The Advantages of Plant-Based Protein

If there’s one thing that most humans are probably not getting enough of in their diet, it’s protein. Protein helps your body in so many different ways from keeping your appetite under control to repairing your body after injuries to building muscle.

It’s essential, and you need to consume quite a bit of it every single day to ensure that you can maintain the health benefits that it provides. Not everyone realizes how important it is, and there is also a lot of misinformation out there in regards to what foods provide it.

We think protein and our mind jumps to bodybuilders and people who have a very keen understanding of fitness, who eat an awful lot of red meat. Protein has become synonymous with meat.

And many people genuinely believe that vegetarians and vegans, or just those who don’t particularly like eating a lot of meat will not be getting enough protein and that’s just not the case.

You can of course get your protein from meat, eggs, cheese and other animal-based products, but you can also get it from plant-based sources too. Lentils, nuts, oats, a wide variety of different kinds of nuts, there are many avenues for plant-based protein.

And there are some distinct advantages to this option. Let’s take a look at some of them:

It’s Good for Your Gut

The health of your gut influences basically everything else about your body. This is where your immune system grows and strengthens and so if you don’t take care of your gut, you are likely to get sick more often.

Recent studies also suggest that gut health is very strongly linked to mood, and those with an unhealthy gut are more susceptible to anxiety and depression as well as a variety of different mood disorders. 

The best way to ensure that you have a strong gut is to encourage microbiome diversity down there, and plants are a more effective way to do that. A plant-based diet encourages less disease-carrying organisms that meat does, which will ensure variety while also keeping inflammation down.

So the kind of results you can expect to see from this are improved mood, and being more able to avoid and recover from colds more easily. 

It’s Better For Your Heart

Eating a lot of meat is a big contributor to the likelihood of heart disease. Meat is generally quite high in saturated fats which can lead to things like high cholesterol, obesity and hypertension, which are all devastating for your heart.

Replacing meat with plants will reduce the possibility of all of these things. In addition to being low in saturated fats, plants tend to be a good source of antioxidants known as polyphenols, which can protect not just against heart disease, but also against cancer too.

Increasing the amount of protein in your diet will ultimately be an irrelevant change if in the process you open yourself up to the risk of heart disease, and so aiming for plant-based protein is your best course of action in that regard.

It’s Easily Absorbed

Plants are just significantly easier to absorb than meat is for most people. Of course, you can have a food allergy to pretty much anything, but more commonly you can expect it from different types of meat.

Bloating and constipation are common too, alongside slowing down of the metabolism and just some general digestive difficulties. Plants are much less likely to cause these kinds of problems, and are generally much more bioavailable.

You can expect the plant-based protein to be absorbed more quickly and with a lot less difficulty, and this also makes it perfect if you are trying to build muscle. You can rely on plant-based protein being absorbed into your system to help rebuild muscle whereas you may struggle with meat.

Taking a plant-based protein supplement directly before or after a workout will work wonders for results. 

It Helps With Weight Loss

A lot of people find themselves losing weight when they switch to a plant-based diet. There’s a few reasons why plants are so helpful in this regard. First and foremost, as we discussed earlier, they just have a lower fat content than meat does. 

There is also the fact that you generally will feel full for longer after consuming plant-based protein, and so you will be less likely to snack and you will also probably eat less calories in your next meal.

The reason why you tend to feel satisfied for longer probably has a lot to do with the fiber-content present in plants. Fiber will generally curb cravings and there is an awful lot of natural fiber to be found in plants.

As you can see, protein is a necessity and there are many, many benefits to opting for plant-based protein over animal-based protein. If you make this change, you will feel better, get sick less often and there’s a good chance it will extend your lifespan too.