Flexitarian Diet

A flexitarian diet focuses mostly on plant-based foods but includes meat, poultry, and fish in small amounts. Flexitarianism is the perfect diet for people who know they need to eat more veggies but don’t want to give up meat completely. And the health benefits are impressive: Plant-based diets have been shown to be high in vitamins, fiber, and nutrients. Add a little meat now and then, and flexitarians also get all the protein (and flavor) of animal products

Karen Nachay, associate editor of Food Technology magazine, said flexitarians can be categorized into two groups, semi-vegetarians and meat reducers.

Semi-vegetarians follow a vegetarian diet part of the time, but still eat some meat and dairy products. Meat reducers are not trying to follow a vegetarian diet, but are just trying to reduce the amount of meat they eat.

Manufacturers are increasingly targeting these groups with better-tasting products, attractive packaging and product variety, Nachay said.

Updates in processing technologies, food flavors and sauces are making it possible for vegetarian food manufacturers to create foods with more meat-like textures, better flavor and convenience that are more appealing to flexitarians — unlike the earlier bland and tough vegetarian burgers that usually only die-hard vegetarians would eat, Nachay said.

Up until recently, soy and wheat protein were the main proteins used in vegetarian meal options, but because so many people have soy and wheat protein allergies, vegetable protein, from sources such as peas, beans and chickpeas are being used, Nachay said.

What exactly does being a Flexitarian entail? You can embrace meatless Mondays, making one day a week meat free. Flexitarian eating is ideal for those who want to prepare and eat more vegetarian meals but find it to arduous to commit to going meatless 100%. You have to work towards switching from a meat heavy diet to a plant based one. Blatner sees three categories of flexitarians.

Beginner: eats two meatless meals a week.

Advanced: eats three to four meatless meals a week.

Experts: eat five or more plant only meals per week.

Waists everywhere will benefit from meatless meals. Researchers at Tufts University compared food-frequency meal questionnaires from more than 55,000 healthy women finding that semi vegetarians who consume just small amounts of animal products-were 11% less likely to be overweight or obese than regular omnivores.

Plant based foods are rich in fiber, disease thwarting antioxidants and vitamins and minerals that you won’t find in meats. Semi vegetarians live an average of 6 + years longer than meat adoring non-vegetarians . This is due to lower rates of chronic diseases that have diet connections-such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.