Inflammation is a protective response of the body to clear infections, repair tissues, and heal itself after injury. But when inflammation sticks around too long and becomes chronic, it can negatively impact your health. Read on for more information about inflammation and how dietary changes can help.

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is a protective response of the body to clear infections, repair tissues, and heal itself after injury. Signs of inflammation include redness and warmth from increased blood flow; swelling from increased blood vessel permeability; pain; and loss of function. A common example of inflammation occurs after spraining an ankle. When injured, the ankle may swell up and become red, warm, and painful. The inflammatory process is necessary for efficient healing and restoration of function.

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Types of Inflammation

Inflammation can be divided into two broad categories: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is characterized by rapid onset and resolution, such as a sprained ankle or strep throat. For example, when you get strep throat, one of the first responses of the body is acute inflammation. Inflammatory mediators in the body promote increased blood flow and vessel permeability, which helps get specialized immune cells to the infection site. As the body clears the infection, the inflammation subsides.

Chronic inflammation is more persistent, lasting several weeks, months, or even years. Chronic inflammation can follow acute inflammation, such as when infections are difficult to clear, or it can develop slowly over time. This smoldering inflammatory process is what we see in many chronic diseases, such as atherosclerosis or some autoimmune conditions. If inflammation sticks around for too long, it can cause damage to the body, scarring of tissues, chronic pain, and overall dysfunction.

The Causes of Inflammation

Inflammation has a number of causes: infectious agents, such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites; tissue injury and damage; disease processes, such as autoimmune conditions; and toxins and pollutants, such as alcohol, tobacco products, medications, and air pollution.

What Does Inflammation Have to Do with Diet?

Inflammation is at the root of many chronic diseases, and diet plays an important role in this process. In a 2013 systematic review of 46 individual studies, German researchers looked at blood levels of an inflammation marker called C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is often used by doctors to get a sense of inflammation levels in the body and to help determine the risk of cardiovascular problems, such as a heart attack. The researchers found that CRP was consistently elevated in meat-based “Western” patterns of eating and decreased in diets rich in fruits and vegetables. In a 2015 interventional study published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine, researchers put over 600 people on a whole-food, plant-based diet and saw CRP levels plummet, along with total cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI.

Taken together, the studies suggest eating a healthy diet can reduce inflammation in the body. But the question remains: Does a plant-based diet directly reduce inflammation, or does eating plants just not inflame the body in the first place? The answer might be both. Whole plant foods are loaded with phytonutrients, many of which have anti-inflammatory properties and may help the body to heal more quickly and put the brakes on inflammation. However, plant-based diets also lack or are low in many inflammatory triggers. Animal products contain high amounts of fat, a likely cause of inflammation. However, plant foods are low in fat, so eating these foods doesn’t cause a huge inflammatory response. Plant-based diets are also lower in toxins such as industrial pollutants, which would otherwise cause damage to tissues in the body and trigger inflammation. Lastly, plant-based diets have a low bacterial load. Many bacteria produce toxins called lipopolysaccharides that get released when the bacterium dies. Animal products are a breeding ground for bacteria and their pro-inflammatory bacterial toxins. By choosing plants, we reduce the amount of bacteria, pollutants, and other pro-inflammatory components in our diet, and can, therefore, avoid the reactive inflammatory response that is so characteristic of animal-based foods.

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

This article was originally published on Nov. 27, 2018, and has been updated.

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Poor diet has been identified as one of the top actual causes of death in the United States time and again. But poor diet doesn’t just cause premature death; it causes years and decades of chronic disease leading up to death, which limits our ability to live a vibrant, pleasurable life. Arthritis represents just one way disease can limit our quality of life. It is a manifestation of countless diseases, many of which are caused in part by poor diet.

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis refers to painful inflammation of joints. There are many types of arthritis: some acute and fleeting with no long-term consequences, some chronic and causing decades of crippling pain and immobility. Below is a discussion of three common types of arthritis and how diet may play a role in the disease process.

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Common Types of Arthritis

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a type of chronic arthritis characterized by inflammation and degeneration of the joint. It is often referred to as a “wear and tear” disease of the joint due to a lifetime of use; however, research has shown that osteoarthritis is not simply a disease of aging. Risk factors that we can control, such as poor biomechanics, muscle weakness, and obesity, play a large role in the disease process. Diet also plays a role.

