Improved Heart Health

The first major advantage of a vegetarian diet is that, over time, there becomes a reduced risk of heart health problems. