By including more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts in your diet you can help shed weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, manage diabetes more effectively and potentially decrease cancer and other chronic disease risks.
A plant-based diet comprises whole foods like fruits and vegetables, unprocessed whole grains, unsalted nuts and seeds as well as legumes. Additionally, this may include small amounts of meat/fish/seafood/eggs in its composition.
Protein
Protein is an essential nutrient for human health, playing an integral role in cell repair, energy production, and hormone synthesis. Plant-based diets offer many high-quality sources of protein such as whole grains, vegetables (including cruciferous ones), nuts/seeds/beans.
Recently, replacing meat with legumes was found to decrease blood glucose and insulin levels among people living with type-2 diabetes. Other research indicates that plant-based proteins provide better cholesterol, triglyceride, and hemoglobin levels than traditional meats.
Plant-based foods tend to contain lower levels of fat than their meat- and snack-rich counterparts; however, those opting for this way of eating must still monitor their fat intake in order to achieve a healthy weight range.
Fat
Healthy diets focus on whole food sources such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds to promote weight management while decreasing inflammation levels and cutting back on added sugar, salt and fats.
Some individuals take healthy eating one step further by opting for a plant-based diet, which involves forgoing animal proteins, dairy products and processed or refined oils in their daily eating habits.
A plant-based diet emphasizes consumption of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats from avocado, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, olive, canola and safflower oils as well as omega-3 fatty acids from flaxseed, walnuts and fish to provide essential unsaturated fatty acids needed for good health and better gut microbiota. Studies have linked such diets with reduced heart disease risk as well as improved gut microbiota.
Carbohydrates
Carbs are one of the body’s primary sources of energy. They can be found naturally in fruits, vegetables and whole grains as well as beans like black beans, lentils and lima beans; additionally they include starches like potatoes and pasta along with dietary fiber.
Carbs play an integral part of plant-based diets such as veganism, vegetarianism and flexitarianism as well as the EAT-Lancet recommendations for human health and environmental sustainability (17). These reference dietary patterns incorporate carbohydrates as their primary energy source with an emphasis on whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
glucose and simple sugars (monosaccharides) can quickly be broken down by your body into instant energy sources, while complex carbs found in vegetables, whole grains and cooked beans and legumes take longer to break down and produce steady streams of energy.
Vitamins
Plant-based diets may meet the rigorous nutritional demands of elite athletes. However, further research must be conducted into how such diets impact athletes’ micronutrient status and performance over time.
Vitamins are vital components of human life and play a critical role in cell growth, energy metabolism, hormone regulation, and overall body functioning. Since our bodies cannot synthesize most vitamins (with the exception of Vitamin C). Therefore, most must be consumed through food consumption (except when taking an oral multivitamin supplement).
Plant-based athletes may need to supplement their diets with supplements in order to ensure adequate intake of certain essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B12, iron and zinc. Fortified cereals, plant milks and vegan animal-based products such as vegan meat products can be helpful when selecting fortified products as can methyl cobalamin supplementation instead of cyanocobalamin for best results. Timing matters too – for instance eating calcium rich foods separately from iron-rich ones may aid absorption as competing restriction may diminish absorption by reducing competitive restrictions in absorption between two nutrients.
Minerals
Diets rich in plant-based foods provide essential minerals such as iron, calcium, vitamin D, zinc, phosphorus and omega-3 fatty acids – such as those found in whole grains, fruits vegetables legumes and nuts.
Mineral nutrient levels in crop tissues and soil depend on multiple factors, including genetics, environmental conditions, fertilizer use patterns and harvesting practices. Chemical reactions (e.g. oxidation/precipitation) also play a key role in controlling their availability in soils.
Vitamin C is an integral component of plant-based athlete nutrition to prevent deficiency that could impede performance and recovery [132]. Berries, citrus fruits, kiwi fruit and pears are excellent sources of Vitamin C while spinach, kale, avocados and tomatoes also contain ample quantities. Vitamin C can easily be assimilated when consumed as part of a vegan diet.
