Green Power

“We know that the people who eat the most fruits & vegetables are half as likely to develop cancer as those who eat the least amount of these foods” Steven Pratt and Kath Matthews, SuperFoods Rx.

Is a vegan diet unhealhty?

It is often said that a vegan diet is a healthy diet, why so? Because it’s automatically presumed the follower of this diet eats foods of high nutritional value, they eat lots of fruits & vegetables, they consume organic wholefoods and they balance their intake of macro and micronutrients.

If you have ever been to a vegan grocery store you will notice there are a lot of foods that contain high amounts of sugar and gluten.  From marshmallows, fairy floss, fudge and cookies to tofurky, facon, ‘mock’ chicken nuggets even fishless fish fingers, the shelves and freezers contain as many processed foods as we see in our major supermarkets. To presume a vegan diet is always healthy is like saying the Western diet will make you obese, give you diabetes, heart disease and shorten your life expectancy by years. Not all omnivores solely eat burgers, steaks with every meal or add bacon & eggs to their smoothies!

Not all diet choices are perfect

We know not all diet choices are perfect and each diet choice needs to be viewed and consumed with balance, not extremes.

The diet we choose to follow has a few key factors which are important to a healthy and nutritionally dense lifestyle whatever the food choice: balance, moderation and mindful eating.

Our vegan diet or plant-based diet as we like to call focuses on a high intake of organic and biodynamic fruit & vegetables in particular green vegetables, legumes and seeds and moderate amounts of grains & nuts.  We eliminated from our diet a long time ago highly processed foods, conventional produce, and foods containing ingredients that our grandmother would not recognise.

Why? Because we wanted to eat to promote inner and outer health, to fuel us better to train better and we wanted to live longer. After all you, are what you eat. And we really did want people to realise a vegan diet can be healthy but tasty too.

Black has always been seen as fashionable but in our world, green is the new black.  So with every shop, not to mention every meal about 90% of our trolley/plate contains a green vegetable.

Top 3 of green vegetables

Kale

Benefits: Low in calories, high in fibre, zero fat, high in iron, Vitamin A & K, contains powerful antioxidants, high in calcium and is great for cardiovascular support.
How to eat: Raw, sautéed, juiced, dehydrated or cooked on a low heat for kale chips.

Broccoli

Benefits: An excellent source of iron, folate, fibre, calcium, Vitamin C and Vitamin K.
How to eat: Fresh tossed in salads, steam and add to stir-fries, puree to make a soup, roast, or serve florets with hummus.

Spinach

Benefits: Low in calories contains beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamins C, E & K, Folate, chlorophyll, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc.
How to eat: Raw, steamed, sautéed – do not boil.

Eat for maximum benefits

We love to eat but we also eat for maximum health benefits. This certainly does not hamper what we are serve up or have to us spending hours trying to figure out what to cook. If you have the basics right, everything else just falls into place.  When it comes to a diet choice, whether you follow a Tarian diet or an omnivore diet, ensure it is one that is healthy, balanced and consumed in moderation, you can’t go wrong with that choice.  Oh and remember to eat your greens!