What is a plant-based diet?
A plant-based diet is meals planned specifically around foods that consist of plants and no animal products. Also, a plant-based diet is not the same as a vegetarian diet. Although both choices of lifestyle deal with eating more plants, a vegetarian diet limits the consumption of meat but still allows for dairy products. Where a plant-based diet aims to select only foods grown from the earth.
Why try a plant-based diet?
Many people choose to go with a plant-based diet for a few reasons. Some reasons are health, saving animals, and protecting the environment. Whatever choice of foods that you choose, make sure they are safe foods for you. Especially safe for you in your current state of health and any medications you take. Having over 14 years in the medical field as a Home Health Aide and caretaker I have learned every vegetable, fruit, nut, or seed isn’t good for every person. Plant-based foods have many good benefits. Good from my own experience but can also be harmful to others, according to each individual’s doctor or nutritionist. Please read more here for choosing foods based on your health.
Trying foods that improve and maintain health.
People incorporate more plant-based options into their meal prep to improve, maintain health, and prevent the risk of heart disease. In my last article here, I wrote about how changing my diet helped to lower my blood pressure and risk for heart attack. In this article, I want to dive deeper into the benefits of the overall importance of healthy eating. When we are old enough to understand our body’s signals of telling us that something is off we usually would want to take action. Also, we might observe what makes us feel this way when it happens and what makes it better.
In my situation, my head hurt and I was 26 years old when I noticed the headaches every day. During those years I loved to put hot sauce and ranch dressing on practically all of my food. I loved bacon (and miss it to this day) and I cooked neck bones and fried and salted everything. I most definitely miss my salt and vinegar chips. All of that was doing more harm than good.
What is going internally will show up externally.
One day I was fixing my second bacon sandwich and the slight headache I had through the day grew unbearable. I took my blood pressure and that was the first time I sought medication to lower my blood pressure. At that time I was in the hypertension stage. From there, I ate the same while using the medication as a way to keep eating the foods that I loved. Unfortunately for me during that age, I had no real idea of a plant-based diet. My problem was consuming too much sodium and it had lasting effects on my body. Our bodies are so strong and delicate. We use our body to do almost anything but it also is easily and negatively affected by things as well.
What we are doing internally to our bodies will eventually show up externally. High blood pressure may not bother you today, but over time the thing being injured over and over will eventually break. Constantly having excessive high blood pressure constricts the blood vessels causing the heart to work harder. When the heart is working harder than normal it severely damages the heart’s muscles and arteries. I have taken care of people and loved people who spoke about their lack of self-care (self-care in terms of heart health) who succumbed to the lasting effects of high blood pressure (loss of life or a physically debilitated). With each person speaking of “not eating right,” and not taking their medication, I am familiar with doing both.
The privileges to care for others in their time of need allowed me to be encouraged. I realize how my eating habits were slowly and surely damaging my heart. Trying a plant-based diet for me, has helped me to live a better quality of life.
