There are so many diet tricks right now that it’s hard to keep track: raw until 4, keto until 5, vegan until 6, dry until Friday. (Okay, we’re also ignoring the last one.) But if you want to eat healthy long-term, lose weight short-term, and try a vegan or plant-based diet, the best way to get back to normal is to follow this simple rule: go Vegan Before 6.
Created by Mark Bittman, former chief food writer for the New York Times and author of 16 books on food and cooking in total, Vegan before 6 It was a book that came out in 2013, as her answer to the question: How to lose weight when your doctor told you that you were 40 pounds overweight and that you needed to change your life? There is a reason why it is popular again now. It allows you to eat a healthy diet full of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and seeds until dinner time, when you can enjoy your usual favorite foods, so you end up being roughly 75 percent vegan. For many people, it’s a great way to start vegan, try a plant-based approach, lose weight, and be healthy.
Part-time vegan as an approach to a healthy lifestyle and weight loss only works if you stick to healthy habits the rest of the time and choose to eat low-calorie whole foods, simple carbohydrates, and fats, especially saturated fat. After all, you can do significant damage after sunset. In Mark Bittman’s book VB6: Eat vegan food before 6:00 to lose weight and restore your health … foreverHe shares how his simple, feasible rules of being vegan for 75 percent of the day changed his health, helped him lose weight, and changed the way he viewed food forever. Sorry: chips are off the menu.
The key to the Bittman method is to start the day by eating vegan, defined as vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and seeds, and meatless, dairy, poultry, or other animal products, until 6 pm, or dinner time, when you can eat their food. Usual favorite foods. In addition to filling your diet with as many plant-based foods as possible and eliminating processed waste, the 28-day plan shows how, when you stay satisfied, structured, and healthy for most of the day, you can make better decisions for yourself. night and still harvest. The benefits of reducing meat and dairy consumption.
Plant-based diets are known to fight heart disease for years. A 2019 study showed that those who followed a primarily plant-based diet had lower rates of cancer, possibly due to the fact that plant phytochemicals help protect cells from free radical damage. The study found that eating just 10 grams or more of fiber a day (and remember that fiber is only found in plant foods) is enough to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. New studies have supported this. The more fiber you have in your diet, the lower your risk of breast cancer, for example.
While it may seem intimidating to go 100% vegan at once, know this: Mark Bittman thought he would be the last person to jump on the bandwagon. As a food writer in The New York Times For more than 30 years, he made a living by eating and recommending all types of food. That was until he was 57 years old, in his doctor’s office, feeling depressed about his health, he had to make a decision.
With her blood numbers like cholesterol out of control and 40 pounds to lose, she discussed what steps to take with her doctor. She was having trouble sleeping and persistent knee problems, and she remembers that she didn’t want to become a statistician, someone middle-aged on heart medication for the rest of her life. Her former doctor and friend had the guts to reply, “You should probably go vegan. That will take care of all your problems.
Bittman knew he was the type of person who would not do well with a vague intention of “eating more healthy foods.” I needed more of a structure than that. So he put on a strict diet that started at breakfast and lasted just before dinner, thus observing 3/4 of his day on a vegan diet. His book showed that as long as you start your day without animal products, as well as without packaged or processed foods, you can enjoy what you like to eat as long as it is healthy for dinner.
His Opinion: If a middle-aged meat-loving, processed food lover and writer can be primarily plant-based, then why not you? Just give it a try when your day begins and determine the rest as the day goes on, you never know, you can inadvertently become a full-time vegan.
Here are the secrets to Mark Bittman’s success on a mostly vegan diet:
Start the day off right
Avoid any kind of animal product at breakfast and lunch. Saturated fats and processed sugars are the main ingredients of common breakfast foods, but while anything can be done vegan by skipping dairy, the best option is a complex carbohydrate like fruit oatmeal or a smoothie with plant-based proteins. For lunch, salads, soups, hummus or wholemeal pasta with tomato sauce. As long as it’s vegetable-based or packed with healthy legume proteins, and homemade, you’ll stay on track. We suggest a great salad with chickpeas, which are full of protein. For a complete list, The Beet has put together all the best plant-based protein sources.
