Eating a vegan diet can be one of the healthiest ways to live your life. Plant-based diets contain plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Because vegan diets often rely heavily on these healthy staples, they tend to be higher in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber. Healthy vegan diets are abundant with vitamins B1, C, and E, folic acid, magnesium and iron while also being low in cholesterol and saturated fats. A plant-based vegan diet can reduce the risk of mortality from conditions such as obesity, hypertension, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Vegan foods such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans are low in fat, contain no cholesterol and are rich in fiber and nutrients. Vegans can get all the protein they need in legumes (beans, tofu, peanuts) and grains (rice, corn, whole wheat bread, and pasta); calcium from broccoli, kale, collard greens, tofu, fortified juices, and soy milk; iron from chickpeas, pinto beans and soy products and B-12 from fortified foods.

Did you know?

There are over 20,000 species of edible plants in the world, of which somewhere between 150 and 200 have been domesticated and farmed.

In a study published in the journal BMJ Open, scientists led by Carlos Monteiro at the University of Sao Paolo found that nearly 60 percent of an American’s daily calories come from “ultra-processed” food, which Monteiro and his colleagues defined as food that contains ingredients such as flavors, colors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated oils, emulsifiers and other additives that you wouldn’t cook with at home. The study also pinpointed, for the first time, this type of processed food as the main source of added sugar in the U.S. diet. Meanwhile, the report shows, Americans get less than 1 percent of their daily calories from vegetables.