What Foods Can I Eat on a Plant-Based Diet? | Green Chef (2024)

FAQs

What Foods Can I Eat on a Plant-Based Diet? | Green Chef? ›

A vegan diet relies heavily on whole grains, fiber rich veggies and fruits, as well as heart-healthy nuts and oils. It can be difficult for vegans to get enough protein and calcium, so the vegan diet tends to include a lot of lentils, chickpeas, beans, and tofu.

Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans.

Eggs can and should be part of a plant-based diet, and these five suggestions showcase how easy it is to incorporate the incredible egg into your plant-forward dishes.

Take the challenge

While fitting 30 plant-based foods into your diet each week might sound like a lot, it's much more simple than you might think. So, what counts? All your fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans and peas), nuts and seeds, wholegrains, herbs and spices – anything derived from plants.

And what are plant-based foods? Vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, seeds, and nuts are the stars of all plant-based diets.

Pasta dishes make an excellent option for those adhering to a plant-based diet for several reasons. To start, pasta is a natural plant-based food made simply from grain, and it is also and easy food to incorporate other plant-based foods into, like veggies and beans.

Plant Protein

Anyone can follow plant- based eating. Peanuts and peanut butter is one of the most powerful plant foods that have a perfect balance of calories and nutrients. They are a food that has a lot of nutrients to offer, with the majority of calories coming from those good nutrients.

Foods like olive oil, bleached flour, refined sugar and white rice, even though they are plant-based, are all processed foods and are not included in a WFPB diet. Plant-based means that the food you eat comes from plants, including: Fruits – apples, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, bananas, mango.

Following a plant-based diet means saying goodbye to all animal products — including lean meat and dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream.

Vegans can eat bread that does not contain animal products or byproducts. This includes breads that only use some variation on flour, water, yeast, and salt including ciabatta, baguette, focaccia, sourdough, pita, and ezekiel breads.

What is a realistic whole food plant-based diet? ›

Living a Whole Food, Plant-Based Life

This includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans, peas, and lentils), nuts, and seeds. Many eventually give up the diet label in favor of lifestyle. Perhaps that's because the popular notion of dieting has become so confusing. A WFPB lifestyle should be simpler.

Coffee beans are also seeds. So, your morning coffee counts as a plant, too.

Here are some tips to get started with a plant-based diet: Fill half your plate for meals and snacks with non-starchy vegetables and fresh fruits, such as leafy greens, carrots, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, berries, grapes, apples, pears and melons.

Spotlight the Super Six:

When it comes to the plants you eat, you want to eat from across the six different plant groups: vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes (beans and pulses), nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices.

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, apricots, sweet potatoes, peaches, plums, melons, eggplant, lemons, lettuce, green beans, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, spinach, corn, Swiss chard, celery, beets, onions, cauliflower, cherries, bananas, mushrooms, parsnips, turnips, ...

Potatoes are loaded with Vitamin C, most B vitamins, potassium, fiber, and more. Potatoes absolutely can be part of a healthy plant-based diet! We love to enjoy potatoes in plenty of plant-based recipes from pizza to lasagna to soups, and more!

At its core, a bread recipe contains four simple ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast — a type of microscopic fungus used to help bread rise. Therefore, the simplest form of bread is vegan. However, some types include additional ingredients like sweeteners or fats — both of which can be of animal origin.

Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish and poultry, but allow dairy products and eggs. Pescatarian diets exclude meat and poultry, dairy, and eggs, but allow fish. Vegan diets exclude meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products, as well as foods that contain these products.