How to Change to Plant-Based Diet Without Going Vegan

You don’t have to become a strict vegan to reap the health benefits of a plant-based diet. You just need to focus on removing or limiting animal-derived foods.

For example, a great starting place for healthier plant-based diet is to make sure that two-thirds of every meal or plate or overall daily food intake is composed of plant-based foods. Fill your plate with veggies and fruit, leaving just a small spot for animal-based foods.

Make sure you diversify – plant-based foods aren’t just leafy greens and salads. They include a long list of legumes, beans, whole grains, seeds, nuts and tofu, in addition to fruits and vegetables. You also don’t have to give up animal protein entirely. A variety of plant-based food diets allow you to have occasional meat, fish and dairy

An enjoyable key to success in pursuing a plant-based diet is expanding your horizons when it comes to food choices.  Yes, broccoli, sweet corn, peas and spinach are great choices for their overall nutritional benefits, but so are daikon (a type of radish), fiddleheads, sunchoke, kohlrabi, Romanesco, watermelon radish, Chioggia beets, chayote, celeriac, leeks, fennel, puntarelle, jicama, sorrel and yuca, available at many big brand grocery chains or specialty produce markets.

The same goes for apples, oranges, melons and bananas. To help prevent fruit fatigue, try incorporating kiwi, guava, mangosteens, passion fruit, cherimoyas, dragon fruit, horned melons, Asian pears, persimmons, pineapple quince and gold berries.

There are lots of different whole grains beyond brown rice and different legumes and beans beyond pintos and frijoles. Try wheat berries, farro, millet and quinoa, cannellini beans and black-eyed peas.

You can also get creative with plant-based condiments to flavor-up your foods, such as sriracha, curry paste and flavored vinegars. Try different herbs and spices, too: from achiote, borage and chervil to saffron, sassafras, tarragon and za’atar.

The list of plant-based foods is long and increasingly available in stores or online to U.S. consumers embracing a plant-based diet. Proof is in the plant-based pudding: according to the latest annual 2023 Plant-Based Foods State of the Marketplace Report, retail sales of plant-based foods grew five times faster than total food sales.

A great tip for taking advantage of the expansive variety of available fruits and vegetables is to aim for 20 to 30 different types in your diet each week. If variety is the spice of life, then make your plant-based diet spicy!