In a study published in 2015 in the journal Arthritis, researchers investigated the effect of a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet on osteoarthritis. They conducted a randomized controlled trial, meaning they randomly assigned participants with osteoarthritis to a WFPB diet and compared them with participants who continued their usual omnivorous diet. Within two weeks, participants eating the WFPB diet reported a significant reduction in pain and improved functioning compared with the control group. 

Another study of a larger group of people found similarly promising results. The 2006 study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, found that eating meat just once per week (compared with eating no meat) was associated with an increased risk of osteoarthritis by 31 percent in women and 19 percent in men. Meat consumption more than once per week was associated with a 49 percent increased risk in women and 43 percent in men.

In another large study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, researchers used data from two large cohorts to examine the association between fiber—a nutrient exclusively found in plant foods—and risk of knee osteoarthritis. Those who consumed the highest amounts of fiber had a 30 percent lower risk of knee osteoarthritis in one cohort, and a 61 percent lower risk in the other cohort.

Although not completely understood, the effect of a healthy diet on osteoarthritis may be mediated through reduced inflammation and promotion of healthy body weight. Overweight and obese individuals are over twice as likely to develop osteoarthritis compared to normal weight individuals, and even minimal weight loss can substantially reduce that risk. Because plant-based diets are associated with lower body weight and with weight reduction, this may make them powerful tools in the treatment or prevention of osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease. The immune system normally recognizes self from non-self as a way of defending the body against foreign invaders (e.g., bacteria, parasites). In autoimmune disease, the immune system maladaptively attacks certain parts of the body. In the case of RA, the target is synovium, a tissue that lines the inner surface of joints. This leads to a chronic inflammatory response that deforms joints and surrounding tissues. Certain factors increase the risk of developing RA, including genetic factors, smoking, and obesity.

Although data is limited on the topic, a few studies have shown diet may play a role in the prevention and treatment of RA. In a 2003 study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, researchers randomized participants with rheumatoid arthritis to a Mediterranean diet—which emphasized fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts—or to continue their normal diet. After 12 weeks, the Mediterranean diet group showed decreased disease activity, had fewer swollen joints, and had less pain compared with those who did not make the dietary changes.

In a different randomized controlled trial published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers tested the effect of fasting for 7 to 10 days followed by a vegan diet for 3.5 months in patients with RA. After one month of intervention, the vegan diet group had decreased pain, less morning stiffness, and fewer tender and swollen joints compared with the omnivorous group.

Although these results are promising, larger studies are needed to validate their findings and further elucidate the effect of plant-based diets on RA.

Gouty Arthritis

Gout is an inflammatory disease caused by urate crystals depositing in various tissues of the body, especially joints. Uric acid is a breakdown product of compounds called purines, which are found in high concentrations in meat, seafood, and alcohol. At high levels in the body and under certain circumstances, uric acid can form crystals that trigger a painful inflammatory response. Due to differences in purine content among foods and its role in the disease process, extensive research has been done on the effect of diet on gout risk.

A study published this year in Clinical Nutrition included two cohorts totaling 13,935 people followed for over eight years on average. The authors investigated the effect of a vegetarian diet on the incidence of gout and found that those eating a vegetarian diet were a third as likely to suffer from gout compared with non-vegetarians, even after accounting for differences in other risk factors (e.g., age, smoking, alcohol use) in their statistical model. 

A large study published in 2004 in the New England Journal of Medicine followed 47,150 men over a period of 12 years and compared meat consumption between men who developed gout with those who remained healthy. They found that those eating the highest amount of meat and seafood were, respectively, 41 percent and 51 percent more likely to develop gout than those eating the least amount of meat and seafood. Interestingly, they found that high purine vegetables were not associated with an increased risk of gout.

Diet and Arthritis: the Big Picture

Although further research is needed to better understand the effect of plant-based diets on the various types of arthritis, I have a hunch that nature was consistent in its design: that the diet that benefits our hardened arteries, insulin resistance, elevated blood pressure, painful menses, erectile dysfunction, ischemic hearts, distressed psychology, and diseased kidneys, is very likely to also benefit our inflamed joints.

