Flexitarian Diet

At a Glance

By Karen Asp

Going green is the rage these days, making vegetarianism more in vogue, which is why Dawn Jackson Blatner's Flexitarian Diet is well-timed. While not a 100-percent vegetarian diet, the plan advocates eating less animal protein and more plant-based foods, turning you into a “flexitarian,” or someone who eats meat occasionally, but mainly follows vegetarian patterns of eating.

This is more of a lifestyle than a diet, as the plan helps you adopt new eating habits. And rather than declaring certain foods good or bad, making you count calories or measure food, the plan shows you how to eat healthier by reducing animal protein, finding new sources of protein, and consuming more fruits, vegetables and whole grains through breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks.

Weight loss and improved health are the driving benefits behind this plan, which claims that vegetarians weigh less, suffer fewer chronic diseases and live longer than their meat-eating peers. Of course, simply eating less animal protein won't automatically give you these benefits. Yet by following this plan, you'll learn how to eat smarter, which will help you lose weight, improve health, spend less at the grocery store and even decrease your impact on the environment. .