In this documentary, the thing I found most interesting is a chart that shows three diagrams of the stomach. In three different scenarios, you can see what eating 500 calories of plant-based foods does to fill the stomach and to trigger receptors to let your brain know you’re full, compared to eating animal and dairy products that are calorie-rich but nutrition dense. That’s really what it’s all about. The reason that fruits and veggies are the superheros of the nutrition world is that they are jam-packed with vitamins, minerals, plant proteins, complex carbs, good fats, antioxidants…all with relatively low-calorie counts. Just for fun, I decided to see what a person could eat in one day for 1200 calories — the same number of calories as a McDonald’s Big Mac, fries and a coke. (Did you catch that? ONE lunch at McDonald’s is the equivalent of a full day’s worth of calories). Here is what you could do with 1200 calories instead:
- breakfast: 1 C rice milk, 1 C strawberries, 1 banana
- lunch: 4 oz. chicken, 1 C long grain brown rice, 1/2 C black beans, 4 T salsa
- snacks: 1 C apple, 1/2 oz. almonds, 4 oz. yogurt
- dinner: 4 oz. salmon, 1/2 sweet potato, 12 romaine leaves, 2 T salad dressing