Adopting a Plant-Based Near Vegetarian Diet for Health
Like Bill Clinton (watch video), Trent at Simple Dollar tries plant based near-vegetarian diet, after doctor says health problems later in life w/o diet changes.
I just read a lovely blog post by Trent, who blogs about money at The Simple Dollar. About 5 weeks ago, he decided to try a plant based or vegetarian diet for 6 months, after hearing from his doctor that he could encounter health problems later in life unless he modified his diet.
Trent said, “As I thought about the options, I asked myself whether it was really important to me to eat certain foods. “How many years of good health is it worth for me to give up food X?” I realized that, when I thought of it in that context and in relation to watching my kids grow up and do whatever life has in store for them, I didn’t really have to add too much good health to my life to make it worth some significant dietary changes.”
He said that essentially, he’s doing what Bill Clinton has done:
When asked if he could possibly be enjoying his plant-based diet, Trent said, “Yes, actually. Because of this, I’ve been forced to try a lot of different foods simply to add variety in my diet and, along the way, I’ve found a lot of things that I enjoy eating. The biggest trick is to just liberally use spices. Amp up the spices and herbs in things and they become wonderfully tasty and rich.” I couldn’t agree more!
Trent reports that he’s more energetic on a plant based diet, has lost 10 lbs without trying, and that his family is saving $20 a week on their grocery bill.
One of the replies that I really liked:
“I’d like to repeat the request for recipes! Particularly the barley soup.
With regards to health: as a life-long vegetarian (ovo-lacto, never knowingly eaten meat), the *only* diet-related health problem I’ve had is a slight B12 deficiency, the rest of my vege family not even that. We don’t regularly take supplements, and all basically eat what we want, same as most other people.
Granted, it is purely anecdotal and others do have issues with a vege diet, but I just wanted to point out that it’s not necessarily ‘vegetarian = iron/protein/B12/whatever deficiency’, nor ‘vegetarian = obsessing about food/diet/whatever’.”
There were many requests for the barley soup recipe Trent mentioned. I helpfully volunteered one of our most popular recipes, Crockpot Barley Bean Veggie Soup
Tags: barley soup, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton video, Health Blog, health problems, plant based diet, vegetarian diet
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I occasionally read Trent’s blog - I am happy to hear he has given vegetarianism a try!