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In my experience, most medical students either vastly underestimate the health-promoting potential of plant-based nutrition or believe nutrition misinformation and misleading claims. Although the following studies don’t entirely fill the nutrition void in most medical education programs, they demonstrate the value of whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition in clinical practice.

1. A Way to Reverse Coronary Artery Disease
In this 2014 prospective cohort study, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, and his team put 198 patients with cardiovascular disease on a WFPB diet. The researchers were interested in cardiac events and the degree of adherence to the nutritional intervention. Of the 198 participants, 177 were adherent (89 percent) and 21 were non-adherent (11 percent).

Over a mean duration of 3.7 years, 13 of the 21 non-adherent patients experienced cardiac events, while only one of the 177 diet-adherent patients experienced a cardiac event (stroke). The results “confirm[ed] the capacity of WFPB nutrition to restore health in ‘there is nothing further we can do’ situations,” the study authors wrote. Researchers included a before-and-after arteriogram (right) of one participant’s coronary artery showing clear stenotic reversal.

2. The Lifestyle Heart Trial
In this trial, lifestyle medicine pioneer Dean Ornish, MD, and his team randomized 48 participants with coronary heart disease to either an intensive lifestyle change group (including a WFPB diet) or a usual-care control group. After five years, the lifestyle change group saw a significant reversal of coronary atherosclerosis, while the usual-care group saw a progression of their disease. Eighty-two percent of patients who followed the lifestyle change program had some level of regression of atherosclerosis, and there was a 90 percent reduction in reported angina during the first month of the program. Compared to the usual-care group, the lifestyle change group saw significantly fewer cardiac events and a 400 percent improvement in myocardial perfusion over the five-year follow-up period. Because the program helped patients safely avoid revascularization and other cardiac procedures, the calculated net savings of the program was nearly $30,000 per patient after just one year.

3. Treating Type 2 Diabetes
In this 74-week trial, Neal Barnard, MD, and his research team randomized 99 participants with type 2 diabetes to a low-fat, vegan diet or a diet following American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. They found the low-fat, vegan diet to be significantly more effective than the ADA dietary guidelines at achieving glycemic control. After controlling for changes in medication, compared to the conventional group, the vegan group saw significantly greater reductions in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values and LDL-cholesterol. The same group of researchers also found that patient adherence and acceptability of the low-fat, vegan diet protocol were comparable to conventional nutrition protocols, indicating no barrier to its use in medical nutrition therapy.

4. Lifestyle Versus Genetics
With genomics research and the age of personalized medicine on the horizon, the medical profession is looking for more answers and more advanced treatments for our ailments. However, to most effectively prevent and reverse disease, current research suggests we ground our hope in lifestyle medicine. In this special viewpoint in Science, Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, discusses what we know about the relative importance of genetic and lifestyle factors for disease prevention. Of note, large cohorts have shown that while our genes play only a tiny role in predicting disease, modest changes in lifestyle—including diet—may prevent more than 90 percent of type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of coronary heart disease, and 70 percent of colon cancer.

5. Sick Individuals and Sick Populations
In a landmark 2001 paper published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, Geoffrey Rose, MD, helps explain why nutrition studies often underestimate the role of diet in disease: because they can’t detect homogenous exposures. As an example, Dr. Rose uses serum cholesterol and development of heart disease. If we conduct an observational study in a population where almost everyone has high serum cholesterol, we will fail to detect serum cholesterol as an important risk factor for heart disease. Instead, we will pick up what makes individuals more susceptible to heart disease given high serum cholesterol status, such as genetic or other lifestyle factors. The same is true in nutrition studies. Most of them fail to detect nutritional risk factors in health outcomes because the Standard American Diet is nearly ubiquitous. Only in sufficiently large studies or studies that include relatively strict interventions (e.g., a WFPB diet) do we begin to see the profound effect nutrition has on health.

