had, which he was able to do after about a year of this change.

Raymond also provided ideas for meal prepping. At the beginning of his lifestyle change, he would eat the veggie option at chipotle, rice, beans, and veggies, for three weeks. Once his body was used to the adjustment, he made sure that his meals incorporated foods that helped keep us his nutrients. After he did his research, he understood that he would need to take any supplements because he would get that from the plants. He figured out how to get creative with his meals while also maintaining healthy habits. He would get his meal ideas from blogs, and boards and other vegans. I also happened to ask Ray what about his cravings for non-vegan items and he said, “It is really important to find an alternative to your cravings if they aren’t vegan friendly.”

Raymond has been vegan for two years now, so my next questions were based on what changes he noticed within his body and physical changes. The first changes he noticed were his physic, the loose clothing and weight loss. Going to the bathroom was more comfortable and he had more energy then before when he was obese. While feeling these changes he also started to become more aware of what he was consuming. He started reading the labels on the products and it became a natural habit. When he went to the doctor to get his physical, his doctor had said that the only deficiency he had was Vitamin D, but that was due to him having such a light skin complexion.

As someone who goes to the gym my concern was how the dietary change would affect my body and weightlifting. That’s why it is important that in my meals I need to include beans, rice, wheat and nuts because that’s where I would get my proteins from. From Soy proteins and hemp seeds, that is where I will the high protein and amino acids as a substitute for meat. Adam Bible who wrote “Meat-Less Meat-Heads”, mentions that Mike Mahler, a renowned vegan strength athlete and Kettlebell master, found that legumes, nuts and seed provided him with enough nutrients. Mahler stated that, “The best part about making the choice to become vegetarian is that you don’t have to change up your training.” Just because my diet was changed, it didn’t mean that I would not be able to continue with my body goals. Bill Pearl, a famous vegetarian bodybuilder, has won Mr. Universe pro four times and many other contests during his career. By knowing this, I know that no matter what diet I practice it is still possible to achieve my fitness goals, if I am getting the right amount of nutrients.

Switching to a plant-based diet can improve not only on the health of the population but it can also help the environment and global ecosystem. In an article title “It’s Time to go Veggie”, it states how the consumption of meat is connected to habitat loss, deforestation, and species extinction. The process of the meat going from the animal to grocery stores is not just killing the animal and packaging up the meat, it more than that. Fifty one percent or more of global gas emissions is caused by raising livestock just to slaughter them. Time is being spent in growing crops that are consumed by the livestock instead of focusing on growing those crops for the human population. Water is being used to grow the crops for the animals to eat and a single cow could consume up to 50 gallons a day, while people are suggested to drink half a gallon of water a day. The air is being polluted by these greenhouse emission and oceans, rivers, and lakes are being polluted into.

Since there has been an increase in the human population there are also been an increase to livestock population. Try to imagine if there was less of the emissions because vegetarian and vegan diets were deemed the traditional diet, earth would be different. If the planet continues to increase its consumption, there would need to be three planets to feed the world. Production processes, fermentation of ruminants, the cultivation of fodder, and the use of fertilizer are the other contributing factors of beef emissions. If the population were to modify their diets to either reducing their consumption of meat or cutting meats out altogether, studies have indicated that there would be a twenty percent reduction of GHG emissions produced by agriculture industries. It would not only be reducing GHG emissions, but it would also be reducing the water footprint of these industries and people. The billion tons of grain that is being used to feed livestock, could be used to feed at least three point five billion people.

Changes to a diet, no matter how small, can have either a negative impact or a positive impact on the climate. Changes to a diet doesn’t mean going vegan or changing to a Mediterranean diet, but these types of diets have less carbon emissions when compared to beef. According to VOX, they uploaded a YouTube video talking about how diets affect the climate. A single serving of ribeye steak emits three hundred and thirty grams of carbon, chicken emits fifty-two grams of carbon, fish emits forty grams of carbon, veggies emit fourteen grams, and lentils emits two grams of carbon. By knowing and understanding these numbers, it gives me a sense of knowledge as to how my diet can help the climate on a larger scale. It may seem like one-person won’t change the climate but if that one person informed another and so on, then those numbers would add up to have a larger effect on the climate. It all starts with one person and that one person informing others.

When informed correctly about a plant-based diet and how it has an affect on the body and the climate, it becomes easier to understand why it’s become a popular diet. By practicing a plant-based diet the population will not only be reducing their risks of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes but it would also be a contributing factor in helping the environment. This would mean that our environmental footprints and water footprints would be reduced as well. The reduction in the consumption of red meats would have two positive outcomes, one for the body and the second one for earth.