Are you getting bored of eating the same things every day? Looking to add more nutrition and change up your go-to meals? Here are three reasons to incorporate more plant-based foods into your daily diet to liven things up!
1. Brains Benefit from Beta-Carotenes
As students, our brains are constantly working hard. Because of the brain's high energy and oxygen needs, due to it keeping us alive and smart, it is susceptible to something called oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can damage important molecules in our bodies like DNA and can have detrimental long-term effects on our cognitive functioning.
Luckily, antioxidants (like beta-carotene) are here to anti-oxidize those important molecules and by the title of this blog post, you can guess what the best sources of antioxidants are. You got it! It’s plants. Berries, spinach, carrots, and cabbage are some great examples of antioxidant-rich foods and by incorporating more plant-based foods into your diet you can help support your brain health.
2. Fiber Fights the Flu
As the weather gets colder and the flu bugs get stronger, taking care of our immune health is key.
There are lots of things you can do to take care of your immune health. Eating an overall well-balanced eating pattern consisting of various nutrients is important, one of which is fibre. The amount and types of fibre we consume affect the diversity and composition of the good bacteria that reside in our guts. Eating enough fibre from different food sources promotes the growth of a healthy happy microbiome and a healthy happy microbiome promotes a strong immune system.
What does this have to do with adding plant-based foods to my diet you may wonder? Well, plant-based foods such as brown rice, oats, apples, beans, and many more are packed with fibre (among other great vitamins and minerals that promote immune health). Eating a diet consisting largely of plant-based foods is a great way to consume more fibre.
3. Discover Different Delicious Dinners
Let’s face it, we are all busy people, but we also all got to eat, and eating the same foods all of the time can get boring and makes cooking for ourselves less enjoyable.
Adding more plant-based foods to your everyday diet is a great way to try new recipes and modify current versions of your go-to meals and snacks. Cooking new recipes can be a fun, creative, and productive, way to rest your brain, gain new skills, and nourish your body.
Here are a few ways you can add plant-based foods to your life:
There are many ways you can pack plant food into your diet. Classic meals such as pasta with bolognese sauce or a warm comforting curry can easily be reinvented to change things up and make preparing food enjoyable! Another tip is to blend silken tofu into smoothies and dips to increase the plant protein content of your meals and snacks.