6. Water Fasting and Plant-Based Eating for Hypertension
In this single-arm, interventional study, 174 patients with hypertension did an average 10- or 11-day, water-only fast followed by a six- or seven-day WFPB refeeding period with no added sugar, oil, or salt. Almost 90 percent of patients achieved blood pressure less than 140/90 mmHG, and those with the most severe hypertension had an average reduction in blood pressure of 60/17 mmHg. All patients on blood pressure medications were off those medications by the end of the protocol. This treatment protocol shows water-only fasting and subsequent WFPB diet is a safe and highly effective treatment for hypertension. Notably, blood pressure continued to decrease during the refeeding period, suggesting the sustainability of this intervention in normalizing blood pressure.

7. Lifestyle Changes and Progression of Prostate Cancer
In this trial, 97 men with prostate cancer were randomized to an intensive lifestyle change group (including a WFPB diet) or a usual care control group. After a year, the lifestyle group serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentration, one of the most useful indicators of prostate cancer, had decreased an average of 4 percent, while average PSA levels in the usual care group increased 6 percent. Furthermore, serum taken from participants in the lifestyle group was almost eight times as powerful at inhibiting the growth of prostatic cancer cells in vitro compared to the usual care group. The researchers found a dose-response relationship: the degree of adherence to the recommended lifestyle changes was correlated with the changes in serum PSA and cancer cell growth inhibition.

8. The Adventist Health Studies
These studies include large prospective cohort studies on Seventh-Day Adventists, a population with an unusually high proportion of strict vegetarians in an otherwise homogenous group. These studies have produced some remarkable findings: Compared to nonvegetarian diets, vegan diets were associated with half the risk of type 2 diabetes and about 7-point lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, after controlling for relevant variables including BMI. This suggests that veganism was protective for these conditions beyond its association with lower body mass. Furthermore, compared to nonvegetarians, vegans had significantly fewer chronic diseases, were on fewer medications, had fewer allergies, and reported less health service use (hospitalizations, surgeries, etc.).

Evidence is Mounting
Although these studies are compelling, medical students know to look for consistency in the literature. Rest assured, hundreds of systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide evidence for even the most skeptical medical students and physicians. From lowering blood cholesterol, body weight, and inflammation to protecting against heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have consistently shown the benefits of plant-based nutrition.

Plant-Based Resources for Medical Students and Physicians
There are many resources available online to learn more. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the professional medical association devoted to the cause of lifestyle medicine and helps address the need for education and certification in the field. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine provides great resources for physicians interested in making nutrition central to their practice. The T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies partnered with eCornell to offer a Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate that will help you gain a deeper understanding of optimal health, and even counts for continuing education credits. Lastly, PlantBasedResearch.org is an online narrative review of over 700 peer-reviewed research articles related to plant-based nutrition. The site allows users to search and sort by research topic, study design, keywords, or other variables.

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It is an important problem in our health care system that doctors, nurses, and other health professionals lack the training and confidence to give sound nutrition advice to their patients. Several studies have found that a majority of doctors rate their nutrition knowledge as “inadequate,” and that they lack the training and confidence to counsel their patients on appropriate nutrition.^1-3 In fact, one study even found that “misinformation and misconceptions” regarding nutrition and lifestyle modification are “rife” among health professionals.⁴

Lack of Nutrition Education in Medical Schools

One study found that U.S. medical students receive an average of only 19.6 hours of nutrition instruction during their medical school careers.³ In 2010, only 28 of the 105 surveyed medical schools met the minimum 25 required hours set by the National Academy of Sciences, a downward trend from the 40 medical schools that met the minimum in 2004.

This is a serious problem because doctors are the gatekeepers of dietary-related advice. When doctors themselves don’t learn nutritional and lifestyle approaches for disease prevention, their patients don’t either. A whole-food, plant-based diet is a cost-effective, safe, and powerful intervention that has been shown to prevent, suspend, and even reverse several chronic diseases and other ailments. Despite the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence in support of this diet, as well as managed care organizations like Kaiser Permanente advising doctors to recommend a plant-based diet to all their patients, most doctors don’t even know what it is.

