Say ‘Hello’ to a Healthy Lifestyle with Health Food Stores *SPONSORED* & My New Favourite Cookbook 'Deliciously Ella'

With heart disease and diabetes rates soaring, many of us are wondering what we can do to protect ourselves. While there are many medications that a doctor could prescribe, there are alternative ways to reduce your risk. 

One of the easiest, and yet hardest ways of doing so is by adopting a plant based diet. This is an easy step to take because it just involves food. It is difficult because it requires a commitment to changing the way you eat, and habits can be difficult to both create and break. 

There are many benefits of eating a plant based diet, including some that are not heart related. 

• Research indicates that adopting a plant based diet is extremely effective in preventing and treating type two diabetes.
• Hypertension can be brought under control with the adoption of this way of eating.
• Enormous amounts of research has shown that this way of eating goes a long way in preventing heart disease. In fact a recent study showed that people who eat eight or more servings daily of fruits and vegetables reduced their risk of developing heart disease by 30%.
• Have a trimmer figure by eating more plants. Vegetarians tend to eat fewer calories, and while you do not have to be vegetarian to embrace this diet, eating more plant based meals will automatically cut the amount of calories that you are eating.
• Plants are loaded with fiber, which prevents constipation, as well as lowering blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It also keeps you feeling fuller for lengthy periods of time which aids in weight loss.
• Fruits and vegetables that are brightly colored like kale and carrots are full of antioxidants that can delay or prevent macular degeneration, and may help improve vision.
• Animal products have saturated fats which can clog pores and contribute to an oily complexion. Plants contain many vitamins and nutrients that improve your skin, and give you a clearer and brighter glow.

With so many benefits it is hard to say no to this way of eating. Some people have a hard time transitioning to a plant centered diet, and do not want to give up many of the meals that they have grown accustomed to. 

To get the benefits of a plant based diet, realise that you do not have to give up the foods that you love completely. Most of the dishes that are popular in a typical western diet are filled with saturated fats and cholesterol. Think of them as feast foods, the foods that you eat for special occasions, such as birthdays. 

Another way to transition is to replace certain ingredients in dishes that you love with healthier alternatives. For example you could try making replacing the beef mince in a chilli with a mixture of beans, or the meat in your curry with vegetables such as potato and cauliflower.

Finding some health foods is difficult in a regular supermarket, so shopping at a health food stores online like Evergreen can really be helpful. For example, instead of having meat based gravy on your potatoes and carrots, try a great vegetarian version like Marigold's powdered vegetarian gravy. 

If you are adopting a plant based diet to treat conditions like heart disease, you could also try various herbal supplements which you can find at health food stores online. Evergreen stocks quite a few of these products, including ones with CoQ10, which is proven to help.  

There are also several books on the market that will give you even more information, with most being sold at a health food store online. I can whole-heartedly recommend food-blogger Ella Woodward's beautiful plant-based, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free hardback, full colour recipe book 'Deliciously Ella' currently priced at just £7.99 on Amazon.

Ella Woodward's new book 'Deliciously Ella'.

Ella embarked on her strict diet change after being diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome while at university, and suffering horrendous side effects from the illness. After trying conventional medicine, which didn't seem to help, she switched to this new plant-based diet and found it helped to eliminate most of her symptoms! She has never looked back and encourages her readers to embrace plant-based foods and cooking into their diets too, even if only on a small scale. 

Her book is not only full to bursting with exciting plant-based recipes such as sweet potato brownies, and key lime pie, but it also gives you all the information you need about buying, storing, cooking and enjoying plant-based foods and the health benefits you can expect. 

So far I have tried making her homemade almond butter, cacao & hazelnut spread, almond & chia balls, black and kidney bean chilli, and her potato and cauliflower curry - all of which have been so delicious and filling. Her recipes, and plant-based recipes in general are easy to fit in to a normal balanced diet, the changes you make to your eating don't need to be as drastic as going completely vegan, gluten free, or dairy free in order to reap the benefits. 

I'm excited to try more of Ella's recipes, and urge you to give them a try too! 

I'm starting to embrace more plant-based eating thanks to 'Deliciously Ella'! 

I will update you on how I'm getting on with more of Ella's plant-based recipes, and would love to hear from you if you are also giving them a try.

Here's to a happier, healthier and more exciting way of eating! 

Take control of your health by watching what you eat, because you are worth it.

Bye for now

Mrs B 

xxx

This post contains sponsored material and a sponsored link. I do wholeheartedly believe in adopting plant-based eating habits to improve health, and have been using the 'Deliciously Ella' book for a few weeks. I purchased the book myself after recommendations from online friends and combined the sponsored material for Evergreen with my own words.