Here at We Love Transformational Travel, we strive to give people new and apart-from-the-norm experiences. We love to excite the senses and one of our favourite senses to explore is – taste! Holistic health practices are not only in the realm of activity and fitness, but an all-encompassing experience in all aspects of life. One highly beneficial lifestyle choice is the introduction of plant-based eating to your diet.
We understand that not everyone benefits from eating entirely vegan but there are many health and environmental advantages of a plant-based diet. You might be thinking to yourself – “I can’t eat vegan all the time”! Just remember, the process of a journey starts with one small step. Perhaps you only introduce one plant-based meal per week or only enjoy these meals at certain periods during the year – it’s completely up to you.
Many of the transformers we partner with will serve plant-based meals throughout your stay so it’s important to familiarise yourself with the benefits of introducing plant-based eating into your diet.
Here are 10 benefits of plant-based eating from environmental, animal cruelty and health improvements to feeling more energy and better focused in your daily life.
1. Lowers Your Blood Pressures and Improve Heart Health
Did you know that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of mortality and it’s estimated that 85.6 million Americans are living with some form of CVD? Making healthier lifestyle choices such as eating a plant-based diet and exercising regularly can significantly reduce the risk of death by CVD.
Plant-based diets are also the only type of diet that is shown to reverse coronary heart disease. These types of diets are associated with lower blood pressure, lower blood lipids, and reduced platelet aggregation.
2. Helps You Maintain a Healthy Weight
Sharon Palmer, author of The Plant-Powered Diet and Plant-Powered for Life states that a vegan diet is naturally satiating because it is rich in fiber which helps you feel full longer and fight off those snack cravings. This helps you maintain a steady and healthy weight, unlike other diets which keep your weight and mood constantly fluctuating. Eating mostly whole foods will help you keep off those extra pounds and reach your weight equilibrium easier.
In a study published in the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers found that subjects that consumed meat on a weekly basis were associated with a 74% increase in odds of diabetes relative to a subject that did not eat meat at all.
Plant-based diets are also beneficial to those with pre-existing diabetes as many vegetables are rich in antioxidants and high in fiber, which helps metabolize foods better and regulate blood sugar.
3. Reduces Animal Cruelty
Do you love, care about and have respect for animals? Going vegan is one of the best ways to combat animal cruelty as over 1 billion animals are raised for slaughter and food consumption. Not only are these animals subjected to unhealthy conditions on farms, but they are often slaughtered before full maturity. For example, the male chicks of chickens are often killed at just one day old because they will never become egg-producers.
Animals that are raised for slaughter and consumption are treated as commodities. This means they are killed as soon as they are no longer deemed profitable and are subject to unhealthy and downright cruel practices.
4. You Live Longer
If this isn’t the most compelling argument for eating a plant-based diet, we don’t know what is. Eating more fruits and vegetables can actually help you live longer!
It’s no secret that eating healthy is key to reducing your risk of sickness and disease and recent studies show that eating a plant-based diet can reduce your mortality rate by 25%.
5. Keeps Your Brain Strong
Eating more fruits and vegetables can help reduce the rate of developing Alzheimer’s and cognitive impairment such as dementia. Eating an additional 100 grams of fruits and vegetables daily shows a marked improvement in cognitive ability because they are high in polyphenols that can help slow the rate of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline.
This protects your cells from damage helping you stay alert and reduces the likelihood of developing dementia and forgetfulness.
6. Reduces Inflammation
Eating a plant-based diet can greatly reduce inflammation in your body. The same antioxidants that give your body energy and found in fruits and vegetables also help cleanse your body of biotoxins that create inflammation. Filling your fridge up with fruits, vegetables, and whole wheat can help strengthen the immune system by reducing inflammation in the body.
Inflammation has been attached to several other major diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and chronic inflammatory disease. The less inflammation in our bodies, the better our cardiovascular functions operate.
7. Cleaner Air For All
The agricultural farming of animals has led to many of our resources depleting at a faster rate because we are raising animals for livestock. One major issue is the amount of manure produced which creates greenhouse gases and ammonia. Ammonia is the most powerful form of nitrogen and kills fish, causes algae blooms, and contributes to the amount of smog in the air.
Not to mention the emissions from meat processing factories that produce tons of chemicals into our air supply.
8. Conserves Water
Many people don’t realise how much water it takes to keep agricultural livestock alive and how much it pollutes our water supply. Did you know that for just one gallon of milk it costs 1000 gallons of water? A very large percentage of our fresh water usage goes to agriculture and meat production, which is drying up very quickly. It takes much more water to produce an ounce of animal protein vs. grain protein and our resources won’t be around forever to continue producing at this rate.
9. Reduces Your Carbon Footprint
Animal agriculture is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The massive amount of manure created from these agricultural farms is responsible for a major percentage of agricultural greenhouse emissions. If we reduced our need for such large animal agriculture farms, we could reduce our carbon footprint immensely.
10. It’s Easier Than You Think
In the last few years alone, the plant-based foods industry has made leaps and bounds. Beyond meat products made quite the splash in the plant-based industry as well as several packaged snacks making their way onto the market in recent years. There are even vegan meal programs that deliver all of the fresh ingredients and recipes right to your door!
You don’t have to sacrifice flavour for health, there are so many plant-based options now – you’ll hardly notice the difference taste-wise. You’ll feel much better after implementing some plant-based eating into your daily lifestyle.
There are many benefits to introducing a plant-based diet into your lifestyle, not only does it greatly improve your health and lowers your risk of developing a terminal disease, it saves animals’ lives and it also helps the environment! Large agriculture farms that slaughter innocent animals to process meat are also using a tremendous amount of natural resources per day, resources that our planet may not produce forever. It’s important to look into the facts of eating a plant-based diet as well as the benefits.
We’ve partnered with several transformers who serve delicious plant-based meals every day created with love and locally sourced ingredients. One of which is the paradisiacal Gili Lankanfushi, and their carefully curated plant-based, five-day stay experience.