Simple lifestyle modifications—including diet—may prevent more than 90 percent of type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of coronary heart disease, 70 percent of stroke, and 70 percent of colon cancer.⁵

Some findings even suggest that diet alone can reverse heart disease and type 2 diabetes, prevent several types of cancers and kidney stones, protect against Alzheimer’s disease and high cholesterol, slow cellular aging, and have positive effects on acne, allergies, IQ, gut microbiota, mood, oral health, and arthritis. The burden of chronic disease on the economy and health care spending cannot be understated: 86 percent of health care spending—over $2 trillion—in 2010 was for people with one or more chronic medical conditions.⁶

When doctors do understand the power of plant-based nutrition, the impact they can have is significant. Without this bridge, information remains confined to scholarly journals, nutrition researchers, and health care providers who go out of their way to educate themselves about the power of food in medicine. This is where the Plantrician Project comes in.

Plantrician Project: Bridging the Nutrition Gap

Founded in 2012, the Plantrician Project aims to create a health care system that fully integrates plant-based nutritional medicine by educating physicians and other health care professionals about the power of a whole-food, plant-based dietary lifestyle. In just the past few years, the Plantrician Project has already made positive changes to the health care environment across the globe.

Susan Benigas, one of the Project’s founders, was previously the president of a corporate wellness company. So she had a lot of experience working with physicians, and she knew the whole-food message would spread faster if the health care community was educated about it. “Individuals can read books, articles, and documentaries to make lifestyle and diet changes,” she says. “But if their doctor says otherwise, then they might pause or stop because they are scared. The physicians are the gatekeepers of dietary and lifestyle recommendations.”

The mission of the Plantrician Project is to develop education and resources to support, educate, and empower clinicians. One way to further this mission was the creation of a conference that offers continuing medical education credits for physicians, nurses, and dieticians. Dr. Scott Stoll, the Project’s chief medical officer and one of its founders, saw the need to educate physicians firsthand through his own work in regenerative medicine. “I saw that there was no good location or conference for doctors to learn the information they needed to start teaching their patients to utilize food as medicine,” he says.

Launching the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference

Together with co-founders Tom Donnam and Benigas, Stoll launched the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference (PBNHC) in October 2013. The inaugural conference took place in Naples, Florida, attracting 220 researchers, students, physicians, and other health professionals from six different countries. Between deliciously prepared and nutritious plant-based meals, the conference aims to educate physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals about the science behind plant-based nutrition, cooking techniques, changing health behaviors in patients, and everyday ideas for your practice.

Benigas calls the response to the conferences “tremendous,” and says the physicians are enthusiastic about the evidence-based approach and truly health-promoting agenda of the presentations.

Stoll says one of the best things is hearing the enthusiasm from physicians just starting to use nutrition as medicine. The times have definitely changed, he notes. “Just 10 years ago, I would talk to colleagues and get strange looks when I would talk about reversing disease with food. Now the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] have said that over 80 percent of the cost of health care in America today is related to lifestyle diseases,” he says. “So doctors are paying more attention and are looking for ways to address the fundamental causes of disease.”

The success of the conference was almost instantaneous. The Plantrician Project is currently gearing up for the fourth annual PBNHC to take place in Anaheim, California, from September 21 to 24, 2016.

The Impact on the Future of Health Care: What Happened at a Large Texas Hospital

Two attendants of the inaugural conference, Staton Awtrey, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon, and his wife, Blythe Awtrey, R.N.—both of whom work at Premiere Physicians in Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas—took matters into their own hands. After listening to Stoll share the success he’s had in helping people in his own practice, Awtrey asked him to join him in Texas and speak to physicians at Midland Memorial Hospital’s Grand Rounds. The interest and excitement from physicians was so profound that Midland Memorial became the first hospital in the state to promote a plant-based diet to its patients. It is now part of a growing list of other hospitals across the nation that embrace food as medicine.

_{Video Production by Webster University as a 2016 Class Project, in support of The Plantrician Project.}

The Resources

Besides the conferences, the Plantrician Project’s website has resources for doctors and clinicians to refer to and distribute to patients, including a comprehensive resource guide and a quick-start nutrition guide. They also have an online nutrition and cooking school called Culinary Rx, which health care professionals can actually prescribe to patients. As the Plantrician Project reaches more and more physicians and health care providers, hopefully plant-based nutrition will continue to revolutionize the practice of medicine and the health of our planet.

