{"id":35298,"date":"2021-05-23T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=35298"},"modified":"2021-05-26T08:49:33","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T12:49:33","slug":"plant-based-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What&#8217;s all the hype about plant-based eating? Are diets consisting primarily of plant-derived foods really better for you? What are the main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/benefits-of-a-whole-food-plant-based-diet\/\">benefits of plant-based<\/a> eating?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are numerous health benefits to eating a plant-based diet. To name a few, plant-based foods contain more antioxidants (compounds that fight free radicals) and fewer calories. They are also lower in toxins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn about the benefits of plant-based eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Are the Benefits of Eating Plant-Based? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The evolutionary relationship between humans and plants greatly explains why they are so good for us and why a diet focused on plant-based eating is a healthier option. Even Thomas Jefferson said that meat should be eaten more as a flavouring to support vegetables, rather than the main dish.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One benefit of plant-based eating is the amount of antioxidants plants provide the body. Vitamin C is one of the most important. Your ancestors were able to produce vitamin C internally. This process helped reduce the amount of free radicals\u2014oxygen atoms containing an extra electron\u2014created whenever cells metabolize or the body fights inflammation. Free radicals are believed to be associated with cancer and other ailments experienced with age. Vitamin C and other antioxidants stabilize the free radicals before they can cause harm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vitamin C and other antioxidants also entice the liver to produce enzymes to break the antioxidants down and other compounds in the body, like toxins. In this way, antioxidants are detoxifiers, helping to rid the body of carcinogens and other dangerous compounds. The greater variety of antioxidants, the greater variety of toxins targeted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the large plant-based diet of your ancestors contained so much vitamin C, the body had no need to continue producing its own. <strong>This ability was weeded out through evolution and made humans dependent on plants to receive these vital nutrients.<\/strong> This is one of the main reasons they are so good for you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are various other benefits humans get from plants-based eating. Vegetarians tend to be healthier and live longer. Plants also have fewer energy properties, hence, fewer calories. And unlike meat, which you don\u2019t need to survive, you do need plants to survive. Still, meat does provide some essential amino acids, so a diet including small portions of meat is not necessarily a bad thing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem with meat comes from the way we consume it and the way it is processed. The large portions of meat as main courses is extreme, and industrialized meat is not good. <strong>Meat sits at the top of the food chain, so it has the distinction of soaking up all the nutrients\u2014and toxins\u2014running up that chain.<\/strong> Thus, meat is the pinnacle evidence for why the health of the food chain is so important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s all the hype about plant-based eating? Are diets consisting primarily of plant-derived foods really better for you? What are the main benefits of plant-based eating? There are numerous health benefits to eating a plant-based diet. To name a few, plant-based foods contain more antioxidants (compounds that fight free radicals) and fewer calories. They are also lower in toxins. Learn about the benefits of plant-based eating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,160],"tags":[281],"class_list":["post-35298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-health","category-science","tag-in-defense-of-food","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\"},\"wordCount\":466,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"In Defense of Food\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Food\",\"Health\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\",\"name\":\"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"plants\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype? - Shortform Books","description":"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?","og_description":"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?","datePublished":"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/"},"wordCount":466,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","keywords":["In Defense of Food"],"articleSection":["Food","Health","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/","name":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-23T18:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-26T12:49:33+00:00","description":"There are many benefits to eating primarily plant-based. To name a few, plants are high in antioxidants, low in calories, and low in toxins.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"plants"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plant-based-eating\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Plant-Based Eating: Why All the Hype?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/food-vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-diet.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35298"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36461,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35298\/revisions\/36461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}