It is hard to tell these days about diet you need to opt for. There are so many options that have started to occur that it has created confusion in the minds of people. But even after that there are few diets that give you relaxation of choosing your meal plan and given more variety than any other diet. One such diet is Flexitarian diet, this is a diet that encourages people to have more plant based food, with that it also allows you to have moderate quantity of animal products as well. Hence it becomes a healthy and easy option for those who cannot stick to strict diets. Let us look at benefits of choosing Flexitarian diet. 

What is Flexitarian Diet?

Flexitarian diet is a more flexible meal plan option rather than going for full vegetarian of vegan diets. We spoke to clinical nutritionist Ms. Shilpa Singh from Fatima Hospital, Lucknow, she said that Flexitarian allows you to have a ratio of 7:3, where 70% of the nutrition comes from vegetarian and plant based foods and rest 30% is based on animal meat foods. If a person wants to switch to more plant based nutrition, then Flexitarian diet could provide a nice mixture of both. This diet does not have any clear cut rules and recommended calories and macronutrients. 

What can you have in Flexitarian diet?

• Eat more of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes in your diet
• Focus on more protein based diet instead of animal based as it provides flexibility
• You can include meats and animal products such as fish, lean meat and other animal based foods.
• Have less processed and more of natural forms of food in your diet
• Limit your sugar intake and avoid having sweets

Health benefits of Flexitarian Diet

This diet does not have a clear diet plan and hence it is hard to tell the exact benefits of choosing this diet. However if you consider recommendations by nutritionist, then you can have these benefits on your health.

1. Reduces risk of heart diseases

Flexitarian diet allows you to have fibre rich and healthy plant based nutrients that could be beneficial for your heart. This is because Flexitarian diet also includes fish in their diet and provides you with omega-3 fatty acids. It improves your heart functions and lowers the tendency of having ischemic heart disease. According to a study, there has been 22% reduction in ischemic heart attacks in those people that have fish and vegetables in their diet than meat. Flexitarian diet also improves your diastolic blood pressure and provides you with better health.

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2. Helps to manage your weight

Weight management is one of the top concerns of people. This is because most of the people have high calories in their diet and follow a very sedentary lifestyle. As a result of this, it affects their health and makes them gain weight. Flexitarian diet provides with all the essential nutrients in balanced amount that can be turned in the favour of your health. To manage your weight in a better manner, you need to lower down your calories and balance your diet so as to provide health benefits.

3. Helps to reduce risk of diabetes and manages complications

Plant based diet is very beneficial to manage diabetes. Type-2 diabetes is creating problems at a large scale around the world, Flexitarian diet can help to manage diabetes and also reduce risk of having it. Plant based diet are high in fibre and low in unhealthy fats which provide less calories for more nutrients. Also plant foods do not have added sugar that can reduce the risk of diabetes by 20%. For diabetes, Flexitarian diet should include the following-

• Vegetable oils
• Whole grains
• Nuts
• Legumes
• Leafy vegetables

Also Read- Health Benefits of Eating Jaggery After Every Meal

4. Lowers risk of certain types of cancer

Dietary patterns are also high in nutrient based foods such as fruits, vegetables and legumes. All of these are crucial part of Flexitarian diet and have almost negligible ultra-processed foods in the diet. Hence this diet is also linked with reduced risk of certain types of cancer. According to research by National Library of Medicine, vegetarian diet can lower the risk of colorectal cancer by significant effect. Incorporating more vegetarian food in your meals can lower risk of cancer.

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