Plant-based supplements have become quite popular in the last few years. The rise in popularity may be due to an increase in health, wellness, and personal care and/or a growing awareness of the benefits of eating more plans. Whether you stick with a strict vegan or vegetarian diet or you’re simply plant-curious, plant-based supplements are a great addition to anyone’s diet.
The most common plant-based supplements include vitamins, minerals, and plant extracts. Many of these products are marketed as being healthier than their animal-derived counterparts due to the fact that they do not contain many of the potentially harmful ingredients that can be found in animal products such as hormones and antibiotics. Likewise, in many cases, plant-based supplements are easier to digest and may even provide positive effects beyond their purported uses (1).
In addition to being healthier on average, plant-based supplements are on the whole more sustainable than animal-derived products because it takes fewer resources to grow the plants and produce products from them which means their large carbon footprint is often much lower than that of animal-derived products, which ironically require not only more water and resources to produce but also more plants (2, 3, 4).
Plants and Plant-based Supplements Are Good for Your Health
Irrespective of the scientific journal, government agency, blog or personal trainer, just about everyone agrees one one thing when it comes to personal nutrition, health, and wellness: we should all eat more plants. Plants are excellent sources of vital nutrients that cannot be found in any other kind of food. The vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants they contain help your cells stay healthy and the immune system operate at its best (5).
Likewise, plant-based supplements are most often manufactured from the concentrated extracts of plants. This means that should you decide to take supplements for your health and wellness, plant-based supplements may just provide higher doses of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants, than chemically manufactured alternatives.
Plants and Plant-based Supplements are Good for the Planet
One fact is indisputable when it comes to the health of our ecosystems: plants are essential. Plants, whether through photosynthesis or carbon sequestration and movement or through myriad other natural processes, impact everything from air quality to the weather and the supply of resources to other plants and animals.
It’s because of plants that we’re even alive and able to work on optimizing our own health and wellness. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into the oxygen we breathe. Plants can also pull pollutants out of the air, filtering the air without doing any damage to themselves.
Plants also help regulate weather patterns. One example was found in the Amazon, where researchers discovered that plants were triggering monsoons months before they could be caused by wind patterns.
Plants are also great for recycling. When plants decompose, they return nutrients to the ground and create topsoil, which is extremely rich in nutrients.
The key ingredient in plant-base supplements is…you guessed it: plants! Because, plant-based supplements are made from plants first and foremost, they are also beneficial to the environment and the planet we all live on (6).
How to Choose the Best Plant-Based Supplements for Your Needs
There are literally thousands of plant-based supplements available in the market these days. And…certainly, not everyone needs every one of these supplements to be healthy and well. It’s important to know which ones are for you and which ones to avoid.
The first thing you need to do is decide what supplements you might need (or want) based on your goals. Do you have a specific fitness goal that a supplement (or “stack” of supplements) might help with (hint: vitamins D3, K2, and B12, as well as plant-based protein, and creatine monohydrate, may be what you’re looking for)? Are you trying to address an underlying issue like heart disease that a specific supplement has been purported to help with (hint: check out beetroot powder, which has been shown to lower blood pressure)? Perhaps you’re looking for supplements that help with weight management or mental clarity (hint: functional mushrooms are where most people look these days). No matter what your goal is, there’s likely a supplement that can help you achieve that goal.
If you have determined what goals you want to achieve as well as the types of supplements that might help you achieve them, then it’s time to look at some products and see which one suits you.
If it’s fitness you’re after, some things you’ll want to weigh are whether you’re looking to gain muscle mass, lose weight, or generally have more energy in order to improve your workouts. Some products you may want to start with here are protein powders, which have been shown to help people lose weight while also gaining muscle. Though there are myriad options out there, we’ve formulated Plantfully Systems Performance Protein powder to be lower in calories and higher in protein than most other plant-based protein powders. Plus, Plantfully Systems Performance protein powder includes seven functional mushrooms, which help with everything from energy balance to mental clarity to immune system support.
Likewise, if you’re looking for a plant-based supplement to support general health and wellness, you might look for products that include whole greens (not grains), natural plant extracts, like ginger and elderberries, and even ever-popular functional mushrooms, like cordyceps, lions mane, maitake, oyster, reishi, chaga, and turkey tail.
Plant-based supplements like Plantfully Systems Everyday Wellness, which includes vitamin C, zinc, elderberry extract, and ginger, and Plantfully Systems Fire, packed with seven of the aforementioned functional mushrooms, are made to support health and wellness goals, as well as all around immune system health.
Final Thoughts on Plant-bases Supplements
Whether you’re reading this article because you’re interested in plant-based supplements or generally interested in eating more plants, we hope that it’s clear by now how incredibly beneficial plant-based supplements are to personal health and the environment at large.
That being said, like anything in life, figuring out which plant-based supplements will help you achieve your goals will take time and a bit of trial and error. While plant-based supplements are superior to other supplements in a lot of ways, there’s simply no silver bullet. Instead, you should experiment with plant-based supplements, vary up what you take and when you take it, and look for ones that will ultimately help you keep you moving towards your goals.
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