What Can You Eat on a Plant Based Diet?

 As I'm starting to talk more about the benefits of a whole food, plant based diet, I've had a common question. What can you eat?

The short answer is..."plants'", but that may not be helpful. You may think of lettuce leaves and grass, or canned spinach and frozen peas. Thank goodness I've never had to eat grass, and I haven't had to choke down canned spinach since I was 5 or 6 years old. 

Here is a bit of clarification and expansion of the concept. "Plants" is a category of foods that includes a ton of choices. There are 4 main categories I will list to help you understand how many different types of foods you can eat. When I hear "plants", my nutritionist brain gets excited. I think of all my favorite foods like zucchini, broccoli, bean sprouts, beans, tempeh, olives and strawberries. These may not be all of your favorite foods, but that's ok. When I list the categories of plant foods, things get a little easier to understand, and you may find a few favorites of your own. 

Here are the 4 categories of plant foods:

Fruit

Vegetables

Grains

Seeds/nuts/legumes

Now that doesn't sound too bad, right?

Within each category, you can probably think of a few foods you like. The fruit and grains categories are pretty easy. Veggies and Seeds/nuts/legumes may take a little bit of practice, but the concepts aren't completely foreign. 

Here are a few food examples from within each category to give you a better idea of what you can eat. 

Fruit

Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries and oranges. 

Vegetables

Spinach, tomato, zucchini, potato and squash.

Whole Grains

Barley, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, oats and wheat (unless you are gluten free, which is quite a few of my clients since wheat seems to be offensive to gut healing). 

Seeds/nuts/legumes

Sunflower seeds, chia seeds, almonds, black beans, and soy beans. 

_______________________________________

These are just a few examples. 

One thing you may notice about this foods list is that it does not have any boxed or processed foods. Ideally, when you are eating whole food plant based, you avoid these types of foods. It's not always 100% possible, but that's the goal. Yes, it takes longer to prepare a meal from whole foods, unless you just crunch down on a zucchini, but it's worth it. It's time well invested in your health. And the food tastes SO good!

One of the things I LOVE about plant based eating is that it doesn't mean you never eat meat. It means that you don't eat it every day, and when you do eat it, you don't eat a lot. It's for flavor. It's more like a condiment. It's for a little protein boost every now and then. But meat is not what your meal plan is built on. 

Which begs the question.....

In a plant based diet, will I get enough protein? 

The answer is yes, you will get enough protein, as long as you are eating enough calories. 

Where will my protein come from?

I am happy to tell you that all 4 categories of plants have protein. Most plants that you eat will contribute toward daily protein intake. Beans, nuts and seeds are probably the most dense source of protein. Yes, some plant proteins are incomplete protein sources, but as long as you are eating a variety of types of plants, you will certainly get complete proteins. Pea protein is an example of a plant protein source that is complete. It's a very common misconception that we have to eat meat to get enough protein. 

I hope this blog is helpful for my clients, and I hope it's encouraging to anyone who reads it. If you are wanting to try plant based eating but aren't sure why you should consider it, here is another blog post with the benefits of plant based eating. The benefits are well proven. The most wonderful benefits I have enjoyed are improved gut health, energy and being able to stay regular. I also usually lose a couple of pounds in a week if I eat mostly plants. Nice, huh?

Oh, and I provide meal planning and recipes to my clients, so if you are interested in that, let me know with a comment down below.