Plant-based eating patterns explained
Plant-based eating is about putting plant-based foods at the core of your diet. There are different ways of plant-based eating, from vegan over vegetarian to flexitarian-type diets. All plant-based ways of eating can be part of healthy balanced diets.
What is a plant-based diet?
There is a spectrum of plant-based eating patterns, varying in the proportion of plant-based products incorporated into the diet. Plant-based eating does not necessarily exclude all animal products. Instead, it puts plant-based foods at the core of your plate. In a plant-based diet, plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils and plant-based alternatives to dairy or meat alternatives are at the core of the diet. Some diets are exclusively plant-based and cut short not only all animal products but also all animal by-products, while others are more flexible. Let’s have a look!
Get to know the flexitarian diet
Flexitarian diets include mostly plant-based food, with occasional intakes of meat, dairy, and eggs. Flexitarian diets encourage variety rather than restriction and are typically followed by people who attempt to maximize plant-based products in their diets for health, ethical, or environmental reasons.
Oh, hello vegetarian diet
This way of eating includes a large variety of plant foods and excludes animal products except for dairy, eggs and honey. Also in this category of diets: Lacto-vegetarian diets which exclude meat, fish and eggs but include dairy and Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets that exclude meat and fish but include dairy and eggs. Pescatarian diets exclude animal products but include seafood.
Hi there, vegan diet
Vegan diets typically source all calories from plants and exclude all animal products. Did you know that veganism is often extended to other lifestyle choices, beyond dietary choices, whereby all products made of animal parts (such as leather or feathers) are avoided?
Do you feel like introducing more plant-based foods into your diet? Here are some tips!
Prioritize plants that have a so-called complete protein profile such as soya, pea or quinoa.
Combine pulses (lentils, chickpeas, beans) with wholegrains (wheat, rice, buckwheat).
Diversify your consumption of dairy products with plant-based dairy alternatives fortified in calcium and vitamins D, B2 and B12.
There are a lot of delicious products to choose from such as soya-based alternatives to yogurt, plant-based drinks from oat or almond and even plant-based ice cream and barista products. Check out our delicious recipes.
Millions of people are more aware of the personal and environmental benefits of plant-based foods and drinks. Our brand has a mission to promote more flexitarian diets. We want to keep bringing more choice, variety and taste, and that's why innovation lies at the heart of what we do at Alpro.
