More and more people today are looking into plant-based diets, either for health reasons or even as trend followers. If you’re wondering about jumping into this bandwagon, here are some useful facts to help you with your decision.
- Several studies show that a plant-based diet increases the body’s metabolism to burn calories up to 16% faster than it would on a meat-based diet, at least the first 3 hours after meals.
- The first Vegetarian Society was formed in England in 1847. The society’s goal was to teach people that it is possible to be healthy without eating meat.
- There are several types of vegetarians, with the strictest being vegans, who avoid not only meat but also all animal products
- If humans ate a more plant-based diet and had little or no need for domesticated livestock, it would greatly reduce Earth’s trapped greenhouse gases
- 70% of the world’s vegetarians are Indians and there are more vegetarians in India than in any other country in the world
- Research reveals that if a man avoids red meats, it improves the sex appeal of his body odor
- Various studies around the world confirm that vegetarian diets provide enough protein if they include a variety of plant sources
- In India, vegetarianism was based on the philosophy of ahimsa or nonviolence toward animals
- A vegetarian diet is compatible with values such as mercy and compassion
- Vegetarians are known to have lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension.
- One of the first famous vegetarians was the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, and “Pythagorean diet” meant a plant-based diet until the term “vegetarian” was coined in the 19th century
- The vegetarian movement has been influenced by ancient ethics of abstinence, early medical science that noted similarities between humans and animals
- An Oxford study concluded that meat-eaters were two and half times more likely to develop gallstones than non-meat eaters
- 14. Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that a vegan diet changed more than 500 genes in just 3 months and deactivated genes that caused various cancers and other diseases
- Over 150 million animals are killed for our consumption around the world every day, just on land. That comes out to 56 billion land animals killed per year
- A pescetarian is a vegetarian who eats fish. Similar to a vegetarian diet, a pescetarian diet includes vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, beans, and eggs
- A person who eats eggs but not dairy products or meat is called an ovo-vegetarian
- A lacto-vegetarian will eat dairy products but not eggs
- An ovo-lacto vegetarian does not eat meat but will consume eggs and dairy products.
- A fruitarian eats just fruits, nuts, seeds, and other plant material that can be harvested without killing the plant
- Famous vegetarians include Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ford, Brad Pitt, Albert Einstein, Ozzy Osborne, and supposedly, Hitler
- Plants yield 10 times more protein per acre than meat
- The only plant foods with all eight types of essential amino acids in sufficient amounts are lupin beans, soy, hempseed, chia seed, amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa
- Jain vegetarians will eat dairy but not eggs, honey, or root vegetables
