Plant-Based Paleo
If you follow health news and trends, you’ve likely come across the term “plant-based” increasingly often. Plant-based is certainly a hot diet trend!
Proponents of plant-based diets tout health, environmental, and other benefits. However, it’s not always clear exactly what is meant by plant-based. Or, how to implement plant-based strategies into your own routine to actually achieve such benefits.
Does plant-based mean avoiding all animal foods? Or can plant-based and Paleo actually go hand-in-hand instead of being opposing views?
In this article, you will discover:
- What is meant by the term plant-based?
- What are some downsides of a plant-based approach?
- What are the health benefits of plant foods?
- How to marry a plant-based and Paleo approach for optimal health!
What Is Plant-Based?
One reason that the term plant-based is so confusing is that it actually refers to a spectrum of different diet strategies. In some cases plant-based is analogous with a vegan diet, but in other cases it may simply refer to any diet that includes a lot of plant foods.
Here are some of the diets that may fall under the umbrella of plant-based:
- Vegan – A vegan diet eliminates all animal foods, including eggs, dairy, honey, fish, seafood and animal meats. A vegan diet is 100 percent plant-based, and depending on the person may include whole plant foods, processed ones or a combination.
- Vegetarian – A vegetarian diet eliminates animal meats and seafood, but often still includes eggs and dairy as in the case of a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. A lacto-vegetarian only consumes dairy products and an ovo-vegetarian only consumes eggs, but no other animal products. Like a vegan diet, there are a wide range of interpretations and implementation of a vegetarian diet among followers.
- Pescatarian – A pescatarian avoids meat but typically eats eggs, dairy, fish, and seafood.
- Semi-Vegetarian – A semi-vegetarian may just avoid red meat or consume some vegetarian meals and some omnivorous meals throughout the day or week.
- Omnivore – An omnivore eats both animal and plant foods. An omnivore who eats an abundance of plant foods may be considered plant-based as well. In this regard, a Paleo diet, and especially a well-balanced and health promoting Paleo diet may be plant-based!
As you can see, just about any diet (except for perhaps the carnivore diet) may fit into a plant-based dietary template.
What Diet Is Right For You? It’s All In The Details
As alluded to above, under the umbrella of any diet category, it is possible to have a nutritious and balanced approach composed primarily of whole foods. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible to eat a diet primarily of processed, packaged food.
There’s no doubt that there are benefits to eating more plants as part of any eating strategy, but we are talking about whole foods only in this case, and eliminating all processed options like juice, fruit snacks, chips, processed soy foods, non-dairy cheeses and fake meats.
Although vegetarian “meats,” such as Beyond Burger or the Impossible Burger are marketed as nutritious plant-based options, they are often made with highly processed and genetically modified ingredients, preservatives and fillers. For example, the 22 grams of fat in the Beyond Burger is from refined vegetable oils.
These oils are low in healthy saturated fats, and have high Omega-6 which may lead to inflammation in the body. The environmental impact of these foods is arguably more than beef from a sustainable grass-fed or regenerative farm. Nutrient density of these foods is certainly less as well when compared to actual meat.
The more extreme one becomes about eliminating animal foods, the more at risk they become for certain nutrient deficiencies. Vegans and vegetarians, for example, have a much harder time meeting their daily needs for iron, zinc, calcium, omega-3s, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D, choline and protein. They may need to thoughtfully design their approach as well as use supplements to fill in gaps.
Over time, such nutrient deficiencies may contribute to issues such as anemia, methylation issues, changes in hormone balance or fertility and others. What’s more is that we all have individual genetics and epigenetics and therefore individual dietary needs.
For example, someone with a mutation (SNP) in the BCMO1 gene might have a hard time converting the beta carotene from plant foods like carrots and sweet potatoes into active vitamin A needed for vision, immunity, and other body functions. This person might actually need to get preformed vitamin A from animal sources to achieve optimal health.
Benefits Of Plant Foods
While there are nutrition benefits to both animal foods and plant foods, many people lack sufficient daily plant intake. A lot of the research on plant foods has focused on vegetables and fruits.
Studies show that those who eat more daily produce:
- Have a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease
- Have a reduced risk of cancer
- Have stronger mental health and fewer symptoms of depression
- Have an easier time maintaining, and not gaining, weight
- Eat more fiber and phytonutrients that contribute to microbiome health
- Experience increased well-being and happiness
How To Implement Plant-Based Paleo
When you think of the Paleo diet, you may think of a very meat-centric way of eating. To be accurate, however, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate a variety of both animal foods and seasonal plant foods. While some interpretations of a Paleo approach might focus more on meat, a truly balanced approach has a large emphasis on plants.
Let’s examine how to marry the benefits of high quality animal foods with whole plant foods for optimal health.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Start with Dr. Shippy’s Every Life Well Paleo Protocol. The Paleo diet doesn’t include beans, grains, or dairy, which are staples in many vegan or vegetarian approaches, but does include many plant options, primarily vegetables, fruits, roots and tubers, nuts, seeds, and plant-based fats like coconut, olive, and avocado oils.
2. Choose whole foods. Many of the nutrition downfalls, from vegan to omnivore, stem from a standard American processed food diet. Improve your nutrition by getting back in the kitchen and choosing whole food, unprocessed ingredients.
3. Quality matters. Choose organic, non-GMO, grass-fed, regenerative and pasture-raised. In short, choose the highest quality, least toxic and most environmentally supportive food in each category, including both plant foods and animal ones. Some high quality recommendations include Butcher Box, Wellness Meats, and Vital Choice. Support local farms and farmer’s markets in your area.
4. Use the Paleo Plate. The Paleo Plate template will help you get the hang of balancing your meals and including an abundance of plant foods.
Here’s how to build your Paleo Plate:
- Fill half your plate with vegetables and half of those specifically from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and arugula that contain compounds such as sulforaphane that support detoxification. This Cauliflower Steak with Citrus Dressing is superb for the cruciferous serving and you’ll find more Paleo Plate recipes here.
- Fill a quarter of your plate with high quality animal protein. This is far different from a 12 ounce steak or the piles of bacon you might imagine, just a reasonable 4-6 ounce serving of fish, seafood, grass-fed beef or pasture-raised poultry will do.
- The final quarter of the plate is divided between fats and oils, fruit and herbs, and spices.
5. Try Paleo Protein. Every Life Well Paleo Detox Protein is a wonderful protein powder that bridges the gap between Paleo and plant-based by providing pea protein and a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and plant compounds. It’s a great choice for covering your nutrition basis and supporting everyday detoxification.
6. Personalize it. Once you have your plant-based Paleo down, make it your own. Tune into your body’s wisdom and guidance and notice how you feel with different foods and meal patterns. You may want to experiment with the fasting-mimicking diet or work with your Functional Medicine provider to further optimize your diet, lifestyle and supplement routine.
While any diet could be made plant-based, there is so much more to consider including quality of food, meeting nutrient needs, balance, and individuality.
Instead of being divided with dogmatic views on dietary patterns, let’s embrace what we have in common. Both vegans and Paleo proponents agree on the importance of including an abundance of colorful produce in the diet. So, can a Paleo diet be plant-based? Absolutely! In fact a plant-based Paleo approach is the best approach to Paleo.
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