How to Go Plant-Based for Beginners

You might be concerned about high blood sugar or have a family history of cancer. Perhaps you’re looking to reverse type 2 diabetes or coronary artery disease, or you believe that a plant-based diet is better for the environment and want to transition into a healthful plant-based diet. So what do you need to get going on a life-changing adventure?

Get Ready

If you have any medical conditions such as digestive diseases, food allergies, malabsorption, anemia, epilepsy, kidney disease, eating disorders, and so forth, please work with a plant-based dietician to plan your menus.
Food equipment: good blender, Instant pot or electric pressure cooker, wood cutting board, steamer
Staples: Legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, steel-cut oats or old-fashion oats, barley)
Herbs: onions, garlic, basil, cumin, turmeric, ginger, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, McCay’s chicken-like seasoning
Recipes: There are healthful and unhealthy recipes. Avoid using ultra-processed foods such as crackers, chips, bakery goods, meat substitutes, canned soup. Emphasize unrefined and minimal processed products. You just need ten easy-to-make vegetarian recipes to begin. Avoid complicated, time-consuming recipes at first. Barbara Watson’s The Total Vegetarian Cookbook and Carin Lynch’s Plant-Based Made Simple Cookbook are very useful for beginners. Most of Carin’s recipes are gluten free. The Wildwood blog has over 225 free vegetarian recipes.

https://wildwoodhealth.com/category/breakfasts/

https://wildwoodhealth.com/category/entrees/

https://wildwoodhealth.com/category/soups/

https://wildwoodhealth.com/category/spreads-dips/

https://wildwoodhealth.com/category/desserts/

Understand, Not All Plant-Based Diets Are Healthful

Healthful, well-balanced, plant-based diets reduce the incidence and severity of obesity and obesity-related inflammatory markers, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, hypertension, and certain cancers.¹ They even help to reverse advanced cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.^{2 3 4} However, plant-based diets become unhealthy when they are derived largely from refined carbohydrates, ultra processed foods,  and meat substitutes.

Week One: Increase Your Fiber Intake

Fiber-rich foods increase satiety, improve the gut microbiome diversity, and fight inflammation.⁵ Dietary fiber can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Fiber slows glucose absorption from the intestines and improves the ability of the cells to respond to insulin. Eat at least seven servings of whole fruits and vegetables a day. Work up to eating seven servings of whole fruits and vegetables. Reduce your intake of refined and ultra-processed grains by 50%. Use whole grains like brown rice, steel-cut oats, barley, and quinoa. Limit your deserts to twice a week.

Week Two: Eliminate All Processed and Red Meat

Eliminate all processed meat and red meats as these are the most pro-inflammatory and the most carcinogenic. Use well-cooked legumes and non-GMO, organic tofu as protein four times a week.^{6 7}

Anti-obesity: decreases body weight and waste circumference in obese individuals. A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized studies found that, “The inclusion of dietary pulses in a diet may be a beneficial weight-loss strategy because it leads to a modest weight-loss effect even when diets are not intended to be calorically restricted.”⁸
Anti-Diabetes: improves the ability of cells to respond to insulin and lowers A1C. Regular consumption of legumes/beans is an important behavioral dietary strategy to reduce risk and improve comorbidities of cardiovascular and type 2 diabetes.⁹
Cardiovascular: helps decrease elevated cholesterol, triglycerides in blood vessels, and inflammation, but improves the ability of the blood vessels to dilate
Gut health: reduces inflammation, improves the composition and the diversity of the gut microbiome (bacteria), increases the production of beneficial short chain fatty acids that protect from chronic diseases.

Cooking Tips for Legumes and Grains: Lectins are water-soluble and typically found on the outer surface of a food, so exposure to water removes them. Cooking presoaked beans for at least 100 degrees C for 30 minutes or until they are soft inactivates lectins in foods. Proper cooking weakens lectin ability to bind to cells or causes it to bind to other compounds found in food. Boiling, pressure-cooking, Instant pot cooking, sprouting also remove or deactivate lectins. Please note: Simmering raw beans at low heat such as in a slow cooker or undercooking the beans will not remove all the lectins.^{10 11}

Week 3: Eliminate Meat Entirely

The third week, eliminate all meat and refined or ultra processed foods. We cannot offer a one-sized plant-based diet that fits all because individuals’ BMI, weight, height, and medical history varies. Ideally, when one goes entirely and predominately whole-food, plant-based, the diet should include the following items.¹²

Vegetables, starchy, and “watery” vegetables	Generously use with a variety of colors represented.  A serving size for a starchy vegetable is 1/2 cup. A serving size for a watery vegetable (tomato, cucumber, zucchini) is one cup.
Fruits, whole fruit (fresh or frozen)	2–4 servings (1 serving = 1 medium piece or 1/2 cup)
Whole grains (e.g., brown rice, quinoa, steel cut oats)	6–11 servings (1 serving = 1/2 cup cooked or 1 slice whole grain bread). Limit starches to 3 servings if trying to lose weight.
Legumes (beans, lentils, peas, soy foods)	2–3 servings (1 serving = 1/2 cup cooked)
Leafy green vegetables (e.g., broccoli, cabbage, lettuce)	At least 2–3 servings (1 serving = 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked)
Nuts (e.g., almonds, pecans, walnuts) raw, unsalted	1–2 ounces
Seeds (e.g., chia, flax, sesame, sunflower seeds) or 1/4 avocado	1–3 tablespoons
Fortified plant milks (e.g., soy, almond, rice, coconut). Should have vitamin D, calcium, and vitamin B-12	Optional, 2–3 cups
Fresh herbs and spices	Optional, ad libitum

*Adapted

More Progress!

