Try plant-based foods as a gift to yourself and your loved ones.
Valentine’s Day is all about flowers, candy and love. But taking care of your ticker is one of the best Valentine’s Day gifts you can give yourself and those you love!
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America. Lucky for you, adopting a plant-based eating style is a yummy way to help improve your health while decreasing the risk of heart disease.
What are the pros of plant-based?
- Flexibility in foods. Eating plant-based doesn’t mean giving up meat. While increasing your plant intake, you can still incorporate lean meats and fish from time to time. Just consume meat in smaller portions and keep plants as the stars of your meals.
- Easy to maintain. The key to this eating style is adding more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes while reducing animal-based products and processed foods. It’s easy to maintain because there are many readily available products for plant-based eating at Publix, including plant-based dairy beverages, such as soy and almond milk, frozen plant-based meals, meatless burgers, spiralized vegetables and riced cauliflower.
- Improved health. Studies have shown eating more plant-based foods and less meat is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Even if fruits and vegetables haven’t always been a big part of your diet, adding more plants now can still help reduce the risk of heart disease in the future.
- Help the environment. Did you know eating less meat can help protect the planet? Adopting a plant-based diet can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use by agriculture.
This Valentine’s Day, show your loved ones you care with a better-for-you dinner alternative.
Sources: cdc.gov, health.harvard.edu, heart.org, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Check out these plant-based recipes everyone will love:
