For both your health and the planet’s health, it’s good to adopt a plant-based diet. Here are ten reasons why you should eat more plants.
The evidence is clear: if you want to simultaneously improve your health and protect the planet, eating more plants is the way to go. From lowering your risk of disease to reducing greenhouse emissions, there are so many compelling reasons why it’s good to eat more plants.
Eat More Plants for Your Health
1. Prevent Diabetes
The sobering news: over 30% of American adults are pre-diabetic, with almost 10% having progressed to type 2 diabetes. The good news: eating a plant-based diet decreases your risk for type 2 diabetes by 30%.
A diet rich in veggies, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains means your body rarely gets overloaded with refined carbs and sugars. The plant protein, fiber, and healthy fats found in a plant-based diet also do their part to keep too much sugar from hitting your bloodstream all at once. Such a diet may even help reverse pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
2. Fight Inflammation
We’re talking about the chronic variety that leaves you feeling foggy and sapped of energy on the regular. Chronic inflammation puts you at risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.
A common culprit of chronic inflammation is processed and meat-laden food, especially red meat. Make food your ally in the war against inflammation: swap the processed for lots of fruits and veggies. Plant-based foods like berries, leafy greens, and legumes combat oxidative stress, a known inflammation trigger.
3. Improve Cholesterol Numbers
Plant-based diets lower total cholesterol when compared to omnivorous diets. Specifically, low-fat, plant-based regimens typically reduce cholesterol by about 15-30%, with most of the reduction happening to “bad” LDL cholesterol, which improves one’s cholesterol ratio.
The payoff of eating more plants to improve cholesterol numbers? A decreased risk of heart disease and stroke.
4. Love Your Gut
When you eat more plants, you’ll feel it in your gut. A fiber-rich, plant-based diet helps your microbiome — all the beneficial bacteria in your intestines — to diversify and thrive. This is beneficial to overall health (even mental health!) and immune function, and will greatly outnumber harmful bacteria.
Here’s how else eating more plants is a great way to love your gut: diets high in red and processed meats increase risk of colorectal cancers, while high-fiber whole grains appear to lower the risk. Your gut has a message for you: cut the meat and pile on the plants (including probiotic-rich raw fermented foods).
5. Lower Blood Pressure
76% of people who followed a vegan diet for one year were able to discontinue or drastically reduce use of blood-pressure medication. Many plant-based foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables tend to be lower in sodium and higher in potassium — a combo that’s known to naturally lower blood pressure.
Bottom line: if you want to lower your blood pressure and the associated risks (damaged arteries, aneurysm, stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and sexual dysfunction) eat more plants, especially potassium-rich fruits and vegetables.
Eat More Plants for the Planet
6. Preserve & Restore Land
Every minute across the globe, 36 football fields’ worth of trees are lost to deforestation. Most land is clearcut to either raise livestock or grow livestock feed. Currently, almost 30% of the world’s ice-free land is used to raise livestock. Beef is the biggest culprit, in part because it requires much more land.
Because carbon-storing trees are some of the best tools nature gives us to fight climate change, not only does deforestation destroy ecosystems but it also accelerates climate change. To reduce your land footprint, eat more plants.
7. Protect Biodiversity
If you’re passionate about wildlife, you’ll want to eat more plants and less meat. The meat industry’s above-mentioned deforestation practices result in the extinction of about 50,00 species per year. Do your part to keep the planet lush, wild, and diverse: eat a plant-based diet.
8. Save Water & Keep it Clean
Animal farming in the US is responsible for one-third of all freshwater usage. Beef is the biggest culprit. It takes almost 30 gallons of water to produce one gram of beef protein. Meanwhile, one gram of lentil protein requires just five gallons of water. How you can make a difference: save 200,000 gallons of water by eating one plant-based meal every day for a year.
As for keeping water clean and safe, pesticide, antibiotic, and waste runoff from livestock and feedstock is the leading cause of water pollution and coastal “dead” zones around the world. When you eat more plants, you help improve water quality and freshwater availability.
9. Prevent Soil Erosion
Dirt is good. It’s full of nutrients and lifeforms that are essential to the planet. It contains everything we need to grow food. But if you abuse it, soil erosion, complete with problems like compaction and nutrient degradation ensue. Over time, this abused soil loses its ability to maintain water and nourish crops, and it can’t even stay put. It clogs rivers and streams with sediment, which threatens water life.
Soil degradation is mostly attributable to deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide use — all hallmarks of livestock production. To reverse soil erosion, eat more plants — especially those grown on a small scale using sustainable agricultural practices.
10. Reduce Emissions & Improve Air Quality
Climate change, the biggest threat to our planet, can be mitigated with individual diet changes. Because plant-based diets create a fraction of the greenhouse gasses of animal agriculture, if everyone started eating more plants and less meat, we could lower the food production industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70%.
Then there’s good old-fashioned air pollution. Livestock manure alone, which accounts for 14% of greenhouse gases, emits pollutants like ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and sulfates. They create tiny particles that, once inhaled, cause heart and lung diseases that account for up to 3.3 million deaths per year globally.
If you want to help reduce emissions and improve air quality, eat more plants. Even eating plant-based just some of the time is a step in the right direction. Example: Eating one plant-based meal every day for a year is the equivalent of going 81 days without driving.
What’s Your Reason to Eat More Plants?
We want to hear from you! What would you add to this list? What motivates you to eat more plants? Share your “why” on Thistle’s Facebook group. If you’re convinced and ready to start eating more plants ASAP, give our vegan meal delivery service a try.
