If you
follow food trends you’ve probably heard of the phrase “plant based.” Even if
you don’t follow food trends I’m guessing you’ve heard your doctor, dietitian,
or mom tell you to eat more fruits and vegetables. But is that all that a plant
based diet is? I want to dive headfirst into the idea of plant based diets and
explore how you might be able to incorporate this into your lifestyle.
First off
is the “why.” Why would you as an individual and food consumer want to take up
a plant based diet. As a dietitian whose SLU education taught her that evidence
based practice is best, I found some research to support this. And as someone
who knows that research articles aren’t the most exciting thing to read, I’ve
boiled it down to the nitty gritty for you. Both the American Heart Association
and the American Diabetes Association recommend following a diet with a variety
of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, poultry, fish, and
vegetable oils.1,2 All but 2 of the items on that list are plant
based. Fruits and veggies also have high contents of phytochemicals,
antioxidants, and phytoestrogens which can help reduce inflammation, inhibit
oxidation of bad fatty acids, and lower blood pressure.3 Plant based
foods are high in dietary fiber, a component of foods that is very important
for our health in various ways. Fiber gets fermented in our gut and provides a
healthy microbiome – this plays an important role in our immune system, our
brain health, and perhaps even body weight.4,5 Some other reasons to
go plant based include environmental and sustainability reasons, cost purposes,
and a desire to eat less processed foods – each of these reasons could be a
series of blog posts on their own, so we’ll just focus on the basics today.
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| Source: https://www.plantforwardkitchen.org/ |
Now that
we’ve got a good idea of why and how this can be a good practice for our
health, I want to think of it in a slightly different light. The word “diet”
often scares people and makes them thing of cutting out sweets, bread, or
entire food groups (I’m looking at you, keto diet). In actuality, the word diet
literally means “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community
habitually eats.”6 I’d also
like to think of plant based diet as a plant “forward” diet. The word “forward”
in general sounds more optimistic to me, which is something I like when
thinking about food, but it is also makes me think of plants being at the
forefront of my meal, plate, or menu.
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| Beet and Orange Salad with Crispy Chickpeas from my popup dinner – delicious, filling, and 100% plant forward [photo by Karly Wilson] |
As Americans and especially
Midwesterners, we often think of dinner as what meat or protein we’re going to
have and then what do we eat as sides, which is where we add in our veggies. If
you are making a plant forward meal, you might be planning your meal around
what fruits and vegetables are in season and what protein would complement it,
versus the other way around. Thinking of meat as a supplement to your meal and
not the main focus, is one way to practice a plant forward diet. Another option
you can do in practicing plant based diet would be to swap meats for beans,
tofu, or other plant proteins. You could also do half meat and half plant
based. Something I saw during one of my food service rotations was using half
ground beef and half mushrooms in tacos and meatloaf recipes. Mushrooms still
provide a meaty flavor and texture but overall you are cutting back on the
amount of meat you’re using. However, the best advice I can give when cooking
vegetables and fruits is to properly season and highlight them. Use spices,
acids, vinegars, seeds, herbs to complement the fruit or veggie so they shine
and become truly delicious. I hosted a popup dinner last year for my capstone
project and served a beet salad (see picture above). The salad was simple and
had 6 ingredients: beets, oranges, cumin, sumac, chickpeas, cilantro, plus
olive oil and salt (absolute staples you need in your kitchen). Many people at
the dinner told me they never liked beets until they tried that – and I
attribute it all to the power of using tangy acids, spices, and bright oils to
elevate the beets.
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| Crispy Cauliflower with Charred Scallion Salsa Verde and Whipped Tahina from my popup dinner [photo by Karly Wilson] |
But how else can we make this fit
in our lifestyles successfully so that it’s not just a short term trial like so
many other diets? In the US we’ve seen a decline in home cooking and a rise in
eating out, buying convenience food items, and premade fast casual options.
Perhaps plant forward for you means cooking at home because you won’t purchase
and consume as much meat. Or maybe it means finding less processed, convenient
snacks and swapping them with a homemade plant forward option. Challenging
yourself to do meatless Mondays, or simply eating a smaller portion of meat is
one way to ease into plant forward eating. Figure out what you could play with
and know what you will not change in your diet. For me, its dairy. I know that
dairy is a great source of protein and nutrients for me. I see this as a
nutrient dense food in my plant forward diet. Because of that, I choose to go
plant forward in other areas of my diet.
 |
| Source: https://www.aeb.org/incredible-egg-trends/incredible-egg-trend-plant-forward |
Bonus:
Here are some Instagram accounts, blogs, and cookbooks that
I gravitate to for plant forward eating:
- https://www.bonappetit.com/
- at the beginning of 2020 they said 30% of new recipes they would develop
would be meatless (https://www.bonappetit.com/story/ba-test-kitchen-sustainability)
in addition to the many meatless recipes they already have developed
- https://www.instagram.com/halfbakedharvest/?hl=en
– a food blogger with lots of plant forward options for everyone in the family
- https://www.instagram.com/karlys.kitchen/
- a undergrad senior in SLU’s dietetics and culinary program who shares her
eats following a vegan diet
- https://michaelpollan.com/books/
- Michael Pollan has written several books about diets in the US and how we
should strive to shape ours in the best way for the environment and our health
- https://www.joshuamcfadden.com/sixseasons - Six Seasons is a beautiful and interesting cookbook that will challenge you to cook seasonally and make delicious plant forward dishes
Sources:
- The American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/aha-diet-and-lifestyle-recommendations
- Healthy Food Choices Made Easy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.diabetes.org/nutrition/healthy-food-choices-made-easy
- Slavin, J. L., & Lloyd, B. (2012). Health Benefits of Fruits and Vegetables. Advances in Nutrition, 3(4), 506–516. doi: 10.3945/an.112.002154
- Willis, H. J., & Slavin, J. L. (2019). The Influence of Diet Interventions Using Whole, Plant Food on the Gut Microbiome: A Narrative Review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2019.09.017
- Cani, P. D. (2018). Human gut microbiome: hopes, threats and promises. Gut, 67(9), 1716–1725. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2018-316723
- Diet: Definition of Diet by Lexico. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/diet
- Pollan, M. P. (2007, January 28). Unhappy Meals. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html
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