Plant-based dietary tips for preventing chronic disease

In the present scenario, everybody is concerned about the rising cost of health care, so everyone, including clinicians, is looking for cost-effective interventions to improve health outcomes. Clinicians also recommend adapting to a healthy lifestyle which is becoming more promising for preventing chronic disorders like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Healthy eating habit is one of the prime aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

Diet is considering the meals containing a variety of foodstuffs instead of secluded food or nutrients. Intake of meals has accountability for complex interactions between nutrients and non-nutrients. 

Why have plant-based food recommendations become highlighted?

Plant-based diet plans usually uplift whole, plant-based foods and dissuade refined and processed foods, meats, eggs, and even dairy products. Plant-based diets are considered a regimen in many folk medicinal practices may due to their contribution to the risk reduction of some chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases by promoting lower BMI, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and HbA1C.

The consumption of a plant-based diet may also decrease the number of prescribed medications required to treat chronic medical conditions and reduce the incidence rate of ischemic heart disease and related mortality rates. Currently, many naturopathy doctors recommend a plant-based diet to their patients, primarily those with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or obesity. A plant-based diet has a chemo-preventive role in cancer development. 

A healthy plant-based diet highlights nutrient-dense plant foods and subsequently decreases the intake of processed foods, oil, and animal-based foods (including dairy products, animal fats, and eggs). It encourages having plenty of fruits, raw or cooked vegetables, beans, whole grains, peas, legumes, lentils, soybeans, seeds, and nuts with low-fat content. 

Different diet plans have already been established that limit or omit animal-based food items. But lack of a clear idea of these diet specifications often creates confusion among users. NitaNaturale has published this article to provide a transitory summary of distinctive diets that limit animal products. Multiple research findings agree that a plant-based diet has substantial health benefits. 

What are the different types of plant-based diets?

The terms vegetarian and vegan are often used interchangeably for describing a plant-based diet. Both vegetarian and vegan diets have ethical or religious explanations that may or may not justify their health benefits. It is necessary to differentiate different plant-based diet plans by precisely defining them. Various plant-based diets are distinct because of the variety of compositions that also explains their health value.

• Vegan (or total vegetarian): Eliminates all animal foodstuffs, particularly meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, and dairy products. This diet plan does not restrict to intake of whole foods or limit fat or refined grains.
• Raw food vegan: Same elimination as veganism and the rejection of all foodstuffs prepared at temperatures more than 118°F.
• Lacto-vegetarian Eliminates meat, poultry, eggs, and seafood but includes dairy products.
• Ovo-vegetarian Eliminates meat, poultry, seafood, and milk products but includes eggs.
• Lacto-Ovo vegetarian: Eliminates meat, poultry, and seafood and includes dairy products and eggs.
• Mediterranean: maximum inclusion of whole foods obtained from different plant sources and extensive use of fatty fish and olive oil with limited intake of dairy products, eggs, chicken, and red meat once or twice per month. This diet plant recognizes Omega-3 fatty acids-containing foods.
• Whole foods, plant-based, low-fat: Includes plant foods in their whole form, especially fruits, vegetables, seeds, legumes, and nuts (in lesser amounts). Animal foods are restricted with limited use of fat to obtain ultimate health assistance from this diet. 

Healthy diet tips with multiple alternative options

It is essential to maintain the required calorie level. The appropriate calorie varies from individual to individual. The various factors which interfere with the calorie requirement are age, physical activity, and body weight. The required calorie can be maintained by proper consumption of mixed nutrients and should avoid fulfilling the calorie by taking a few high-calorie foods and beverages. These types of food habits do not provide adequate nutrients. They are usually the source of saturated fats, trans fats, triglycerides, or high glycemic index that increase the risk factors for several chronic diseases. For reference, Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health acknowledged that diet has undoubtedly provided an impact on cardiovascular disease. The following dietary recommendations are preventive measures against various plaque-forming diseases like cardiac disorders, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and dementia.

1. Avoidance of simple carbohydrates which have a high glycemic index is essential to prevent the raising of blood sugar levels. Refined grain products such as white bread, pasta, wheat flour, and white rice are examples of simple carbs with high GI. Marked reduction is necessary for sugar and potato-rich foods. Replacement of simple carbohydrate products with complex carbohydrates like whole-grain foods, beans, and nuts is a smart step towards a healthy diet. Whole-grain foods can raise glucose levels very slowly because of the following interconnected reasons:
   • metabolism takes time
   • accelerated insulin secretion is not required
   • the scope of insulin resistance is limited
   • over activity of the pancreas is not required
   • Prevent the damage in the beta cells from where the insulin is secreted 
   • All these limit type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia. 
2. Reduction or elimination of animal fat consumption specifically beef, pork, and lamb from the diet is another good diet tip. But if anybody cannot follow this rigidity, partial avoidance of red meat (maximum cuts required for pork products) is emphasized. Take necessary precautions during the preparation of the animal products like backed and boiled products must be chosen to avoid much consumption of saturated and trans-fats. 
3. Strict avoidance of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is encouraged. These are one of the prime sources of trans fatty acids. One of the steps to avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is to avert the taking of commercially available packed food items and margarine. Use an adequate amount of olive oil, peanut oil, and canola oil. They are the chief source of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. 
4. Add an abundant amount of fruits and vegetables to your daily diet plan. Expert nutritionists praise 6 to 9 servings of fruits and/or vegetables daily.
5. Highly recommended protein and complex carbohydrates are bean curd products such as tofu.
6. Try to be a pescatarian/vegetarian as possible.
7. Animal-food lovers can use seafood as an alternative source of animal products in their diet. Particularly oily fish from northern oceans, for example, salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, anchovies, and Alaskan halibut are healthy options. Many animal-food lovers prefer seafood over red and white meat. White meat from chicken and turkey is also a better option than red meat (beef, lamb, and pork) and dark meat from chicken and turkey. Shellfish contain a cholesterol-like substance that does not have much determinantal impact on blood cholesterol. But the amount of saturated animal fat in the diet raises ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in the blood.

Finally, we should be a firm advocate for daily exercise that has enough scientific back-up to improve cardiovascular health. Individuals should exercise for more than 40 minutes per day. Walking, jogging, swimming, and rowing are ideal aerobic exercises with multiple health benefits. Some weight training is also a good idea and can be performed two to three times per week for approximately 30 minutes. If you are not someone who exercises habitually, it would be prudent to consult a physician and a trainer before initiating an exercise program.