Plant-based diet and nutrition

A plant-based nutrition or vegetarian diet emphasizes foods or nutrition are derived from plants, comprising fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, cereals, pulses, and other seeds, while potentially limiting animal-derived, dairy products, meats, and marine products. Focus on plants for the fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and seeds contribute as a nutritional diets basic foundation. This diet or nutrition plan can be nutritionally potential and beneficial for improving health, particularly in preventing and managing certain diseases and disorders, and also devoid of side effects.

🍀 1. Leafy vegetables: 

Leafy vegetables comprised leafy greens, leafy reds, vegetable greens, or simply called greens, they are plant leaves or stems eaten as vegetables, sometimes accompanied by their shoots, and petioles. Leafy vegetables are eaten raw as a salad, it can be known as salad greens, while leafy vegetables eaten cooked, it can be known as pot herbs/greens.

🌽 2. Nuts diet: 

Nuts diet typically refers to incorporating nuts or seeds into our daily routine diet. Nuts are nutrient-rich and can be a healthy incorporation to most diets, boosting benefits like improved heart health, weight management, and reduced risk of certain diseases and disorders. There is a need of moderation nuts diet is a key step due to their high calorie and fat content. For examples nuts are comprised Peanut, Almond, Hazelnut, Cashew nut, walnuts, Pistachios, Brazil nuts, macadamias, pecans, Pinenuts, etc. 

🌱 3. Seeds:

Seeds can be a healthy and dynamic ingradient to our diet, fulfilling various nutrients and effective health benefits. For examples, seeds comprise flaxseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, Safflower seeds, Poppy seeds, chia seeds,  pumpkin seeds,  hemp seeds, and psyllium seeds. Seeds diet is rich in dietary fiber, proteins, healthy fats, oils, carbohydrates, various vitamins, and minerals. 

🍏 4. Fruits:

A fruit diet generally refers to a diet in which a large amount of the food consumed is fruit, it is comprising Mango, orange, apple, banana, custard apple, leechi, cherry, dates, dragon fruits, jackfruit, apricots, lemon, watermelon, guava, etc. It is also known as a fruitarian or fruit-derived diet, it is a subset of degrees of restriction to eat. Fruits diet ficilitates array of health potentiality, a very restrictive or pre-defined fruit diet can lead to nutrient or vitamin deficiencies and other health-related risks.  

🍐 5. Legumes:

It incorporates foods like beans, peas, and lentils. It is another kind of a healthy and dynamic incorporation to most diets. Legumes are the rich source of nutrients, comprising proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and such diet can facilitate to manage blood sugar level, weight management, and reduced risk of cardiac diseases. 

🌾 6. Whole grains:

Whole grains (cereals) are the entire grain seeds like the bran, germ, and endosperm, for examples Bajra, sorghum, wheat, barley, oats, kaniwa, fenugreek, gram, green gram, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, rice, and corn, unlike refined grains which only contain the seed endosperm. Whole grains offer several health benefits due to their high dietary fiber, fats, carbohydrates, and nutrient content that reducing the risk of chronic diseases like cardiac disease and diabetes. 

🌱 7. Oilseeds:

Oilseeds are growing for the initial purpose of extracting oil from their seeds, later on which can be used for both edible and industrial importance. Oilseeds are an important part of global agriculture, with soybeans, sunflowers, rapeseed, and groundnuts are being chief contributors to world’s oil productivity. Oilseeds are Rape seed, Turnip rape, Sunflower seed, Niger, Soybean, Linseed, Sesame, safflower, Mustard, Poppy, Almond, Peanuts, Hemp, Olive, etc. 

What plant-based meal should take in entire day

Meal time	Type of meal
Breakfast	Banana, chia seeds, oat meal, almond milk, and blue berries
Lunch	Quinoa, olive oil, lemon, cherry tomatoes, and Chickpea salad with kale
Snack	Apple slices with almond butter
Dinner	Broccoli, brown rice, bell peppers, and stir-fried tofu
Dessert	Herbal tea with moderation

Plant-based sources and their importance

Nutrient type	Importance	Plant-based source
Protein	Immune function, muscle repair	Legumes, soybeans, quinoa, nuts, seeds
Calcium	Bone health	Fortified plant milks, tofu, leafy greens
Vitamin B12	Nerve health and red blood cells (RBCs)	Fortified foods or supplements
Vitamin D	Bone and immune health	Fortified foods, and supplements
Iron	Oxygen (O2) transport	Spinach, pumpkin seeds, lentils, and fortified cereals
Omega-3 fatty acid	Brain and heart health	Flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and algae-based suplements
Iodine	Thyroid health	Seaweeds
Zinc	Immunity and metabolism	Whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes

 

Potential health benefits of plant-based nutrition

a. Reduces body inflammation 

b. Improves digestion and gut health

c. Lowers risk of heart diseases

d. Lowers high blood pressure (BP) and type-2 diabetes

e. Better body weight management

f. Lowers cancer risks

g. Environment sustainability