More Than Meatless

How many of your clients or students say they follow a vegetarian or plant-based eating pattern – and think they’re eating healthfully – when in reality, they’re just consuming lots of non-meat processed foods?

Healthy plant-based and vegetarian eating patterns are about more than opting for the Impossible Burger with fries. To be healthy, this way of eating has to be centered on a variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains.

Teach your clients or students everything they need to know with our Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diet for Better Health PowerPoint show.

Who needs this presentation?

  • Students, from middle school through college, especially if they’ve decided to be vegetarian.
  • Adults, especially those who are newly diagnosed or hoping to prevent diet-related chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
  • Anyone who wants to eat more plants or try more meatless meals.

Items in our Plant-Based theme go well with the Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diet for Better Health PowerPoint show. You could put up posters (like the Plant Slant) or a bulletin board display featuring plant-based recipes that people can take with them (or they can take a picture with their cell phone).

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Have Some Fun with Plant Slant

There’s something about a rhyme that gets people’s attention. That’s why we love the catchy title of our newest materials for teaching the benefits of a plant-based diet—Plant Slant!

Plant Slant posters and banners use a colorful and simple illustration to proclaim the benefits of eating a plant-based dietary pattern with MORE vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds and LESS animal-based and processed foods.

Engage your audience by inviting them to come up with rhymes that go with the Plant Slant concept. Or put some blank sticky notes on the wall next to the Plant Slant poster and let passers-by write down their own rhymes. Who knows? You might get enough to put together your own Plant Slant Chant!

Here are some rhymes to get you started:

  • What can you eat instead of meat?
  • Please proceed to nuts and seeds.
  • Enjoy some soy, it’s not a ploy!
  • Meat’s okay, but can you skip a day?
  • Make a new routine with lentils and beans.
  • Add some fish if you wish!
  • Don’t be wary, you can have some dairy.

Let’s make nutrition education fun!

Plant Slant Category Is New

“Plant Slant,” a new category in our store, provides tools to help you educate your clients about a plant-based eating style. Plant Slant is a hot topic these days, because eating more plant foods (and less animal products) is good for your health and good for the environment. It doesn’t take a vegetarian or vegan diet to reap the benefits, making a Plant Slant an easy goal for everyone! MyPlate is based on 3/4 plants or more and a plant based eating pattern is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and it is the base of the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH diet. By teaching the idea of a “plant slant” you open a whole new world to your clients as well as a different way of seeing and appreciating healthful foods.

Our colorful Plant Slant poster shows these fun lessons that you can use with this poster or to plan any class on your own:

  1. Foods that make up a plant-based eating pattern include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds as well as foods made from these like vegetarian milk or vegetarian meat substitutes.
  2. How eating more plant foods benefits your whole body, from the brain to bones, and helps prevent diseases like cancer and diabetes. A plant based diet that is high in fiber and low in added solid fat, sugar, and sodium is healthier for your heart and helps you control your weight because you feel full on fewer calories.
  3. The environmental impact of eating more plant foods and less animal products is one of the most important changes anyone can make to have a smaller carbon footprint.
  4. How eating more plant foods is for everyone who wants to be healthier, not just vegetarians or vegans.
  5. How do you go about implementing a more plant based diet into your own routine right now?
  6. What are easy switches? Meal ideas?
  7. What are whole foods? (Whole foods are foods in their near natural state and do not include highly processed foods like white flour, sugar, or processed meats to mention just a few)
  8. What is plant based? (Plant based means foods that are made from plants versus items from animals like meat)
  9. MyPlate is 3/4 plants!
  10. While vegan excludes all animals, plant based is mostly plants and a little more flexible. It is healthy and easy!

Our eye-catching Freedom From Chronic Disease banners feature a veggie-filled Statue of Liberty raising her “torch” of fruits and vegetables. What better way to show the benefits of eating with a Plant Slant?

Use a plant slant theme for any class, wellness fair, classroom, cafeteria, or event!

Plants: Many Beneficial Parts Poster

The Plants: Many Beneficial Parts poster is a beautiful visual for plant-based eating. The message goes beyond “eat more fruits and vegetables” to bring a positive message about how there are so many colorful and abundant choices you have for fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. 

Use the poster to generate discussions like these:

  • The edible parts of vegetables are often wasted. You can eat the stems! And the leaves!
  • A cooking demo and taste test would be great for introducing many new plant foods listed on this poster. Items like salads or crudite platters require no cooking equipment while soups or smoothies provide a palatable way to introduce more plant foods to the picky eater. 
  • Each part of the plant provides different nutrients, tastes, and textures. What’s an example of a tuber? A root? What nutrients do they provide? This will reinforce why eating a wide variety of plant foods is important. Use these tips from Lisa Andrews, MEd, RD, LD.
  • Moving toward a plant-based eating pattern might mean venturing into unfamiliar territory. Start out by asking people to name each item on the poster. What are those fruits on the top right, below the tomatoes and apple? What kind of nuts are those on the top left? Which of these foods have you tried? Do you like them? Brainstorm different ways of preparing some of the foods pictured on the poster.

 

 

Get A Plant Slant

The Plant Slant Poster is new! The idea is to show the benefits of a more plant-based diet so everyone can think about how their diet can help them achieve a more optimal health status. You do not have to be on a diet or be vegetarian or vegan to slant your eating towards plants!

And plans benefit 9 different health points from vision to digestion to weight control to the avoidance of chronic diseases. 

 

This colorful poster proclaims the benefits of eating a plant-based dietary pattern with MORE vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds and LESS animal-based and processed foods. According to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, this eating pattern is more health promoting and has a lower impact on the environment.

The image of two positive, active bodies made up of brightly colored plant foods catches the eye. Just a quick glance at the poster shows how a plant-based eating pattern is better for the whole body (bones, brain, heart, eyes, digestive system) and influences body weight and the risk for chronic diseases like heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes.

The vibrant graphics encourage individuals to linger long enough to read that eating more plant-based foods is better for the environment. From vegans to lactovegetarians and flexitarians, there are different ways to enjoy a plant-based eating pattern.

 Lessons from The Plant Slant poster:

  • A dietary pattern that is higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based and processed foods promotes the health of your whole body.
  • Plant-based foods include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
  • Eating a plant-based diet supports sustainability of the environment.
  • The definition of a plant-based eating pattern is broad. You can choose to include some animal-based foods (flexitarian and lactovegetarian) or avoid them altogether (vegan).

Check out our entire plant slant promotion collection!