Food is dull WHEN? When it’s part of a diet! In an effort to lead healthier lives, many people are choosing to move away from eating convenient yet heavily processed foods that are full of fat and refined carbohydrates and toward a way of eating that’s more plant-based and deliberate. In fact, some individuals adjust their diets to cut out whole groups of foods entirely; eventually, it ceases to be a diet and becomes a lifestyle.
Four of the most popular lifestyle diets these days are paleo, vegetarian, vegan and raw. Here’s a brief rundown of each of these four ways of eating.
The paleo diet is a way of eating that is reminiscent of how humans ate during the Paleolithic age, more precisely 12 000 years ago, — how humans are supposed to eat, its followers say. Individuals following a paleo diet avoid grains, dairy products, beans, and, of course, processed foods, and instead eat meats, vegetables, and fruits. Meat is often grass fed, and produce is often organic.
A popular way of eating for decades, a vegetarian diet is one that eliminates all meat products and, in its strictest form, all fish products as well. Vegetarians rely on foods like beans and pulses for protein, and they usually do consume animal products like eggs and cheese, along with fruits and, of course, vegetables. Vegetarians may choose to cut out meat products for both health and moral reasons, and a vegetarian diet is sometimes the gateway to a more radical way of eating, such as the next two described here.
Vegans take their vegetarianism to a more extreme level, as they eschew all animal products. They don’t eat meat, eggs, dairy products, honey, or anything that requires an animal for its existence. Even things like leather shoes and products tested on animals are verboten. Instead, veganism is an entirely plant-based diet and lifestyle that has zero reliance on animals for sustenance.
Just as the name suggests, individuals on a raw diet don’t cook their food. Raw foodists typically rely on fruits and vegetables and not much else, though some individuals on a raw diet do consume raw meat, eggs, and dairy products. The viewpoint is, eating live food is more beneficial than eating dead or cooked food, due to the increased presence of vitamins and nutrients in non-cooked food.
Which of these four diets is best? Well, it all depends on your preferences, goals, and personal moral compass. While nutritionists may not agree on which diet is the superior one, they can agree that they are all better than continuing to eat all the processed food in the appropriately acronym SAD, or standard American diet.
Whether you follow a vegetarian, vegan, raw, or paleo diet, you’ll be doing quite a lot more food preparation at home. Specifically, you’ll be slicing and dicing a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables, and that means you’ll need a high quality wood cutting board. Let us help you find success with whatever diet you follow.