My goal is to help you understand and embrace the healthiest foods for personal wellness and disease prevention, which means reclaiming the simple foods that our ancestors ate and that have helped humans thrive for most of our history.
Primarily, these are the easy-to-grow, easy-to-access, and easy-to-prepare, everyday ingredients we are all familiar with: leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, and whole grains.
Adopting a healthy, more plant-based diet doesn’t require unique, expensive ingredients that are impossible to find except in upscale grocery stores (hello, Whole Foods). It doesn’t require expert cooking skills, nor do we need high-priced supplements and protein powders, which some people would literally need a second job to afford on a regular basis.
Science-Confirmed Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet
If you are at all skeptical or unsure about the benefits of a plant-based diet, know that recent research supports what our ancestors knew intuitively. Plant-based diets are cost-effective because they are healthier, and they have a positive impact on many of the symptoms and chronic conditions that affect people in the twenty-first century.
Plant Protein vs. Animal Protein
Plant Protein: Beans, Grains, Seeds, Nuts, Tofu, Seitan, Vegetables
- No cholesterol
- High dietary fiber
- Low fat
- Phytochemical rich
- Mineral rich
- Low calories per weight
- High in antioxidants
- Low price point
Animal Protein: Meat, Seafood, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Milk, Cheese, Eggs
- High cholesterol
- Low dietary fiber
- High saturated fat
- Low to no phytochemicals
- Low mineral content
- High calories per weight
- Low in antioxidants
- High price point
Human Physiology: Are We Designed to Be Omnivores?
If a plant-based diet is so good for us, it begs the question: Are humans really meant to be omnivores, creatures who consume both plants and animals for sustenance? That we are is self-evident. But the most accurate answer to whether we should be is: it’s complicated.
To varying degrees, human physiology indicates that we evolved primarily as plant eaters. First, we have wonderful flexible hands, naturally short nails, and opposable thumbs. Our dexterous hands allow us to grab large round foods like mangoes and apples, peel a banana, and use tools.
Our gorgeous, pearly white teeth feature flat molars that allow us to grind and chop plants for easy digestion. Then, the acids and enzymes in our stomach work well at breaking down sugars and other complex carbohydrates and plant protein.
Of course, our enzymes can break down animal proteins as well, but those enzymes are not as effective on animal flesh, and our gastric juices often benefit by getting help, such as from other highly acidic ingredients and spices.
Our liver is better equipped to process plants, with a high intolerance for uric acid (a by-product of the digestion of animal flesh). Then, there are our intestines: a fantastic set of organs roughly thirty feet long. This design allows our body to absorb minerals and nutrients, break down debris, and eliminate waste in roughly twelve to 18 hours, keeping us looking and feeling fabulous.
How Much Protein Does Your Body Need?
The USDA recommends an intake of 0.36 grams of protein for every pound of body weight. Under this parameter, a 150-pound woman needs 54 grams of protein per day—the amount in a burger patty plus a small chicken breast.
Some experts believe the USDA recommendation is actually too high. So, while experts in the field are telling us to eat less food in general, the average US adult consumes as much as 110 grams of protein a day, twice the recommended amount.
Meanwhile, nearly every plant has some protein (complete or incomplete). Here are some of the easiest, tastiest, most popular sources of protein in the plant world:
- 1 cup of lentils: 18 grams
- 1 cup of tempeh: 30 grams
- 1 cup of chickpeas: 14 grams
- ½ cup of almonds: 16.5 grams
- ½ cup of edamame: 17 grams
- 2 tablespoons of spirulina: 8 grams
- 1 cup of quinoa: 8 grams
- 1 tablespoon of hemp seeds: 5 grams
- 1 tablespoon of chia seeds: 2 grams
The human body is well-designed for eating plants. Not only that, but we thrive on a plant-based diet. All primates are primarily herbivores (most eat insects on occasion), even though our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are also omnivores. Yet while some primates do eat an occasional animal, they still get most of their nutrients, including protein, from plants.
Animal flesh and its derivatives (milk, eggs, and other by-products like cheese) also have an added disadvantage for us. They promote an acidic environment in the human body, which doesn’t happen in the case of natural carnivores like lions, wolves, and domestic cats.
Our digestive tract is simply not designed to process animal flesh as effectively, and the length of the intestines can cause the flesh to linger longer than it should, leading to the retention of toxins, protein by-products like ammonia or uric acid (which when retained in large amounts can become toxic), and a highly acidic internal environment.
This acidic environment can then lead to an inflammatory response in our digestive tract and even in other organs. The walls in our large intestine will reabsorb and circulate all those toxins and by-products, leading to a never-ending loop of inflammation.