Some individuals may choose to forgo only meat and feel more comfortable in being lacto-ova vegetarians. The predominately whole-plant food based diet that includes a little diary and an occasional egg has benefits too. However, a healthful, whole-plant food diet offers more protection from overall cancer risk and coronary artery disease.¹³

Aged cheese has oxidized cholesterol that promotes inflammation inside the arteries. It is high in sodium and fat. In fact, 70% of its calories come from fat. While dairy does have considerable calcium, epidemiological studies indicate that dairy does not protect from osteoporosis. Biogenic amines are harmful chemicals found in cheese. They are formed during the ripening process. As the cheese ripens, the protein digesting enzymes breakdown more of the protein resulting in more free amino acids. Bacteria remove the acid part of the amino acids leaving products known as “amines”. These “amines” are ‘biogenic” because they affect life processes. Histamine, tyramine, and tryptamine are some examples of biogenic amines. Histamine is involved in allergic reactions and suppresses certain aspects of the immunity. Tyramine and tryptamine  stimulate the release of the catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine and can trigger migraine headache and aggravate hypertension.

Cheese has weak opiates called casomorphins that enter the blood. Aged cheese contains an amphetamine-like chemical PEA, phenylethylamine. This explains why many people become addicted to aged cheese.¹⁴ Click this link for delicious vegan cheese recipes.

Dairy is loaded with hormones and growth factors that have been linked to uterine and prostate cancers. The Adventist Health Study-2 followed 52,795 pre- and postmenopausal women for an average of 7.9 years. They found that higher intakes of cow’s milk were associated with a 50% increased risk for breast cancer. Full-fat and reduced-fat milks produced similar results. The Swedish Mammography Cohort included 61,084 women aged 38-76 years who were followed for an average 13.5 years. Women who consumed two or more glasses of milk a day had twice the risk of serous ovarian cancer compared with women who never or seldom drank milk.^{15 16} Another study has shown that consuming milk and other dairy products increases the risk for prostate cancer. Among the more than 26,000 participants in the Japan Collaborative Cohort study, those who consumed the most milk had a 37% higher risk for developing cancer than those who consumed less milk. Yogurt consumption was also associated with an increased risk.¹⁷

When going dairy-free though, it is wise to let a plant-based dietician or nutritionist check your menus for adequacy of calcium. vitamin B12, and iodine.

Maintain Nutrient Adequacy

On a well-balanced vegetarian diet, it is easy to get enough protein, calcium, and iron. Most nutrients are found in a predominately whole-plant food diet. There are  some nutrients to which vegetarians and vegans need to pay careful attention. If you live in a sunny warm climate, it is easy to get enough vitamin D by exposing you face, arms, and hands to the sunshine. The 2024 Endocrine Society does not recommend vitamin D supplementation above the RDA (recommended daily allowance) except if serum vitamin D levels are below 20, pregnancy, childhood, teenagers, and prediabetes and in elderly above 75 years old..¹⁸ If you live in a cold, unsunny climate, you may need to get the RDA in form of supplemental vitamin D3 during the fall and winter months.

If you are eating less than 1400 kcal a day, you may need a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement of ½ the RDA.

If you do not use iodized salt, you need to get iodine. Brown sea weed has exorbitant amounts of iodine. Eating red and green sea weed several times a week is an option. For adults, the RDA is 150 micrograms and 190 micrograms for pregnant and lactating women.

For vegetarians and vegans, be sure your milk is fortified with B12. Certain brands of fortified nutritional yeast (FNY) has B-12. Fortified nutrition yeast is a good source of protein and fiber.  Read the label. For most individuals, fortified nutritional yeast is a safe option. Just 1 to 2 teaspoons a week would suffice for vitamin B12.. However, individuals with certain medical conditions–migraine headaches, Crohn’s, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, elevated uric acid, diabetic neuropathy–should not use nutritional yeast in their cooking. One tablet of  B12 in the form of methylcobalamin–chewed or taken sublingually–once a week would more than suffice to insure B12 sufficiency. Please note: The elderly and those with digestive issues may need B12 by injection if their B12 levels are low.

It is wise to have a B12 and vitamin D test every couple of years.

Helpful Suggestions:

Shop from a grocery list based upon your weekly menu.

While it is fine to have 1/2 cup of fresh juice before meals, chewing food thoroughly increases satiety.

Precut frozen vegetables (without sauce and not roasted) can save you time.

Cook when you have time and freeze for later meals.

Try to use fresh and simply frozen fruits and vegetables instead of canned items.

Use dry legumes or frozen. If you use canned legumes, be sure to rinse them.

Get your requirements for essential fatty acids from nuts, seeds, olives, and avocadoes. Chia, flax, hemp seeds, dark leafy vegetables, and whole soybeans provide omega-3 fatty acids. If you use oil, buy only cold-pressed, preferably monounsaturated oils (olive, almond, and avocado). Use sparingly, For peanut butter, use only organic peanut butter with no added oil or ingredients.

When invited out, tell you host you are a vegetarian and offer to bring a dish!

Eat fruit for desert or a fruit-based desert.

For more information on how to get nutrient adequacy on a vegetarian diet, see the following links:

https://wildwoodhealth.com/plant-based-protein-is-it-enough/

https://wildwoodhealth.com/got-calcium/

Iron Deficiency: Will You Get It?

For individuals who want to lose weight, see Plant-Based Nutritional Guidelines for Diabetes Made Simple

 

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11. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/anti-nutrients/lectins  [↩]
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