Vegan and vegetarian diets have gained in popularity over the last decade, and the word “plant-based” is now often used on menus, social media feeds, and grocery shelves. A plant-based diet is extremely beneficial to your health. Have these terms caused you any confusion? In this blog, we are going to explain what a plant-based diet is, and how it differs from a vegan or vegetarian one.
Our pre-mixed meals at Earth Bound are prepared from natural ingredients primarily sourced from plants, excluding any unidentified animal products. Since there are no items derived from animals, all of our prepared meals are vegetarian and vegan-certified. Anybody who wants a healthier, tastier alternative is catered for by our goods, including vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians, those who adopt a plant-based lifestyle, and just about everyone else.
What is a plant-based diet?
There is no formal definition of a plant-based diet, but in basic terms, it means eating mostly plant-based foods. Being plant-based, however, does not inherently entail being “meatless.” It simply means that this diet emphasises “whole foods” and that plants provide the majority of the nutrition. In reality, this diet allows for a restricted amount of animal products (meat, dairy, and honey). This sort of plant-based diet is also known as a flexitarian or semi-vegetarian diet.
A plant-based diet does not always involve abstaining from products or services that cause animal suffering. For example, someone who follows a plant-based diet may choose to wear leather or use animal-tested personal care products.
Some individuals may consider themselves to be on a plant-based diet if they eat whole plant-based meals and avoid processed foods.
What are the benefits of a plant-based diet?
The promise of health advantages is frequently what drives people to adopt a plant-based diet. While not always available to everyone, a diet rich in whole foods can lower inflammation, enhance gut health, and strengthen the immune system.
Here are the illnesses that can be avoided by consuming more natural, plant-based diets:
- Heart disease: Low cardiovascular disease and mortality rates are linked to plant-based diet
- Cancer: While eating red and processed meat raises cancer risk, many plant diets help to lower cancer risk.
- Cognitive decline: A diet heavy in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains and low in animal products may decrease the occurrence of cognitive impairment.
- Diabetes: A whole-food plant-based diet has been demonstrated to cut the risk of type 2 diabetes by one-third.
- Lower levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol
- Reduce high blood pressure
- Decrease obesity
How to get the best out of your plant-based diet
No matter if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or not, if you consume too much highly processed food, you’re not supplying your body with the greatest nutrients possible. There is just as much possibility of having a poor-quality vegetarian or vegan diet as a poor-quality meat diet.
Therefore, keep these fundamental guidelines in mind when choosing a plant-based eating strategy:
- Prioritise whole foods: choosing as many unprocessed veggies and fruits as you can. Choose whole grains and lightly processed varieties of other plant foods.
- Choose diversity: incorporate a wide selection of foods in your diet to ensure that you are consuming the greatest number of nutrients.
- Consume a variety of colourful foods: the more colors, the more vitamins, minerals and nutrients they contain
Veganism
A vegan diet is another plant-based eating approach that, like a vegetarian diet, excludes meat, poultry, and fish. However, it goes on to forbid all other animal products. Many vegans avoid consuming animal products in various parts of their lives as part of their ideology or way of life. Most vegans avoid the following activities or foods:
- food additives and ingredients that manufacturers derive from animals, such as gelatin or beeswax
- clothing or goods that manufacturers make from animal skins, such as leather
- zoos, circuses, aquariums, and other uses of animals for entertainment
- products or ingredients that manufacturers have tested in animals
- meat
- poultry
- fish
- eggs
- dairy
- insects
- insect foods such as honey
A vegan diet includes:
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Legumes
- Grains
- Fruit
According to experts, a well-planned vegan diet can be a healthy way of eating. However, additional care must be taken to ensure that you are getting all of the nourishment you require, including protein, calcium, vitamin B12, and iron. Vitamin B12 is one supplement that vegans should consider taking. Since this is exclusively present in animal foods, it might be difficult to include in a diet without them. Earth Bound’s products are vegan-certified and nutrient-dense.
Vegetarian
A vegetarian diet does not include any animal products, particularly meat, poultry, or fish
Vegetarian diets include:
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Legumes
- Grains
- Fruit
They may also include:
- Eggs
- Dairy products
A vegetarian diet that includes eggs is referred to as Ovo-vegetarian, whereas a vegetarian diet that includes dairy is referred to as Lacto-vegetarian. A well-planned vegetarian diet, with or without eggs and dairy, according to experts, can be a healthy way of eating that provides a fair variety of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
Vegetarians must replace protein from meat sources with alternate sources of protein to ensure appropriate protein consumption. For older vegans who wish to maintain their physical strength and mobility, this is extremely important. Excellent sources of protein include tofu, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, yoghurt, and whole-grain bread.
All you need to do to prepare our selection of vegan pre-mixed meals at earthbound is add water and oil. These pre-mixed meals are protein-rich and give vegetarians and vegans the nourishment and nutrients they require.
Environmental benefits
Diets that are vegan, vegetarian, or plant-based have been shown to have positive environmental effects. Here are some ways adopting this way of life benefits the environment:
Veganism globally conserves water
- One of the best methods to conserve water is to live a plant-based lifestyle since plant products use far less water than animal goods.
Utilizing plant-based diets reduces emissions and glasshouse gas emissions
- One of the main causes of climate change is the enormous volumes of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide that are entering the atmosphere. Did you know that animals, mostly sheep and cows, release around 3.1 gigatonnes of methane annually?
Giving up fish eases the strain on waters that have been overfished.
- One-third of the world’s fish populations are overfished, which has caused disastrous oceanic imbalances. 90% of populations are regarded as completely fished, which means that any more fishing will result in a reduction in the population, which might eventually result in extinction.
Vegetarianism lowers energy use
- Raising animals requires a great deal of effort behind the scenes. The energy emissions from raising livestock
- Protein derived from animals is thought to need eight times as much fossil fuel energy as protein derived from plants. All of which release that dangerous GHG into the atmosphere of the planet. Additionally, the supply of those priceless fossil fuels is depleting rapidly.
To fight world hunger, stay away from animal products.
- Livestock production has an influence on the supply of food around the world, especially in places with a shortage. It controls all of the world’s resources, including food, fuel, and land.
- People eat only 12% of the calories generated by the world’s crops; instead, 36% are utilised to feed cattle.
Summary
The main distinctions between a vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based diet are listed below:
Vegans: vegans don’t consume any animal products and concentrate on animal rights.
Vegetarians: vegetarians can consume dairy, eggs, honey, and other animal byproducts. They do not, however, consume meat or other animal products. They could employ non-food animal items or wear them.
Plant-based diet: plant-based diets emphasise eating primarily plants, with the occasional small-quantity intake of animal products (meat, eggs, dairy, and honey). Using or wearing non-food animal products is not prohibited.
Get in touch
At Earth Bound, we provide Australia’s healthiest, organic plant-based premixed meals that offer the perfect balance of taste and quality. With our convenient products, you can live a healthy and efficient lifestyle without compromising your integrity or that of the environment. We currently have 7 delicious products that are packed with plant-based goodness and taste just like the real thing!
Ingredients that are all sourced from nature, products that will make your taste buds water – Earth Bound has what you need. You can shop our products now online on our website, and join the plant-based revolution. You’ll be opening up a world of culinary possibilities by checking out our products at our online shop or following us on our Instagram page @earthbound_au. Contact us today or sign up to get cooking with our recipes, be updated with cheeky offers, and be notified of new product releases. No matter what you’re looking for, Earth Bound has got you covered.