This response manifests in an array of preventable conditions like clogged arteries, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, weight gain, and early signs of aging, to name a few. These pesky conditions are the root of many of the life-threatening diseases plaguing human communities today.
Hunters and Gatherers: Finding Balance
Exactly when ancestral humans started eating animals is unknown. But starting about 2.6 million years ago, evidence exists that early human species used sharp weapons to slice animal flesh and blunt objects like rocks to break the bones and extract the marrow. Scientists believe that this meat eating caused a significant evolutionary change that led to larger brains and the eventual evolution of the modern human species.
That doesn’t mean early humans stopped eating fruits, nuts, and seeds and started eating meat exclusively. Rather, throughout our long history as hunter-gatherers, it is believed that early humans consumed plants and animals at a ratio of two to one.
That is, their diet was two-thirds plants, including roots, and one-third animal flesh. This ratio persisted even after humans learned to use fire and developed even more sophisticated tools to hunt and cook. Humans continued to consume a wide variety of foods, and most of what was consumed was from the plant world.
Of course, things changed starting around 13,000 to 10,000 ago, as humans domesticated plants and animals and developed agriculture, which allowed for people to settle in cities and led to modern civilization.
The incredible variety of the human diet narrowed as people came to eat mainly domestic crops and livestock. People also became experts in preserving and storing both meats and plants, which reduced the need to hunt or gather wild animals and plants.
Making the Change
- Start by eating at least three fully plant-based meals a week. That’s just 14 percent of your weekly meals. For instance, pick breakfast on Monday, lunch on Wednesday, and dinner on Friday. Or, make one day entirely plant-based (like the popular Meatless Mondays). If you already do this, then expand by three the number of plant-based meals you normally have each week.
- Make a list of your favorite foods and dishes and see how you can veganize them. For example, if pasta is one of your favorite meals, pick vegetarian options like pasta primavera or eggplant parmesan and use plant-based cheeses.
- Eventually, ensure you have at least one plant-based meal every day, and if you already do this, then make it two per day. In my experience, the easiest meal is breakfast. If you drink coffee in the morning, have it with almond, coconut, or rice milk. Or better yet, have a bowl of fruit on an empty stomach, wait one hour, then follow that with a piece of whole-wheat toast and organic jelly. Another alternative is a green smoothie made with spinach, bananas, berries, and almond milk.
- Eat at least one raw ingredient with each meal. For example, if you’re eating a bowl of whole-wheat pasta, have a side salad with arugula, cucumber, and avocado. If you’re having a Mexican bowl, make sure it includes fresh-made guacamole.
- Use my “reduce and replace” method (for more on this, see “The Basic Method: Reduce and Replace,” pages 148–50). Pick a single “junk food” to eliminate or reduce from your diet and replace it with one yummy healthy food you already know and love. For instance, reduce tortilla chips and replace with celery sticks; reduce a bag of Skittles and replace with whole fruit; reduce an afternoon coffee and replace with a cup of herbal tea. Continue doing this each week with other junk food until you have reduced and replaced at least 50 percent of the junk food you currently consume.
- When planning meals, think of animal flesh as a side dish, not a main dish. Make whole grains and colorful vegetables the main stars of each meal. If you still want to eat meat, make sure animal flesh fills less than 25 percent of your plate, so that you are eating less meat.
- Eventually, eat meat only on a single “treat” day. Choose a single day of the week to indulge in meat-based dishes. By doing this, you can also identify how your body reacts to consuming flesh versus whole plant foods.
- Chef Jenné also shared this tip: “Make colorful things, try to show that you can veganize familiar foods, whether they’re soul food or any other cuisine. Try to bridge familiarity with foods that you are already used to eating, and clean them up a little. If the recipe calls for a ton of oil or butter, find a way to cut back on those because, of course, it’s not just about it being vegan, but it’s also about it being healthier. Start where you’re at, with what you already know.”
- Finally, keep educating yourself. Be curious about food, diet, health, and your own body. Read books on the health benefits of a plant-based diet, and continue to learn the what, why, and how of the foods you eat. The more you know, the easier it is to make the right choices.
Excerpted from the book from Reclaiming Wellness: Ancient Wisdom for Your Healthy, Happy, and Beautiful Life. Copyright ©2022 by Jovanka Ciares. Printed with permission from New World Library.
About the Author
Jovanka Ciares is the author of “Reclaiming Wellness: Ancient Wisdom for Your Healthy, Happy, and Beautiful Life,” and several other titles. A certified wellness expert, integrative herbalist, nutrition educator, and coach, she offers lectures and workshops in Spanish and English.