Sunday 6 February 2011

Weight Loss with a Plant-Based Diet

Never Diet Again! Just adopt this healthy eating lifestyle as recommended by Joel Fuhrman, (Medical Doctor) in his book 'Eat for Health':


          Eating a plant-based diet means that most of your meals should be based on:

vegetables, beans and legumes.


All your desserts would be based on fruits (with added nuts, seeds and vegetables).

And you are also allowed to have meat and fish, but ideally, they would be minimised to 2-5 times/week and have as little fat as possible.


You can also consume low-fat or fat-free dairy occasionnally.



          I am personnally following all his recommendations at present. Before this diet, I was following the Raw Food Diet, which helped me to heal Ulcerative Colitis (digestive dis-ease where your body cannot tolerate most foods and what doctors describe as 'autoimmune and incurable disease'. At present, I can tolerate ANY food and I am symptom free for the last several months! So the doctors are wrong.) I also lost the excess of weight on my belly (very fast!). If you are interested in what the raw food diet is, have a look here (FREE information), otherwise I am diviating from my topic :)


Why this diet is an effective weight loss strategy?

- Plants contain vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. So eating these in large amounts means that your body will not crave more food as when  you eat a typical (Standard American) diet.
Your body will be more satisfied with grapes for desert and will not ask for full-fat dairy ice-cream (by the way, you can make a delicious ice-cream with frozen bananas and other frozen fruits yourself);


- A plant-based diet that is rich in colorful vegetables and fruits, allows you to eat more food. Most greens and vegetables you can eat in unlimited quantity!

These are:

   - Leafy Green Vegetables: romain lettuce, leaf lettuces, kale, collards, cabbage, spinach, and so on.

   - Solid Green Vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, cucumber, green peppers, peas, okra, snow peas, string beans, zucchini.

   - Non-green, High-nutrient vegetables: beets, eggplant, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, cauliflower, squash, carrots.

   - Beans and Legumes (cooked, canned or sprouted): all types of beans, including lentils and peas (like chickpeas) of various kinds.

   - Fresh Fruits: includes all fruits and berries.

=================================================

Base your meals around these foods: Make soups, stews, salads and fruit desserts.

Try to eat 3 times a day (you are allowed fruit-based low-sugar or sugar-free desserts) but with no snacking in between, because you will be adding the excess of calories to your daily intake (or just have some fruits like oranges and apples if you are really desperate! :).

Try not to cook in oil. Remember that 1 tablespoon of oil contains 120 calories!   
--------------------------------------------------------



The full description of this diet is in Joel Fuhrman's book "Eat for Health"

No comments:

Post a Comment