Q. What is the similarity between Mahavira from India, Pythagoras from Greece, and Al-Ma’rri from Aleppo?
Ans. They all support non-violence in eating.
History of Plant-Based Diet
It is a misconception that the intake of vegetarian-based products is a new theme that originated in the 20th century rather it is an older theme that has its roots all over the world from a long ago.
We will not reject the idea that early human being was opportunistically omnivorous and was eating both herbivorous (in the form of fruits, seeds) and carnivorous diet (by hunting, preying), but with the rise of the agriculture in his way of living, the whole course of history got changed.
Human start decreasing their dependency on the meat-based product with the rise of agriculture and a thought emerged slowly favouring the vegetarian diet while diminishing the intake of meat.
From the far coast of the east to the west, this thought of eating is then propagated by many people for different communities and visioned as a need of times now.
Many Studies by various country has proved that meat-based product especially Beef only increase the imbalance in the course of nature by the emission of tons of carbon emissions.
Definition of Plant-based Diet
Most people derive from the term “Plant-based Diet”, that it must be a vegan diet in which only those items are included which are gained from plants. But this is not what this diet means.
A plant-based diet suggests only to include plants based elements in the diet with minimizing the animal products (or proper discarding them if you can).
Hence you can divide the Plant-Based Diet into two broad categories:-
- Pure Plant-Based Diet: No Animal product allowed, no dairy or eggs allowed. Only vegetables, legumes, fruit, grains, nuts, and seed.
- Mixed Plant-Based Diet: Inclusion of other products than the plant on some occasions.
- Ovo Lacto Plant-Based Diet: Add Eggs and Milk in diet + Plants (excluding one of them according to choice)
- Non-Vegetarian Mixed Based Diet: Add Meat and poultry + Plants
However, this must be noticed that Mixed plant-based diet variations are only on occasional purpose and not to be maintained regularly.
What to eat in the Plant-Based Diet
You can start Plant-Based Diet with the basic items that are Fruits.
Any Fruits that are seasonal and available to your local region can be eaten.
Vegetables are second in the list in which you have to eat plenty amount of available to your local including stem and branch vegetables (peas, lettuce, collards, spinach, ), tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets) etc.
You can also include legumes, seeds and nuts in your diet with controlled intake of those items which can increase weight.
Plant Based Diet Benefits
We have listed some of the advantages of starting a plant-based diet in your routine:-
- Controlled Blood-Pressure: High Blood pressure can be responsible for many more diseases like Heart diseases, stroke and Diabetes. Many studies have shown that a plant-based diet is very helpful in decreasing blood pressure with comparison to the non-vegetarian diet. In Nov. 2016, Journal of Hypertension had printed the report that Vegetarian diet also leads to fewer chances of having hypertension.
- Healthy Heart: Non-Vegetarian items i.e. meat is the primary source of a fat building in the body when eaten in excess. As a Vegetarian diet helps reduce heart disease, it eventually becomes the reason for a healthy heart and decrease in cardiovascular diseases.
- Weight Loss: In many reports, it is proven that with the decrease of heavy meat intake, you will find that there is a certain amount of weight loss. However, there is an exception in this that if the plant-based diet is comprised of fat, then weight loss can’t be promised. According to one study of March 2017, 65 overweight people had taken the plant-based diet and they had lost 9 pounds average of weight.
- Lesser Risk of Cancer: According to the American Institute of Cancer Research shows that taking Plant-based diet including fibres, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in it will help in reducing cancer-inducing reason from the body.