For both your health and the planet’s health, it’s good to adopt a plant-based diet. Here are ten reasons why you should eat more plants.
The evidence is clear: if you want to simultaneously improve your health and protect the planet, eating more plants is the way to go. From lowering your risk of disease to reducing greenhouse emissions, there are so many compelling reasons why it’s good to eat more plants.
Eat More Plants for Your Health
1. Prevent Diabetes
The sobering news: over 30% of American adults are pre-diabetic, with almost 10% having progressed to type 2 diabetes. The good news: eating a plant-based diet decreases your risk for type 2 diabetes by 30%.
A diet rich in veggies, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains means your body rarely gets overloaded with refined carbs and sugars. The plant protein, fiber, and healthy fats found in a plant-based diet also do their part to keep too much sugar from hitting your bloodstream all at once. Such a diet may even help reverse pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
2. Fight Inflammation
We’re talking about the chronic variety that leaves you feeling foggy and sapped of energy on the regular. Chronic inflammation puts you at risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.
A common culprit of chronic inflammation is processed and meat-laden food, especially red meat. Make food your ally in the war against inflammation: swap the processed for lots of fruits and veggies. Plant-based foods like berries, leafy greens, and legumes combat oxidative stress, a known inflammation trigger.
3. Improve Cholesterol Numbers
Plant-based diets lower total cholesterol when compared to omnivorous diets. Specifically, low-fat, plant-based regimens typically reduce cholesterol by about 15-30%, with most of the reduction happening to “bad” LDL cholesterol, which improves one’s cholesterol ratio.
The payoff of eating more plants to improve cholesterol numbers? A decreased risk of heart disease and stroke.
4. Love Your Gut
When you eat more plants, you’ll feel it in your gut. A fiber-rich, plant-based diet helps your microbiome — all the beneficial bacteria in your intestines — to diversify and thrive. This is beneficial to overall health (even mental health!) and immune function, and will greatly outnumber harmful bacteria.
Here’s how else eating more plants is a great way to love your gut: diets high in red and processed meats increase risk of colorectal cancers, while high-fiber whole grains appear to lower the risk. Your gut has a message for you: cut the meat and pile on the plants (including probiotic-rich raw fermented foods).
5. Lower Blood Pressure
76% of people who followed a vegan diet for one year were able to discontinue or drastically reduce use of blood-pressure medication. Many plant-based foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables tend to be lower in sodium and higher in potassium — a combo that’s known to naturally lower blood pressure.
Bottom line: if you want to lower your blood pressure and the associated risks (damaged arteries, aneurysm, stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and sexual dysfunction) eat more plants, especially potassium-rich fruits and vegetables.
Eat More Plants for the Planet
6. Preserve & Restore Land
Every minute across the globe, 36 football fields’ worth of trees are lost to deforestation. Most land is clearcut to either raise livestock or grow livestock feed. Currently, almost 30% of the world’s ice-free land is used to raise livestock. Beef is the biggest culprit, in part because it requires much more land.
Because carbon-storing trees are some of the best tools nature gives us to fight climate change, not only does deforestation destroy ecosystems but it also accelerates climate change. To reduce your land footprint, eat more plants.
7. Protect Biodiversity
If you’re passionate about wildlife, you’ll want to eat more plants and less meat. The meat industry’s above-mentioned deforestation practices result in the extinction of about 50,00 species per year. Do your part to keep the planet lush, wild, and diverse: eat a plant-based diet.
8. Save Water & Keep it Clean
Animal farming in the US is responsible for one-third of all freshwater usage. Beef is the biggest culprit. It takes almost 30 gallons of water to produce one gram of beef protein. Meanwhile, one gram of lentil protein requires just five gallons of water. How you can make a difference: save 200,000 gallons of water by eating one plant-based meal every day for a year.
As for keeping water clean and safe, pesticide, antibiotic, and waste runoff from livestock and feedstock is the leading cause of water pollution and coastal “dead” zones around the world. When you eat more plants, you help improve water quality and freshwater availability.
9. Prevent Soil Erosion
Dirt is good. It’s full of nutrients and lifeforms that are essential to the planet. It contains everything we need to grow food. But if you abuse it, soil erosion, complete with problems like compaction and nutrient degradation ensue. Over time, this abused soil loses its ability to maintain water and nourish crops, and it can’t even stay put. It clogs rivers and streams with sediment, which threatens water life.
Soil degradation is mostly attributable to deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide use — all hallmarks of livestock production. To reverse soil erosion, eat more plants — especially those grown on a small scale using sustainable agricultural practices.
10. Reduce Emissions & Improve Air Quality
Climate change, the biggest threat to our planet, can be mitigated with individual diet changes. Because plant-based diets create a fraction of the greenhouse gasses of animal agriculture, if everyone started eating more plants and less meat, we could lower the food production industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70%.
Then there’s good old-fashioned air pollution. Livestock manure alone, which accounts for 14% of greenhouse gases, emits pollutants like ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and sulfates. They create tiny particles that, once inhaled, cause heart and lung diseases that account for up to 3.3 million deaths per year globally.
If you want to help reduce emissions and improve air quality, eat more plants. Even eating plant-based just some of the time is a step in the right direction. Example: Eating one plant-based meal every day for a year is the equivalent of going 81 days without driving.
What’s Your Reason to Eat More Plants?
We want to hear from you! What would you add to this list? What motivates you to eat more plants? Share your “why” on Thistle’s Facebook group. If you’re convinced and ready to start eating more plants ASAP, give our vegan meal delivery service a try.
