According to the founders and practitioners of this diet, people who strictly adopt Flexitarian diet are 15% less heavy than normal individuals and are also at minimal risk of getting debilitating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or heart diseases. Needless to say that in the long run, individuals who follow Flexitarian diet usually have longer lifespans.
The Theory
Flexitarian is a combination of two words. Flexible and vegetarian. This is an old term that signifies a healthy yet convenient pattern of diet management. According to this diet one should not completely give up animal protein sources (such as red or white meat) to convert to a strict vegetarian diet. You can still go on eating meat while most of the time you should incorporate healthy vegetables in your diet plan.
How does Flexitarian Diet work?
Flexitarian diet means you take your meal with five different groups of foods. These are Whole grains, dairy, spices, fruits and vegetables and sugar; and the “new meat” (eggs, nuts peas, tofu, lentils, beans and seeds). This is a five-week plan which is composed of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes. Plan can be followed as it is or you can just grab few recipes considering the fact that the formation should be 3-4-5. Breakfast should be no more than 300 calories, lunch to 400 and dinner 500. There will be snacks twice 150 calories each. So the total will be around 1500 calories. But it can vary depending upon you age, sex, weight or height.
Will you lose weight?
Researches have proved that people who consume vegetarian diet have less body weight and BMIs when compared to their other carnivore’s mates. Plus consuming vegetable diet can make you feel satisfied with your appetite though you haven’t consumed a lot of calories. And when you perform physical activity as well it makes you lose more weight.
Does it have cardiovascular benefits and prevent or control diabetes?
Foods obtained from plant source are rich in fibers and have low cholesterol that’s why it helps prevent cardiovascular problems and also maintain your blood pressure. And it can also prove vital in preventing and controlling diabetes. And top of all there is no health risk associated with this diet.
How Well Does it Conform to accepted dietary guidelines?
- Protein: It is in normal range about 15% as per required by body for its usage.
- Carbohydrates: The government has recommended 45-65% should come from carbohydrates. This diet gives almost 57%.
- Fat: This diet provides the exact amount of fats required by body and keeps it in normal range that is 27%.
- Salt: It is used in very high quantity among Americans. But this diet gives a very normal range of salt that is 1350 mg.
Other key nutrients include:
- Potassium: Its recommended value is about 4700mg whereas this diet gives 1277mg. Potassium in association with salt increases blood pressure, prevents kidney stones and also prevents bone loss. Banana is a good source of potassium.
- Calcium: Its recommended value is 1300 mg and this diet gives 1130mg. calcium helps in bone formation and also helps muscles and vessels to function properly.
- Fibers: Fibers are good absorbent and hence with the help of this property they are able to keep a person full. This diet provides about 32 grams of fibers.
- Vitamin D: This diet also provides good amount of vitamin D that can help prevent bone deformation.
- Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is essential for body’s mechanism and this diet provide adequate amount required by the body.
It is ideally recommended to not initiate any type of specific diet (like this one) without seeking advice from a doctor. Likewise, it is advised to avoid any diet for longer than 3 – 5 weeks at a time. Cautions and extreme degree of care is needed if you are suffering from a chronic medical or metabolic illness.