_Sources:

<sub>1. Adams KM, Kohlmeier M, Zeisel SH. Nutrition education in U.S. medical schools: latest update of a national survey. Acad Med. 2010;85(9):1537-1542.
2. Kushner RF. Barriers to providing nutrition counseling by physicians: a survey of primary care practitioners. Prev Med. 1995;24(6):546-552.
3. Vetter ML, Herring SJ, Sood M, Shah NR, Kalet AL. What do resident physicians know about nutrition? An evaluation of attitudes, self-perceived proficiency and knowledge. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008;27(2):287-298.
4. Parker WA, Steyn NP, Levitt NS, Lombard CJ. They think they know but do they? Misalignment of perceptions of lifestyle modification knowledge among health professionals. Public Health Nutr. 2011;14(8):1429-1438.
5. Willett WC. Balancing life-style and genomics research for disease prevention. Science. 2002;296(5568):695-698.
6. Gerteis J, Izrael D, Deitz D, et al. Multiple Chronic Conditions Chartbook. AHRQ Pub No, 14-0038. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2014.</sub>

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We’re all so busy doing that we forget cooking doesn’t have to be just another task to complete. Cooking can be the highlight of the day, or even the major event of a Friday night. This weekend, invite some friends over and reclaim your cooking skills. I promise you and your guests will appreciate the change of pace, even if the food doesn’t come out perfect! If you are anything like I was in college (not Martha Stewart), start with an easy crowd-pleaser like pesto pasta or bean chili. For more inspiration, find some of our most popular vegan dinner recipes here.

Here are my favorite reasons to cook for friends and family at home:

1. Cooking Can Be Fun, Social, and Communal

Cooking doesn’t have to be a stressful chore, and it certainly doesn’t have to be overly complicated or difficult. It can be fun, creative, and social. It can also be relaxing and reflective. For entertaining, choose recipes you’re excited to make. I like to welcome guests with simple, hearty meals like soup and lasagna or a big salad and pasta. While you cook, put on some music or an interesting podcast or invite your guests over early for some conversation.

2. Cooking at Home Is Healthier

Although there are obvious benefits to social connections and being with friends, cooking at home is also associated with a healthier diet. One study found that individuals who frequently cooked at home consumed less sugar, fat, and calories than those who relied on fast food, restaurant meals, and pre-packaged meals1.

Restaurants are notorious for packing salt, sugar, and oil into their dishes. In fact, researchers at Tufts University found that 92% of restaurants exceeded recommended caloric requirements for a single meal, and about a third exceeded caloric requirements for an entire day2.

3. Cooking at Home Saves You Money

I am someone who doesn’t mind spending a few extra bucks for higher quality food. That being said, I’m a millennial, and one thing we all have in common is our tendency to comparison shop for just about everything. Fortunately, you can save big bucks by cooking at home if you base your meals on low-cost vegan staples (lentils, potatoes, rice, oats, bananas, and frozen vegetables). Try to cook almost everything entirely from scratch, especially dips and spreads. That hummus I used to eat everyday comes to mind here. Why pay $5 for a tub of the stuff when you can whip together a blender full of healthier hummus for half the the price?

4. You Have Full Control Over the Ingredients and the Ambiance

Although it’s great to support your favorite local vegetarian restaurants, cooking at home for friends gives you control of the ambiance, music, seating, and ingredients. When you cook for your friends, you control what goes into your food and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t go in. You can also control the mood with lighting and music, whether you are hosting a celebratory party, a romantic dinner, or a relaxing evening with friends. Make it more casual with a family-style spread or more festive with a theme like Tex-Mex or Indian.

5. Cooking is a Great Time to Slow Down and Practice Mindfulness

Sometimes we need a reminder that we are not at the office–or in my case, the research center–and to slow down. Cooking can be done at any pace. Look at the recipe ahead of time and chop your veggies and pre-measure ingredients so you don’t feel rushed. Take your time and remind yourself that there is no where else you need to be. And kick off your work shoes for some slippers or thick socks!

Mindfulness means purposefully paying attention in the present moment. And there’s a reason why it’s increasing in popularity: recent studies have found powerful healing effects at all levels of the body, from telomeres3, to the immune system4, and the brain5. If you have a formal practice established already, you might find cooking to be a wonderful time to ‘bridge the gap’ between formal practice and the informal application of mindfulness in daily life. Try being mindful while you water-sauté veggies, mince garlic, or stand by the stove waiting for water to boil.