Fill your plate with as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible
By cutting meat and dairy products, you leave plenty of room to fill your plate with as much fresh vegetable food as possible. That can add an extra leafy green to your stir fry or make your new favorite soup a vegan lentil or pea recipe. Try to get local and organic vegetables when possible to avoid pesticides in your food. See recipes in The Beet or the Beginner’s Guide to Seven-Day Meals. Remember, it’s all in the baby’s footsteps.
Avoid processed and packaged foods
Anything that contains processed flours and added sugars wreaks havoc on our metabolism, and if the goal is to lose weight with VB6, then avoiding white sugar and flour is the top priority when buying from the market (rather than from the stall). the farm). Almost all chronic health problems can be avoided or mitigated by looking at your consumption of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar found in all processed foods. At the start, savor your favorite treat after 6 p.m., but in small doses, and give your body enough time to digest before bed.
Not all “vegan” is fair game
The word vegan is not synonymous with healthy, and most junk food is accidentally vegan since it does not contain animal products, but it is also not healthy. Coca Cola, Oreos, and French Fries do not have animal products unless the French fries are cooked in oil that contains beef or chicken, but they are called fast food for some reason. Quick snacks are convenient and cheap, but we pay for them in a different way, by increasing our cholesterol, insulin levels, blood sugar, blood lipids, and contributing to weight gain. Like Bittman, it can ultimately cost us our health.
There are no rules after 6 pm, other than eating healthy, whole foods, and no junk
After 6 p.m., exhibit some form of self-control, even when you crave comfort food. Allow yourself a little digression (a glass of wine) but not a big cliff drop from the diet (inhale the entire bag of chips or a whole pint of ice cream). In this way you can continue the diet for a longer time.
One change Bittman immediately noticed when he did this was the change in energy level. Over time he realized that while a cheeseburger might be in his near future if he decided to go down that route for dinner, his body craved more healthy things at night. And her energy shot up.
Don’t focus too much on the specific time. Vegan until 5:59 is also great
Sometimes dinner happens after, or even before, 6 p.m., or maybe you’re suddenly in East Coast time and your body still thinks it’s mid-afternoon in Los Angeles. Six is not a magic moment, it is just a guideline. Dinner is our last meal of the day, it also turns out to be more social, so when you have a shared experience this approach is useful to get back to plant-based in the morning and see how long the next can last. day. Try to pass dinner if you feel good. Before you know it, you may not want to eat other than vegan.
Eat homemade meals whenever possible.
This sounds simple from a cookbook author, but Bittman reports that this will not only keep you on the road, but you will feel more satisfied knowing exactly what your meal included. It also provides you with plenty of leftovers for breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week.
Everyone is at their own pace
A lifestyle change is a big problem, but it doesn’t have to become a big production. For some people, small increments are the way to go, and Bittman’s method is the right step. If you go overboard one night, just forgive yourself, then start again the next day. Or if you eat a non-vegan meal once at lunchtime, make up for it at night and cook dinner with vegetables.
Small changes can have a big impact
In his Ted talk, “What’s Wrong With How We Eat?” Bittman explained how the traditional Western diet is failing us, and our demand for meat, dairy, and refined carbohydrates has been fueled through our food pyramid. too simplistic. The USDA is not our ally, and as they review the guidelines every 5 years, we look forward to their latest recommendations, which will be out soon, which we can only hope will include more plant-based or vegan foods.
Until then, we have to take matters into our own hands, not only to advocate for a better diet in a country where 2 out of 3 adults are considered overweight or obese, but also to improve our own health. The more vegan or plant-based we eat, the better it will be for our long-term health, for the environment, for the well-being of farm animals, for their own weight loss goals, and for all possible reasons combined.
Going mostly vegan or mostly plant-based will help you stay healthier longer.
A new study found that eating primarily plants fights high blood pressure and reduces the overall risk of heart disease and premature death. The idea of going vegan or plant-based 75 percent of the time is quiet. Just start your day with vegetables and grains, fruits and nuts, seeds, and whole-grain plant foods. Then, once night falls, eat less meat and dairy, less garbage, and even more plants. It is a simple formula, eat real food. ” So start your week, day, and meal to the best of your ability, stay clean and focused, and you’ll discover how being a part-time vegan might be the best way to improve your health.
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