Lots of Plant-Based foods like fruits and vegetables

Ways to Make Your Diet More Plant-Forward

Plant-Based Diets have recently gained a lot more attention. Whether choosing more plants for sustainability, avoiding harming animals or your health eating more plants is becoming more commonplace. There are studies that show plant-forward diets reduce the risk of progression of kidney disease. (1) There are no studies as of now specifically evaluating a plant-forward eating pattern in IgA. Even without the research in IgA, plant-forward eating pattern to promote health. This article reviews ways you can make your diet more plant-forward. 

Table of Contents

Small Incremental Changes

Many people grow up thinking about what meat goes on their plates first. We often build our entire meal around the meat selection. Changing our focus from meat to plant overnight can be too overwhelming for most people. That is ok. Start small and try and stay consistent. 

Consider small steps like adding a fruit at breakfast or a meat free day of the week; like meatless Monday.  

One Meal a Day

As you build confidence and consistency, making one meal per day without animal products is another way to make your overall eating pattern more plant forward. Generally, plant-forward meals can help to reduce your overall protein intake, acid load and add more fiber to your day. 

Example of plate forward meals are:

Build a Balanced Plate

Regardless of if your plate contains meat or not, you want to make sure the majority of the real estate on your plate is veggies and fruit. Aim for 50 percent of your plate to be veggies or fruit, 25 percent protein and 25 percent whole grains. 

Add Veggies and Fruits as Snacks

Simply having vegetables and fruits readily available for snacks can help your diet easily become more plant forward. 

Examples of quick plant snacks on the go include:

  • Apple
  • Baby carrots
  • Snap peas
  • Clementine
  • Unsalted nuts

Embrace Plant-Based Proteins

Protein is important for everyone’s diet regardless of kidney disease or not. A plant forward diet does not mean for you to avoid protein. Beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, nut/seedbutters, tofu, tempeh, whole grains like quinoa, all contain protein and should be included in your meals. If these foods are new for you; start with the one most familiar and add it to your plate a couple times a week. Then continue to slowly add other new foods. 

Get Inspired

When embracing change of any kind your mindset makes a big difference. Look for recipes that you want to make. Do not settle for recipes that “are healthy” but you know you actually do not want to eat. You will find some new recipes are great and some are not. This is ok and expected. Stay curious and you will find some really delicious new choices. 

Conclusion

Starting a new journey, whether it be food or health, can be overwhelming. Starting slow, having an open mindset, and being consistent will help you add more plants to your diet over time. If you want more support in your kidney journey, consider joining us at the IgAN Foundation. 

References:

  1. Kalantar-Zadeh K, Joshi S, Schlueter R, Cooke J, Brown-Tortorici A, Donnelly M, Schulman S, Lau WL, Rhee CM, Streja E, Tantisattamo E, Ferrey AJ, Hanna R, Chen JLT, Malik S, Nguyen DV, Crowley ST, Kovesdy CP. Plant-Dominant Low-Protein Diet for Conservative Management of Chronic Kidney Disease. Nutrients. 2020 Jun 29;12(7):1931. doi: 10.3390/nu12071931. PMID: 32610641; PMCID: PMC7400005.
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