According to a Forbes food trends article for 2013, the most popular trend is vegan upscale dining. It is nice to see that there is a growing market in fine dining with all plant-based ingredients. It was a movement that started early in the year with many top chefs predicting that vegetables would become the main attraction at top restaurants as discussed in this blog post. It should help make the cuisine even more exciting, flavorful, and desirable especially as top restaurant vie for customers. It will also pressure meat-based restaurants to add more vegan options to their menus to stay competitive. This is a trend with very positive implications!
A 2012 Harvard Medical School study compared results of studies measuring women’s blood levels of carotenoid, colorful plant pigments that can act as antioxidants. The study determined that women with the highest levels of carotenoids had a lower risk of breast cancer..."
It's encouraging to see more research evaluating the ability of plant-based diets to counter chronic illnesses. This study by Harvard suggests that a diet rich in carotenoids is a possible way to prevent a prevalent type of cancer. Vegetables that supply carotenoids include yams, carrots, red bell peppers, and winter squashes along with the dark leafy green vegetables which provide an array of additional body balancing nutrients as well. Plant based food is also low in dietary fat, which has similarly been linked to preventing chronic illness.
In looking at surviving breast cancer once it has occurred, fat is again the enemy. In a Canadian research study, women with cancer were more likely to have lymph node involvement if they had a higher fat intake; dietary fat seems to have a measurable effect when cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
As the article points out, no single factor can be directly linked to preventing chronic illness, but the research demonstrates that adopting a plant-based diet can mostly likely give one an advantage over time in staying healthy.
When Arizona's Maricopa County decided to switch to vegetarian food in all of it's county prisons, it was doing more than just saving money which was the main impetus. It was giving inmates a second chance. Vegetarian and vegan diets have been shown to improve behavior and reduce violence in study groups as discussed in this blog post. If the new diet has this affect, then the individuals learning the new way of eating and the community they return to will both benefit. It is hoped that, someday, this becomes the model across the country.