What is a Plant-Based Diet?

This is a great resource for anyone searching for information on plant-based nutrition. It has a lot of free downloads and resources: fact sheets on different health subjects from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Tedx talk from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn on heart disease, and Tedx talk from Dr. Neal Barnard on preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes. Great resource to share.

What foods can you eat on a plant-based diet?

Eating plant-based, whole foods means fueling your body from the following food groups.

WHOLE GRAINS – This group includes brown rice, millet, oats, barley, corn, bulgur, and all products made from whole grains including bread, cereals, pasta, and more. Whole grains are filling but have very little fat. In countries where whole grains are staples, such as rural Asia, diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers, are much less common than in the States and Europe.

LEGUMES – This group includes beans, peas, and lentils. They are hearty, high protein foods that are rich in calcium, iron, cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, and even traces of omega 3 fatty acids.

VEGETABLES – These foods are loaded with vitamins and minerals, are very low in fat, and like all plant foods, have no cholesterol at all.

FRUIT – These are vitamin-rich and have no cholesterol. They do have natural sugar but are low on the glycemic index, except for watermelon and pineapple.

Recommended foods do NOT include meat, dairy products, eggs, added oils, or most processed foods.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to my favorite Amazon products. If you purchase via my links, I may make a small percentage at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting my content.

If you are new to the plant-based lifestyle, these articles will also be very helpful

• Plant-Based Guide for Beginners
• What is a Plant-Based Whole Food
• Plant-Based Meal Planning 101
• Jeff Novick’s 10 Simple Recipes in Less than 20-Minutes
• What’s in My Plant-Based Medicine Cabinet? I Mean Pantry!
• Beginners Guide to Plant-Based Grocery Shopping
• Guide to Dining Out on a Plant-Based Diet

I highly suggest watching the documentary Forks Over Knives from Netflix or Amazon to understand scientific research and studies supporting this way of eating, as well as checking out these other recommended resources.

For reading, The China Study, by Dr. Colin Campbell, is at the top of the recommended list.

Check out this site for more information visit Forks Over Knives article, What is a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet.

This book is an excellent resource for those interested in cancer prevention and survival. It contains vital information about the research behind diet and disease– cancer in particular. The last section is full of great recipes. This is the book we use in Food for Life classes.

Other FREE RESOURCES

from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:

• Cholesterol and Heart Disease
• Diet and Diabetes
• Healthy Eating for Life: Food Choices for Cancer Prevention and Survival
• The Vegetarian Starter Kit
• Nutrition Rainbow
• Type 1 Diabetes Fact Sheet
• The Cancer Project: Nutrition and Prostate Health
• Healthy Gut Prebiotics and Probiotics 
• Foods for Arthritis
• Food and Mood: Eating Plants to Fight the Blues
• Ingredient Substitution Chart 
• Other Physicians Committee Fact Sheets

Kaiser Permanente in Support of Plant-Based Nutrition

In 2017, Kaiser Permanente, the largest healthcare organization, came out in support of plant-based nutrition with their Healthy Living: Eat Healthy Live Better program.

“As I see skyrocketing incidences of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, I am profoundly aware that there is so much potential for preventing or even reversing most of these problems through very inexpensive lifestyle changes centered on proper nutrition.” — Carmelo Mejia, MD, Internal Medicine, Kaiser Permanente

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This is a list of Recommended Resources: Books, DVDs, and More.

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