Pros and cons of a plant based diet for New Year
To start the New Year in a healthy new way by trying a plantbased diet, it is important to understand what such a change will mean for your body.
Charlotte Harrison, a nutritionist for Spoon Guru, explains the pros and cons.
A plant-based diet may lower your blood pressure
- as revealed by a Cardia hypertension sub-study of 4304 subjects.
It may increase your fibre intake - fruits, vegetables, pulses and legumes naturally contain high levels of fibre.
A plant-based diet may lower your chances of developing type two diabetes
– a 2006 study found that a plant-based diet reduced the chances of developing type two diabetes by 34 per cent.
Switching to a plantbased diet leads to discovery of new foods.
Better for the environment - if you eat about 100g of meat a day, changing to a plant-based diet can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 60 per cent. This saves an annual equivalent of 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Even halving your meat intake to 50g you can cut down your footprint by 35 per cent.
Cons
While there are not many cons, switching to a plantbased diet does come with a few things to look out for.
High salt and sugar – some pre-made plant-based products like plant burgers or plant nuggets may contain more salt and sugar.
Nutrient reduction – if someone is going to swap from a full omnivorous diet (both plant and animalbased diet) they may miss out on key nutrients. For example, a steak is full of iron, selenium, vitamin B12 niacin and zinc, plus it has a high bioavailability (nutrients enter the body easily and quickly). If you wanted to get approximately the same amount of nutrients in plant form then you would need a wide variety and mix of vegetables, beans, pulses, seeds and nuts.
Can be more expensive. A lot of vegan products out there can be more expensive, such as plant-based burgers or nuggets. However, plant
based burgers are easy to make. Also, many fresh fruits and vegetables don’t last long in the fridge but you can freeze them or buy frozen.
Vegan and plant-based diets are difficult to distinguish. One main differences is being vegan is a lifestyle rather than a diet. Normally, vegans won’t buy things like leather as this comes from animal skin.
Vegan diets tend to be slightly stricter with additives such as riboflavin. Riboflavin can come from egg or milk sources, so unless there’s a vegan suitable statement on the packet then most vegans will avoid this. Plant-based eating has more flexibility around some food additives.
The main vitamins that are hard to get plenty of within a plant-based diet are vitamin D, B12, iron and omega-3.
Vitamin D we normally get from the sun. Foods that
contain vitamin D include those fortified such as milk or cereal and mushrooms. Vitamin D is great for the immune system.
Vitamin B12 is a watersoluble vitamin, involved with every cell in the body. It is usually found in the likes of salmon, liver, clams, etc.
Iron-rich foods are associated with red meats but are also lentils, tofu, cashew nuts and chia seeds. Iron is important for blood formation, in particular haemoglobin production. Iron cannot be absorbed unless there is plenty of vitamin C.
Omega-3 is usually found in fish but can be found in walnuts, chia seeds and flax seeds. In theory, a plantbased diet can aid weight loss as you are consuming less saturated fats.
The www.Spoon.Guru site caters for individuals with specific dietary requirements or health objectives.