The plant-based diet has been around for over 2000 years, one of the earliest records of vegetarianism was from the Jain population in India in 500 BCE. This is a practice in many cultures and religions now, mostly due to the ethical implications of consuming meat products. Recent studies have shown there are many other environmental and health benefits associated with consuming a plant-based diet.
Researchers at Harvard recently published an article with our MASALA Study data that determined the impact of both a healthful and an unhealthful plant-based diets on disease risk. They measured the PDI (plant-based diet index), HPDI (healthful plant-based diet index), and UPDI (unhealthful plant based diet index) for each participant and analyzed the effect on fasting glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, low density cholesterol levels, weight, BMI (body mass index), hemoglobin A1C levels, fatty liver, and future risk of developing diabetes. The best results were seen in participants with high HPDI levels. This means people who consume lots of food like fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, daal, or beans. Some examples of unhealthy plant foods are fruit juices, refined grains, potatoes, sugar sweetened beverages, and other sweets and desserts. People who ate a healthy, plant-based diets were likely to have lower fasting glucose, less insulin sensitivity, lower cholesterol levels, lower weight, lower BMI, less fatty liver, and lower hemoglobin A1C levels. Moreover, these individuals were less likely to develop diabetes after 5 years of follow-up. These results show that chronic disease risk can be lowered significantly by simply eating a healthy plant-based diet.