{"id":906,"date":"2018-07-22T11:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/906\/why-bianca-king-went-plant-based-with-her-diet-and-why-you-could-too\/"},"modified":"2021-12-01T20:39:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:39:58","slug":"why-bianca-king-went-plant-based-with-her-diet-and-why-you-could-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/story\/906\/why-bianca-king-went-plant-based-with-her-diet-and-why-you-could-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bianca King went plant-based with her diet \u2013 and why you could too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Bianca King has gone green. From her diet, her use (or rather non-use) of plastics, even to the way she spends her vacations doing beach clean-ups, the actress is leading a life that is as mindful as it gets.<\/p>\n

She calls it \u201cliving wide awake\u201d and we caught up with her to chat about her lifestyle choices, particularly her healthy eating habits.<\/p>\n

\"Bianca<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being on camera all the time, she first turned to fruits and vegetables for vanity reasons. Going plant-based did wonders for her skin and made it easier for her to stay in shape as well.<\/p>\n

But beyond aesthetics, it was some serious health scares that sparked a change in her. In the same month, her father underwent a quadruple bypass surgery and her grandmother was diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer \u2013 and that really made her rethink her family\u2019s approach to food.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoon nag-umpisa na mag-research ako kung bakit sila nagkasakit. And \u2018yung iisang sagot ay dahil sa diet (That\u2019s when I started to research about why they got sick. And it turns out the only factor was diet),\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

She learned that there was too much meat and fried food in their diet and a plant-based diet filled with fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, legumes, and nuts was the healthiest way to go. Since then, she\u2019s enjoyed eating plant-based, adding seafood, cheese, and eggs only occasionally. Bianca plans to limit it further.<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S GOOD FOR THE PLANET<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bianca is very much concerned about cleaning up the country. She has gone plastic-free in her household, making sure she\u2019s never without a reusable water bottle or an eco-bag. She has also befriended the founders of nonprofit organization Grom Nation, a group in Siargao that incentivizes kids with free surf lessons and surfboard rentals if they help with beach clean-ups.<\/p>\n

Part of that means she\u2019s also aware of her carbon footprint, what impact she leaves behind on the planet. There are many little things she suggests people can do to minimize their footprint but the most impactful might be to go plant-based with their food.<\/p>\n

\u201cImposible kasi na sa simpleng pagpatay ng kuryente lang, hindi pagsakay ng kotse, makukuha mong bawasan \u2018yung carbon footprint mo (It\u2019s impossible to reduce your carbon footprint just by conserving electricity and not taking a car everywhere),\u201d Bianca explained.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThe easiest thing that you can do to make a huge difference in protecting the natural resources that provide us everything that we have, from everything that you consume, that you put inside your body, that you put inside your skin\u2026 the one thing that you can do to help protect the environment is to stop eating meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

How exactly does that help? Well, she noted that livestock production contributes 14 percent of all greenhouse gases, or as much as the entire transport sector does. Changing our eating habits could actually have a bigger impact than you think.<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S GOOD FOR THE TASTEBUDS TOO<\/strong><\/p>\n

She said that there\u2019s a misconception that a plant-based diet consists only of salads. That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

She stressed that there are a lot of exciting ways to eat on a plant-based diet. Bianca prepares her food herself, ensuring that the \u201centire spectrum of the plant kingdom\u201d is represented on her plate.<\/p>\n

Her website, biancaking.com<\/a>, is filled with recipes such as her pre-workout chocolate smoothie parfait, protein-packed vegan tahini quinoa superbowl, and homemade malunggay pesto with tuna on quinoa pasta. She also has restaurant recommendations such as the salad bar in Discovery Primea, which she hails as \u201cthe healthiest buffet in Manila\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cKailangan lang siyang gawin nang tama\u2026 Basta ginagawa ko lang na sobrang malasa \u2018yung gulay at \u2018yun ang inuulam ko sa kanin (You just have to do it right\u2026 I make the vegetables really flavorful and that\u2019s what I pair with rice),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S REALLY NOT AS HARD AS YOU THINK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s so hard to give up meat,\u201d you may be thinking.<\/p>\n

Bianca said it doesn\u2019t have to be a huge lifestyle change. If you\u2019re someone who wants to make the change for the good of the planet, even incremental ones can make all the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can start with one meal per week, and then start with one day per week, and then start with one week per month, and the next thing you know paminsan-minsan ka na lang kumakain ng karne (you\u2019re eating meat less and less),\u201d Bianca suggested.<\/p>\n

And for all the good that a plant-based diet can do, it might just be worth giving a try.<\/p>\n

\"Bianca<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tReconnect with food\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

It\u2019s time for an eco-food revolution.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n TAKE ACTION\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bianca King has gone green. From her diet, her use (or rather non-use) of plastics, even to the way she spends her vacations doing beach clean-ups, the actress is leading a life that is as mindful as it gets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-food","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11334,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions\/11334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}