What a day’s worth of food on a healthy vegetarian diet looks like

The diets used in the DASH and OmniHeart studies trim blood pressure and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Our day’s worth of food is a hybrid of the two OmniHeart diets—one higher in protein and one higher in unsaturated fat—that also lowered triglycerides.

Click here for a chart that shows you how many servings to aim for—and what a typical serving consists of—if you eat roughly 2,000 calories a day on an OmniHeart-style diet. Here’s an example of what that looks like, with an environmental twist: no meat, poultry, or fish. We used a serving of tofu instead.

Breakfast

You get whole fruit instead of juice and intact whole grains in the oatmeal (with a cup of added fat-free milk—shown here in a glass—and a sprinkling of pecans and dried apricots and cranberries). Unsweetened coffee or tea (not shown) is unlimited.

Lunch & afternoon snack

A generous serving of greens plus apple slices, grapes, just an ounce of cheese, just 2 tablespoons of walnuts, and vinaigrette make a filling main-dish salad. Snack on hummus and peppers (or other veggies) if you want an afternoon snack or an appetizer before dinner.

Dinner & evening snack

Stir-fried veggies and tofu over brown rice with a side of edamame makes a quick and easy dinner. Dessert is two petite cookies. A cup of protein-rich, fat-free plain Greek yogurt garnished with blueberries, sliced banana, and just 1/4 cup of granola makes a perfect snack. If your yogurt (or breakfast cereal) is sweetened with sugar, that's your "Wild Card."

Photos: Kate Sherwood, Stephen Schmidt, Jorge Bach/CSPI.