Plant Based Eating is Linked to Increased Longevity

Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants, including not only fruits and vegetables but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans.

When you base your meals on high-quality, nutrient-dense plant foods, you’re packing your diet with the fiber, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats.

Plants, like whole grain bulgur, are chock-filled with fiber that has a plethora of benefits: improves digestion and the quality of gut bacteria; reduces blood sugar spikes and cholesterol; and helps you maintain a healthy weight.

Dr. Nina Radcliff explains that “Plants have essential nutrients — vitamins, minerals, antioxidants — that you cannot attain from other foods. These are necessary to perform various roles in the body from healing wounds to boosting the immune system to strengthening bones to converting food into energy. And research shows that plant-forward eating is one of the healthiest diet-patterns”.

Plant-based foods are the best sources of antioxidants. Antioxidants neutralize toxins that cause inflammation. Prolonged inflammation can damage your cells and is a trigger for a number of common health conditions or killers such as heart disease, stroke, some cancers, arthritis and diabetes.

Eating whole grains lessens the risk of disease, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure; contributes to weight loss; improves mental well-being; and increases longevity. Even if you’ve eaten a poor diet for half your life, adding more healthy plant foods as an adult can help reduce your risk!