Plant-focused diets range from eating plants only to diets that include some animal meats and products. Here are a few of the many you can follow:
Vegan... is at the extreme plants-only end of the spectrum. Vegans eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, bean and whole grains. But they exclude all foods of animal origin from their diet... these include meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter and so on.
Vegans replace animal sources of protein with other sources that deliver plenty of this vital macro-nutrient. These include beans, peanuts (as in peanut butter), tofu, nuts, peas and other legumes, and ensure that vegans, despite rumours to the contrary, do not suffer from a lack of protein.
Lacto-vegetarian... is a diet that excludes foods of animal origin except for dairy products, such as milk, butter, cheese, and other foods derived from animal milk.
Ovo-vegetarian... is another diet that excludes foods of animal origin (meat, fish and dairy) except that it includes eggs.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarian... is a vegetarian diet that includes dairy products and eggs but excludes meat and fish.
Pescatarian... is a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet that also includes fish.
Flexitarian or semi-vegetarian... encompass a variety of diets that are based on a vegetarian diet. They are plant-focused diets that may also include small amounts of red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products.
As you can see, these plant-focused diets vary from strictly plants only to diets that include some or all animal-based products but in restricted quantities.
What are the benefits of plant-based diets?
Making plants the mainstay of your diet can:
lower your blood glucose levels and prevent or slow the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D)
reduce your blood pressure
reduce the strain on your kidneys (by avoiding or reducing animal protein in your diet)
help you lose weight, and
prevent heart disease and strokes (by reducing the accumulation of plaque in your blood vessels.
... among a host of other benefits.
This assertion is backed-up by many recent studies. For example:
One study, conducted by Loma Linda University in California, of nearly 100,000 members of the Seventh-day Adventist church, which encourages a vegetarian diet, found that vegetarians had lower rates of T2D than non-vegetarians. The study also found that vegetarians tended to have healthier weights which may explain why fewer of them are diabetic.
A 72-week study, published by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, examined the differences between type 2 diabetics who followed a low-fat vegan diet and those who were on a moderate-carbohydrate eating plan. The researchers found that there was a significant decrease in HbA1C and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the vegans. A low HbA1C level indicates that you are managing your T2D well.
Two ongoing, long term studies by the Harvard School of Public Health found that, among 150,000 health care providers, those who ate an additional half-serving of red meat daily for four years had a 50% higher risk of developing T2D.
Recent research suggests that inflammation inside the body plays a role in the development of T2D. T2D manifests itself as insulin resistance. Both these interrelated problems seem to dim
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