In general, a balanced dominant plant-based diet is recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. A plant-based diet can protect against disease. But of course discuss with your doctor about making any changes to your diet first. (1) You can even achieve remarkable health benefits by gradually reducing your consumption of animal foods to more healthy plant-based foods.

Aside from potentially supporting your health, plant-based diets also reduce the environmental impacts associated with high consumption of animal foods such as meat and dairy products such as whey and casein protein isolates. (1,2)

A “plant-based diet” is often confused with a completely vegan diet. A “plant-based diet” is an umbrella term for a broad range of dietary patterns that includes more plant-based foods combined with reduced consumption or exclusion of animal products. A “plant-based diet” can be understood to mean vegan, flexitarian, lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian (or pescatarian). A vegan diet is also often confused with veganism, a lifestyle that strives to completely avoid the use of animals (including in clothing, makeup, skin care and medication).

It is wise for any plant-based diet to consider the types and quality of plant foods included in the diet. Barring food allergies and clinical contraindications, individuals should prefer minimally processed foods and beverages: whole grains over refined grains; whole fruits over fruit juices; unrefined non-tropical vegetable oils (rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids) such as olive and sunflower oils over coconut oil and partially hydrogenated oils, but preferably the fats in their whole form. That is, sunflower seeds over sunflower oil, olives over olive oil, etc.

The best way to start eating more plant-based foods is to do it gradually. Start by excluding foods derived from a cow, as you can gain health benefits by limiting red meat in general (e.g., steak, ribs, ground, beef, as well as dairy products such as cheese and whey protein). Gradual reductions in animal products may be easier to implement and adhere to than more restrictive diets that completely exclude animal products. If you want to learn more about what vegan protein sources are, click here.

If you have a healthy and active lifestyle where you take care of your body composition and properly recover, it is important that you implement strategies to enhance the muscle-building properties of plant-based protein, such as to increase your daily total protein content, the use of various protein sources, the use of products enriched with essential amino acids. If you want to learn more about implementing these strategies, please click here.Plant proteins from soybeans, peas, beans, rice and nuts, for example, typically contain less leucine (and generally fewer essential amino acids) than animal protein sources. Moreover, plant proteins are generally more difficult to digest than animal proteins. This leaves less leucine (and other amino acids) for absorption and use. This means you need much more protein to get the same result. Apart from increasing protein intake, a high-quality vegan protein powder optimized with essential amino acids might be a good idea to consider. This addition to the basic diet may make it easier to achieve the high-quality protein recommendation.

SUPPLEAM has a number of best-sellers in plant-based protein to help you achieve your high-quality daily protein recommendation for your active, plant-based lifestyle. Our products are designed with the goal of helping to nourish and restore the body without lactose, added sugars, gluten or toxic chemicals, resulting in a high-quality, easily digestible and delicious protein that supports your goals.

1. Willett W et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447–92. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.

2 .Springmann M, Godfray HC, Rayner M, Scarborough P. Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016;113(15):4146–51. doi:10.1073/pnas.1523119113.