Have You Heard of The Flexitarian Diet? This diet is essentially a flexible alternative to being a vegetarian. You focus on fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, legumes, and nuts while significantly reducing meat intake. This eating pattern is affordable, and animal protein and ultra-processed foods are expensive. Frozen vegetables, seasonal fruits, canned beans, and whole grains are budget-friendly. And this minimally-restrictive diet is something you can follow for life. You can still enjoy dining out, eating with friends, and celebrating special occasions without feeling guilty.
Eight Steps to Increased Flexibility and Better Health
- Eat lots of vegetables. You can count those in casseroles, soups, sauces (like marinara), and condiments (like salsa) toward your daily goal of at least five servings. Enjoy raw, roasted, grilled, or sautéed vegetables in salads, soups, and sides. I’m a big fan of frozen vegetables.
- Switch to whole grains. Farro and quinoa are ancient protein-rich whole grains that cook quickly, and bulger is another quick-cooking option. Rethink old-fashioned oats. You can find recipes for savory dishes on the Quaker Oats website
- Pump up the pulses. Cooked beans, lentils, garbanzo beans, and split peas are protein-rich. Organic canned beans are low in sodium, inexpensive and convenient.
- Add mushrooms. All cooked mushroom varieties are nutrient-dense and make your taste buds think you are eating meat. Try replacing half of the ground meat in burgers with finely chopped mushrooms you cooked and cooled.
- Replace meat with omega-3-rich seafood twice a week and fish or shellfish as often as you like. Salmon, sardines, rainbow trout, and barramundi are available in most markets and are excellent sources of healthy fats. Shrimp and scallops are mild in flavor and can be stir-fried with various vegetables.
- Make meat a supporting star. Let animal protein support the star characters: vegetables, beans, and whole grains. When you choose an animal-derived protein, devote just a quarter of your plate to this choice. Instead of eating meat at lunch and dinner, make one a meatless meal. Ditch the bacon, ham, and sausage at breakfast in favor of vegetables and mushrooms. The Cleveland Clinic website explains that making your diet less meat-centric can be done in stages. Check out https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-the-flexitarian-diet/.
- Include probiotic-rich dairy products. Unsweetened yogurt, kefir, and cultured cottage cheese are good protein sources and provide active cultures that improve gut health for most people. Nondairy sources of probiotics include Lacto-fermented cabbage, beets, tempeh, and miso.
- Chew the fat. Nuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, olives, and avocados are all protein sources, nuts add crunch and interest to vegetarian dishes, and avocados can replace less healthy fat sources.
Here are Some Meal Ideas to Inspire You
Breakfast
- Option #1: Top plain yogurt with fruit (fresh or frozen), old-fashioned toasted oats, nuts, and a drizzle of honey.
- Option #2: Prepare an egg (any way you like) and add a piece of whole grain toast and a side of sliced avocado and cherry tomatoes.
Lunch
- Option #1: Combine leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, arugula, and romaine lettuce, with raw or cooked vegetables, cooked lentils or beans, nuts or seeds, and Wild Brine sauerkraut, and lemon vinaigrette for a hearty plant-based bowl.
- Option #2: Reheat a leftover soup or stew made with beans or lentils, vegetables, greens, herbs, and stock, and add a side of crusty bread. Alternatively, open a can of Amy’s Light in Sodium lentil soup, and serve with multigrain Wasa crackers and some cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, or snap peas.
Dinner
- Option #1: Roast a piece of fish along with some vegetables. Add a baked sweet potato and a yogurt tahini sauce as a topping option.
- Option #2: Combine cooked whole grain pasta, drained canned beans, fresh diced tomatoes, and pesto. Serve with a vegetable salad.
Tim Steller's column: Tucson's biggest homeless camp faces upcoming clear-out
