It Looks Good!

When considering dietary changes in pursuit of better health, the vision of dissatisfying meals springs into our minds. Piles of carrot sticks, bowls of bland oatmeal, green leafy salads that could pass for cardboard. Don’t let the erroneous workings of your brain persuade you to abandon implementation of a plant based diet. While carrots, oatmeal, and green salads have their place, they don’t have to be consumed in such a lackluster way. In practically no time at all anyone can produce delicious plant based meals that appeal to the eye. 

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It Tastes Good!

It’s true that moving toward plant based eating will take some adjustment. The good news is there are immense flavor possibilities with plant based cooking. Walk into the kitchen of a good plant based cook and you will be hoping they ask you can stay for lunch. Tasty dishes of all kinds can be converted into a plant based recipe that please the palate. 

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It Does Good!

When we eat a nice meal our body reacts in a certain way to help us feel good. The digestive tract will produce hormones that make us feel satisfied and therefore they play an important role in weight management. Some of these hormones directly influence energy balance and glucose handling.¹ In short, we need them to react properly after a meal to help us feel satisfied and stop eating. 

To test the differing degrees of satisfaction, researchers compared a plant based meal made with tofu to a meal made with processed meat and cheese. The subjects of the trial were three groups of men-healthy, obese, and diabetic adult males. All the subjects of the trial ate both meals. Then the scientists did some testing to look at gastrointestinal hormones and gave the men a visual test to see if they wanted to eat any more. Hormone tests and visual test both indicated that meal satisfaction was better from the plant based meal in all three groups.¹

In part 4 of our weight loss series we will take a look at some case stories regarding the plant based diet and weight loss, the results are truly impressive.

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References:

¹ Klementova. Nutrients. 2019