6 Reasons to Start a Vegan Diet

If you often wage an inner war while ordering food to opt for your favorite hamburger or something healthier, you aren’t alone! With the spotlight on health more so after the pandemic, choosing a healthier lifestyle makes perfect sense. 

And leading the health bandwagon is the newest buzz in town – veganism or a vegan diet.

With more and more people adopting veganism as their way of life, vegan foods are everywhere - from supermarkets to high-end restaurants, from star-studded endorsements to the subject of several documentaries.

There is no doubt that a vegan diet is considered a healthier lifestyle choice. Some people may find it a tad challenging too.

Think about it! No eggs, no dairy, no cheese.

Will it be too hard without the favorite cheese topping on the pizza, without milk in the morning tea/coffee, and without the easy omelet breakfast? So, why are people making the switch? 

For most vegans, opting for a vegan diet is not only about clean, healthy nutrition but also has many ethical implications and concerns for minimizing environmental footprints. 

But first, let’s define a vegan diet.

What is a Vegan Diet?

A vegan diet is a plant-based diet that excludes everything produced by animals, like fish, meat, eggs, honey, and dairy products. Conversely, it emphasizes the consumption of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, seeds, and nuts.

So, if you feel like Hamlet – to be or not to be, here are a few reasons to help you make up your mind:

1. Innumerable Health Benefits

Since a vegan diet is plant-based, it entails a daily intake of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and whole grains that offer many health-promoting benefits. Following a well-rounded vegan diet can easily take care of your daily dose of essential nutrients, beneficial fiber, iron, minerals, and vitamins. Vegan foods provide more fiber, nutrients, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants that can positively impact blood pressure, cholesterol, heart diseases, and type 2 diabetes. The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the British Dietetic Association also state that well-planned vegan diets support healthier living.

One common question often asked regarding a vegan diet is - can it fulfill the body’s daily protein and calcium requirement – since one needs to give up meat and milk.

The answer is yes, it can. 

One can always make healthier food swaps like broccoli, black beans, nuts, tofu, quinoa, flaxseeds, sesame, plant-based milk, and soybeans to get the daily fill of protein and calcium.

2. Healthy Weight Management

Research shows that healthy vegan diets can effectively contribute to positive weight management by preventing obesity. A plant-based vegan diet is usually high in fiber which can help limit the hunger pangs and promote a feeling of satiety. Reduced calorie intake naturally helps to keep the weight in check without any added effort to cut calories. Vegan diets also contain fewer unhealthy fats that commonly cause weight gain. Thus, by consuming vegan foods, one can enjoy a trimmer waistline.

3. Championing Animal Rights

If you feel strongly about animal exploitation and cruelty, then going vegan is the way out. Documentaries like Food, Inc., and Cowspiracy have tried to generate awareness regarding the inhumane practices and cruel treatment of animals on factory farms. Furthermore, it doesn’t help that the government hasn’t been able to reinforce any definite requirements on these farms allowing them to take advantage of the loopholes in policies. By opting for vegan foods, one can take an ethical stand for saving the animals by not participating in animal product consumption.

4. Positive Impact on Environment and Planet

What one puts on their plate daily can have an enormous bearing on the environment and planet!

A study issued in Science journal suggests that meat and dairy production collectively has a staggeringly adverse impact on our environment. It further highlights that the current food production practices are extinguishing wildlands, draining all kinds of natural resources, and fast-tracking global warming and alarming climate change. The study adds that following a vegan diet can positively contribute to saving our environment and planet. A vegan diet has a comparatively lesser environmental impact and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Promotes Sustainability

With increasing food shortage concerns owing to the ever-growing global population, vegans may provide the much-needed solution to sustainability. According to The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N., despite world meat production expected to double by 2050, there won’t be sufficient land left to house animal farms to produce those volumes of food. Currently, animal farming and the land needed to feed them monopolizes the world’s total habitable land. But livestock can offer only about 18 percent of the world’s nutritional needs. On the contrary, plant-based practices can provide significant amounts of energy and food resources by using just one-third of that land.

6. Seize the Chance to Enjoy Newer Cuisines 

Sampling new flavors and recipes can spice up life. Transiting to a vegan diet will propel one to explore new culinary avenues. It can be exciting to try new recipes and use one’s creativity to whip up dishes by exploring the green world. If expanding your culinary horizons in the green realm seems baffling, don’t fret. One can watch YouTube cooking shows and follow recipe blogs for yummy meal ideas.

If you aspire to adopt a wellness-focused lifestyle, then a vegan diet can prove the right choice. Whatever may be your wellness goals – to eat better to feel better, maintain good health, or lose weight, a vegan diet can help you realize all this and more. 

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Also read: 5 Plant Based Protein, Vegan Low Calorie Soup, Vegan Cookbooks Of 2022,