Why Go Plant Based?
The Case for a Plant Based Diet
The jury is in and the case is closed: a Plant Based Diet is the most effective dietary plan for maintaining health and longevity. While a plant based approach to eating has thankfully become more and more popular over the years, it's still woefully overshadowed by the Standard American Diet. The reason why this is such a problem is that if you're on the Standard American Diet, you're going to encounter the Standard American Diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. No one wants to suffer from disease and no one wants to die prematurely, so let's talk about what the Standard American Diet is, why it's so harmful, and why a Plant Based Diet is superior in virtually every way.
What is a Standard American Diet?
Did you know that Americans eat one million chickens every single hour? The average American consumes over 200lbs of meat, 40lbs of cheese, and 152lbs of sugar every single year, and these numbers are only going up. Try to imagine that. These are highly indicative of the Standard American Diet which is characterized by high intake of red meat, processed meat, pre-packaged foods, butter, cheese, eggs, fried foods, sugary drinks and refined grains. This diet is DIRECTLY correlated to the Standard American Diseases we all dread.
The Rise of Disease
As the Standard American Diet continues to add more pounds of meat, cheese, sugar, and refined grains to people's diet, major diseases have continued to multiply. Obesity has risen sharply by 13% in the last 20 years with the cost of $147,000,000,000 a year in medical costs. Heart disease is similarly skyrocketing and expected to increase by 46% by 2030 with an annual medical cost of $219,000,000,000. People in the medical community are discussing the possibility of diabetes being the biggest epidemic of the 21st century as it continues to also rise dramatically. Obviously, something major has to change before chronic illness threatens to cripple our society.
The Science Is In, a Solution Exists
A Plant Based Diet is the most well-researched and scientifically proven eating plan shown to reduce risk of disease, reduce mortality, and lengthen lifespan. Instead of processed meats, refined grains, sugary drinks, and fried foods a Plant Based Diet will consist of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains or pseudograins. The incredible thing about it is even if this diet doesn't sound as appealing to you yet, give it just one week and your body will start to CRAVE vegetables, CRAVE fruits, and look FORWARD to healthy plant based meals. When you try to go back to a diet of fried, fatty, salty foods it just won't be appealing anymore. All this while kissing your chronic illnesses goodbye. Food can truly be medicine.