6. Cooking Gives You An Opportunity to Explore Your Community

Find some new and exciting ingredients for your dishes with vegetables, fruits, and grains you’ve never tried before. Check out your local farmer’s market. It takes a little extra planning, but it’s worth the extra freshness. If you’re a little more adventurous and live near some ethnic markets, then leave your culinary bubble and visit some Mexican, Middle-Eastern, or Asian markets. You might just discover your next-favorite spice or vegetable to cook with or fruit to snack on.

7. Your Guests Will Appreciate It

Chances are your friends and family want to be healthy and dread the restaurant bills and bloat. It’s time to change the standard belief that being social always means going out to fancy dinners, bars, or night clubs. By eating in and hosting, you’ll be helping to break the weekend cycle for your sake and the sake of your friends. Everyone loves a home-cooked meal, especially one that makes you feel good from the inside out. Eating in also gives everyone the chance to linger and enjoy more quality time together.

_References:

<sub>1. Wolfson JA, Bleich SN. Is cooking at home associated with better diet quality or weight-loss intention? Public Health Nutr. 2015 June;18(8):1397-406.
2. Urban LE, McCrory MA, Dallal GE, et al. Accuracy of Stated Energy Contents of Restaurant Foods. JAMA. 2011;306(3):287-293.
3. Schutte NS, Malouff JM. A meta-analytic review of the effects of mindfulness meditation on telomerase activity. Pychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 Apr;42:45-48.
4. Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jan 21;1-12.
5. Hölzel BK, Carmody J, Vangel M, et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Res. 2011 Jan 30; 191(1):36-43.</sub>

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1. Make friends with the people in dining services

Discussing your commitment to eating whole plant foods with the director of your college’s dining services is one of the most effective ways to get started. Remember that the easier you make it for others, the more willing they will be to provide for you. So be positive and helpful (flattery goes a long way here).

Emphasize inexpensive, easy-to-prepare vegan staples, such as oatmeal for mornings and plain brown rice at night. Then you can add in whatever else is being served—fresh fruit and nuts for the oatmeal, and leafy greens, steamed vegetables, soups, salsa, and salad bar items for the rice. Not only will this improve your eating experience, it will support healthy options for your peers as well.

2. Make special requests for healthier food options (don’t be shy)

The more creative you are, the less likely you will become bored with your food options. Some schools post dining hall menus online. Check these ahead of time, and don’t hesitate to order your meal without specific ingredients , or request your own off-menu dish. For example, if you see a meat dish on the menu accompanied by grilled vegetables or a tasty grain, ask if you can have only these items. More often than not, the individual items are prepared separately, which makes your request convenient for everyone.

3. Find the alternative milks

Many dining halls have a section for students with food allergies. This is where you’ll find your soy milk, almond milk, and other plant-based goodies. More use of this section will show dining services how important these options are to students. I often ate oats with plant milks and chopped up fruit in the morning and for emergency dinners when nothing else was available.

4. Load up on healthy snacks

If you are lucky enough to have a dining hall that lets you take pieces of fruit to go, take advantage of this! Other items great for snacking include nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Staying full between meals with a couple bananas or a handful of raisins will help you stay focused in class and keep you from resorting to vending machine junk food. If you can’t take items out of your dining hall, request that fruit be put out when it is ripe so that everyone can enjoy it and there is less waste of unripe, starchy fruit.

5. Savor your company and practice mindful eating

One of the best aspects of the college dining hall is spending time with friends. Whether eating with an individual or in a large group, try to fully appreciate the moments of being together. Being present in the dining hall will help you better enjoy the human connections that we all crave, while allowing you to eat more mindfully.

As you get the hang of navigating the college dining hall, you’ll start to see more and more options. Take generous portions of salad bar items, and fill up on whole, healthy plant-based foods first, so you don’t fall into the pleasure trap of cookies, pastries, and other tempting dessert items. Most important, be kind and respectful to dining service workers, fellow students, and yourself; it will make your experience much more enjoyable.

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