WHAT IS A WHOLE-FOOD,
PLANT-BASED DIET?
One of the healthiest things you can do for your body, and the environment is to eat a Whole Food Plant-Based diet. The main principle of this diet is focused on the potential to maximise your consumption of nutrient dense, fibre rich whole foods and to eliminate foods from animal sources, processed foods, refined sugars, oils and bleached flours.
A Whole Food Plant-Based lifestyle is based on real foods that are close to nature. It encourages the consumption of organically grown raw and cooked vegetables, fruit, beans, peas, lentils, seeds, and nuts.
There is plenty of scientific evidence showing that moving to a WFPB diet can improve our health, boost energy levels, and prevent chronic diseases much more.
The following are some of the benefits :
Reduce inflammation
Whole plant foods are loaded with phytonutrients that have anti-inflammatory properties. Plant-based foods are also low in many inflammatory triggers, such as fats, toxins and bacteria.
Boost our immune system
The minerals, phytochemicals, vitamins, and antioxidants found in plants help keep our cells healthy, which supports the immune system to protect against germs and microorganisms. Plants have essential nutrients that you cannot get from other foods.
Helps Maintain a Healthy Weight
If you eat whole plant-based food, you remove many of the foods that lead to weight gain. You need to reduce calories to lose weight, when following a plant-based diet properly, it generally contains fewer calories per bite than animal foods. Plants are fibre rich foods which are known to promote a feeling of fullness. Fibre promotes healthy gut bacteria which helps to regulate our hormones that contributes to adequate appetite regulation. Maintaining a healthy weight reduces your risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.
Increase fibre intake
Eating plant-based foods makes it a fibre rich diet, these foods provide the optimal way to feed our gut microbiome. A healthy gut has a diverse range of microbiome. With a healthy gut you are better able to absorb the nutrients from food that support your immune system and reduce inflammation. Fibre is also great for lowering cholesterol and stabilizing blood sugar and it’s essential for good bowel health.
Lower Your Risk of Chronic Diseases
When focusing on plants, our intake of saturated fats is significantly reduced while essential vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fibre is naturally much higher. A whole food plant-based diet is associated with lower rates of hypertension, cancer, obesity, stroke, diabetes and many other chronic diseases.