There’s a certain shimmer radiating from Beyoncé these days, and it isn’t just her head-turning, hot-pink shorts. Queen Bey is experiencing the virtues of a plant-based diet — delicious food, more energy, better sleep and a “noticeable glow” to her skin. She wants the whole world to feel these things, too, which is why she launched a vegan meal delivery service, 22 Days Nutrition, with husband and hip-hop mogul Jay-Z this past February.
“We should spend more time loving ourselves , which means taking better care of ourselves with good nutrition and making healthier food choices,” Beyoncé recently told The New York Times. “The benefits of a plant-based diet need to be known.” While the power couple doesn’t eat exclusively vegan fare, they do — as their personal trainer says — “lean toward it.”
No matter what you think of her music, there are plenty of reasons we all may want to lean toward this way of eating. Studies show that the more plant-based foods and the fewer animal products we consume, the healthier we’ll be. And the advantages go far beyond improved energy, sleep and skin.
For starters, ditching meat, eggs and dairy virtually eliminates the risk for coronary artery disease, America’s number one killer. That’s right — swapping out animal products for plant-based foods makes your chance of having a heart attack or dying from heart disease extremely slim. In fact, those with advanced-stage heart disease can actually reverse the illness by making this switch. No other way of eating has ever been shown to do that.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease alone causes 1 in every 4 deaths in the United States. Treating the disease accounts for $1 out of every $6 spent on health care. Shielding ourselves from this illness is reason enough to try leaning toward a plant-based diet.
But the same eating pattern that can prevent and cure heart disease offers similar protections from nearly every other leading killer in America. Cutting out animal products sharply reduces the risk for obesity, hypertension, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and some of the most deadly types of cancer, including colorectal, prostate and breast cancer. Scientists believe it also likely lowers the risk for Alzheimer’s, a disease that develops in the brain in much the same way as heart disease develops in the arteries.
Of course, shaking up your meal plan to feel better and live longer doesn’t require signing up for Beyoncé’s meal delivery service. As a dietitian, I encourage my patients to think about ways to make the foods they already know and love more healthful. For some, this means loading up their plates with their favorite fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and grains. Others find it easier to replace animal-based foods with plant-based meat and dairy products. Delicious, plant-based versions of chicken, beef, pork and milk are now available in virtually all major grocery chains, and with new products hitting store shelves all the time, it’s never been easier to throw vegetarian chicken on a sandwich or chow down on meatless meatballs and spaghetti.
America’s meat-heavy diet has led to a wide range of debilitating health problems, not to mention forcing billions of pigs, cows and chickens to endure miserable lives in cramped, filthy factory farms. While they may have countless chart-topping songs between them, hearing pop culture stars Beyoncé and Jay-Z advocate for a healthier, more compassionate way of eating is the real music to our ears.
Julieanna Hever, MS, RD, CPT, Food Trends Specialist at Mercy For Animals and host of the television show What Would Julieanna Do? , is a bestselling author, speaker, health and fitness expert, and lifestyle coach.
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Why You’ll Feel Flawless Eating Like Beyoncé originally appeared on usnews.com
