The Engine 2 Diet: How it Will Take Vegans to Another Level
Rip Esselstyn, an athlete and firefighter with a strong background on health, wrote The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter’s 28-Day Save-Your Life Plan That Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds, a bestselling book that covers all information you need to know about how vegan diet can help you prevent heart disease while nourishing yourself.
Caldwell Esselstyn, Rip’s father, served at Cleveland Clinic, which George Crile founded. He is Rip’s great-grandfather. Caldwell served as chief of surgery, which allowed him to conduct extensive research on the impacts of plant-strong diets on heart health.
With the Engine 2 Diet, the dieters are not allowed to use vegetable oils, which is the new twist of the diet. This is far from other types of diet that limit fat consumption. With Engine 2, however, dieters are advised to consume natural and whole vegetable fats.
You’ll likely increase the risk of developing and acquiring heart disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases when you consume omega-6 fatty acids in excess. These are found in vegetable oils. You’ll also suffer from negative impacts when you consume animal food fats. Esselstyn expressed his belief that these fats promote plaque formation, which usually clogs arteries.
What is Plant Power?
The Engine 2 Diet is a plan that also offers suggestions for fitness improvement. This is because Esselstyn is a go-for-it type of guy and a former professional athlete. Before you start the diet, he recommends that you take cholesterol test and determine your weight so you’ll have a basis when tracking your progress.
You have two choices in implementing the diet. One is the gradual approach, which is labeled as “fire cadet” method. The other is complete overhaul in your lifestyle. To some, the cadet method, which is a 28-day challenge, is more appealing. This is particularly true id one follows mainstream lifestyle.
However, vegetarians, vegans and others are more determined and, thus, choose the harder approach because they want to see the results immediately. If you agree with the, you should start emptying your pantry, freezer and refrigerator of processed foods, animal products and any item that has more than 2.5 grams of fat for every 100 calories.
The Engine 2 Diet calls you to ditch all of the processed foods while cutting out vegetable oils and animal products. Replace the unhealthy foods with nuts, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.
On the other hand, the 28-day challenge gives dieters the option to wade on a weekly basis. During your preparation, you have to redefine which foods are good for you and which ones are not. If an item doesn’t fit the guidelines of Engine 2 Diet, give it away.
The 28-day challenge is divided into four parts:
- First Week – Remove dairy products and processed foods.
- Second Week – Don’t consume meat, fish, eggs and other animal products.
- Third Week – Eliminate added oils from your meals.
- Fourth Week – Stick and settle with the diet program.
On the Esselstyn website, there are videos, information and support that can guide through each part of the diet.
The Engine 2 Diet book, which Esselstyn wrote, offers a lot of menus and recipes. He’ll include more in the follow-up book entitled My Beef with Meat: The Healthiest Argument for Eating a Plant-Strong Diet. So, you may modify or incorporate your favorite meals and foods if you find it easy in the kitchen.
Esselstyn emphasizes that you need to eliminate oils and processed foods to lose weight and keep your heart health. Thus, you can drop cholesterol levels and lose weight through consumption of any plant food that you want.
What are the Benefits?
The Flexitarian Diet is like the Engine 2 Diet. However, it allows for the inclusion of some animal protein, which dieters can consume one or two times a week while maintaining focus on the consumption of plant foods. This, even while Esselstyn has good company in terms of his enthusiasm and optimism for plant-strong diets.
Today, exploration about plant-based diets’ potential benefits in decreasing cholesterol is still being conducted. For example, Stanford did a comparison of two different diets that attempts to lower the levels of lipids. It was conducted for 4 weeks.
The diets are low-fat diet that includes nutrient-dense plant foods such as vegetables and fruits in greater quantities and the other is a standard low-fat diet. Surprisingly, there was a more dramatic decrease in cholesterol levels in the group that included plant foods.
In a 2012 report, the National Institutes of Health stated that dieters have lower total cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and healthier measurements of triglyceride, which is likely because of the intake of high fiber due to a plant-based diet.
There are surveys that confirmed that people who eat meat usually shells out more money on medical related expenses and they run heavier compared to vegetarians. Also, they have higher rates of developing chronic illnesses.
However, vegans need to look for substitutes that will supplement them with Vitamin B-12 found in animal products. The red blood cells enlarge when the body is short of Vitamin B-12. This results to neurological disorders such as dementia and several body malfunctions such as muscle weakness.
Luckily, there is a wide range of options for healthy foods in Western countries. This doesn’t make it difficult to have access to minerals such as iron and zinc, sufficient protein, essential fatty acids, and necessary vitamins.
Around two-thirds of the world’s population primarily rely on plant foods while the remaining one-third relies on nay meat-based diet. There is less land resources and water requirement for plant-based diets. So, if you shift from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one, you’re helping in the improvement of the ecosystem.
Today, about 5% of Americans are considering themselves as true vegetarians. However, there is a strong continues growth in the shift to plant-based diets.
Apparently, a huge number of people have already got an interest in the Engine 2 Diet. If you’re willing to eliminate oils, you can be like Esselstyn who enjoy plant-based foods without limitations, which are packed with less body fat and protects tickers from animal fats that clog arterial walls.
Leave a Reply