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When it comes to fighting many chronic diseases, a vegetarian diet can provide potent dietary ammunition. Numerous research studies have shown that a diet rich in plant foods, specifically, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, such as dried peas and beans — the staples of a vegetarian diet — can help lower the risk of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, a specific type of diabetes, and certain cancers.

For those interested in maintaining a healthy weight, vegetarian diets can be kind to your waist, as the satiety-provoking whole grains, fruits, and vegetables tend to “fill you up before they fill you out”. In other words, the fiber in these plant foods, and in the case of the fruits and vegetables, their high water, yet low calorie content, enables you to feel full or satiated long before you are likely to over consume an excessive amount of calories. A dinner plate piled high with a variety of vegetables ladled on top of a bed of brown rice and black beans may leave little room in your stomach for a second helping, and more importantly, for you to overindulge on the brownie a la mode that follows the meal.
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