What is a plant-based diet?
Plant diets have been on the rise over the past few years as more and more people began incorporating diets into their health and fitness routines. Although plant-based diets are making their way into many people’s lives, most people do not know what it exactly means to be “plant-based.”
The most common assumption would be to have diets based on plant-derivatives, such as fruits and vegetables, excluding animal-derived food such as meat. This concept mainly describes vegetarian diets but does not cover the full extent of the term plant-based diet (which is a term that is quite broad, encompassing various diet categories, ones even including meat and seafood).
The categories are broken into 4 categories that people follow based on their lifestyle, preference, and goals. The first division is the well-known vegetarian diet, where the meals centre around fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and dairy. Such diets are heavily seen in countries like India, where over 30 percent of the population follow pure-vegetarian diets.
Another well-known plant-based diet is veganism, which only includes plant food and excludes anything originating from animals. This includes eliminating dairy, eggs, and honey since they are all derived or produced by animals. This is the strictest form of the plant diet solely based on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes.
Another diet that fits under the plant diet is Pescatarianism. Under this diet, you can consume seafood, such as fish and salmon, alongside fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and dairy. This category follows closely with the vegetarian diet with the inclusion of seafood since there is no intake of meat.
The last plant-based diet category is flexitarianism, also known as the semi-vegetarian diet (SVD). This diet is what most people start out doing before they convert to being fully vegan or vegetarian since it is more lenient. In flexitarianism, you are permitted to consume all foods, including meat and seafood. A semi-vegetarian diet puts a heavy emphasis on vegetables and other plant-based derivatives yet allows space for small amounts of non-plant-based foods.
These variations of the plant-based diet all support having a higher intake of plant derivatives. Scientifically proven, meals of these types tend to be healthier and natural for our bodies since it excludes processed food, refined sugar, artificial colours or flavourings, and many chemical additives which are found in preservatives. With further research over time, plant diets also contribute to decreasing the chances of heart disease and stroke.
