Transitioning to a plant-based diet

Everyone can transition to a plant-based diet, as it is a suitable diet for:

• Babies
• Children
• Teenagers
• Adults
• Elderly people  

All the ways to transition to a healthy diet are valid depending on who uses them. The ultimate goal of any transition is to be successful and lasting. Therefore, the lasting result always prevails over the process.  

In a way, there is no best way to do it as it depends on different factors that will be different from one individual to another. 

For example, if you are a shy person, afraid of any changes, it will probably be better for you to opt for a step-by-step transition. 

On the other hand, if you are a go-getter, allergic to waiting, then it will probably be better for you to opt for a direct transition. 

Direct transition

The direct transition is basically switching diet from one day to the next.

In our experience, this type of transition is suitable for highly motivated individuals that are eager to get the health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Remember that the more direct your transition is, the more potential detox symptoms can arise, but the sooner you will get the health benefits. 

If you are a very unhealthy person, with lots of diseases already, then a direct transition might be too much to handle and you can actually benefit from a more step-by-step transition.

Step-by-step transition

The step-by-step transition can take many variations, but usually, it’s switching diet in a couple of weeks to a couple of months. 

In our experience, this type of transition is suitable for low-motivation people, who are afraid or reluctant to change habits, especially what they eat. 

Remember that the more step-by-step your transition is, the later you will get the health benefits but the fewer potential detox symptoms you will get. 

Another potential problem with a step-by-step transition is a higher risk of stopping it and returning to the initial diet.

Guided transition   

Another way of transitioning to a plant-based diet is to address a holistic natural health expert to organize and execute the transition. 

This solution offers unique advantages as a holistic natural health expert can:

• Setup a personalized transition adapted to your lifestyle and needs
• Assess your health and propose you natural treatments
• Help you resolve any problems that may arise during the transition
• Give you the knowledge and understanding of why transitioning to a plant-based diet

This type of transition is suitable for everyone, especially for people: 

• Struggling with health issues
• Demotivated by past transition failures
• Unsure about health benefits and arguments for a plant-based diet
• Unwilling to make all the necessary efforts without help and guidance from experts

At the end of the day, there is no mandatory help for transitioning to a plant-based diet. 

However, there are a lot of factors to take into account when changing your diet, and you might want help from experts to handle those easily to make this whole process a good experience and achieve lasting results.  

Plant-based diet detox symptoms

Detox symptoms are generally linked to two distinct problems. Let’s review them separately to see for each what are the possible solutions.

Digestive dysfunction 

It is common to find that people who are motivated to change their diet have the following digestive dysfunctions:

• Addiction to certain foods
• Insufficient enzyme secretion
• Insufficient biliary secretion
• A lack of gastric juice
• Intestinal laziness or chronic constipation
• Intestinal inflammation
• Parasitic contamination
• Dysbiosis

By “veganizing” their diet, some people will say: I can’t digest salads or raw vegetables, my stomach bloats, I have gas. In fact, the problem comes from your digestive system, which is malfunctioning and needs to heal itself in order to be able to digest healthy food properly.

But how did your digestive system work before? Well, precisely… badly.

Refined, fiber-deficient industrial food is digested poorly, but without fermentation, since there is little or no fiber. 

On the other hand, putrefaction is often present, and people forget that instead of bloating, they have:

• Foul-smelling gas
• After-meal gas
• Gastric acidity, which is why they take proton pump inhibitors
• Regular nausea
• Constipation requiring laxatives
• etc.

In short, the digestive symptoms related to healthy eating are caused by your digestive system not working properly. 

If you eat fiber, it should be digested by the “good” bacteria in your intestine, but since your diet was not healthy, they are absent. 

So, instead of being digested by the good bacteria, the fiber will ferment and you will bloat. It takes time to adapt so that the good bacteria can once again develop sufficiently thanks to the fiber.

In that case, natural medicine treatments are indispensable for:

• Rebalancing the flora
• Eliminating pathogenic or harmful bacteria
• Treating digestive system dysfunctions

Pre-existing illnesses or health problems and their treatment

We see that people who go for a dietary change are not necessarily in excellent health, which is logical.

They may suffer from the following illnesses or health disorders: 

• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Obesity
• Chronic fatigue
• Hypothyroidism
• Chronic inflammation
• Autoimmune diseases
• Cancer
• Depression
• Etc.

By paying attention to the symptoms manifested by their body during this change, they attribute to the diet symptoms already present before any dietary change. 

This is normal, as we tend to forget symptoms that are part of our daily lives. 

In that case, follow-up with a holistic natural health expert can help to identify these symptoms, since he will have taken note of the symptoms already present.

Generally speaking, people suffering from any kind of illness will see a great improvement in their state of health, with no “particular symptoms” other than those described with digestive dysfunction.

Sometimes, however, positive improvements can come as a surprise. 

For example, some hypertensive people see their blood pressure return to normal, at which point they need to contact their doctor to reduce (or eliminate) their anti-hypertensive medication… otherwise, they find themselves hypotensive and tired!

It should also be noted that, in general, when the body is better nourished, toxin elimination functions are reactivated. 

Fat-soluble toxins are stored mainly in adipose tissue, and the loss of any excess fat leads to their release.

The liver is the body’s major detoxifying organ. An extra supply of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals will enable it to function more effectively and finally release the toxins accumulated over the years.

Advice from holistic natural health experts

As we said earlier, there are no bad or good ways to transition to a plant-based diet. Help to do so is not mandatory but can come in very handy depending on the situation. 

If you are transitioning from a bad, unhealthy diet and you are suffering from pre-existing illnesses or health problems, it’s important that you keep in mind that the dietary change, although it can improve your health, will not be enough to heal you from those illnesses.

In that case, you need personalized holistic natural treatments that will both help you do a successful transition and address your illnesses.