A plant-based diet emphasizes foods from plants like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes, while reducing or excluding animal products, offering benefits like better heart health, weight management, and lower chronic disease risk due to high fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It’s a flexible eating pattern, not strictly vegan or vegetarian, allowing for some meat/dairy but prioritizing plants, and often focuses on whole, unprocessed foods while avoiding refined grains, sweets, and processed snacks.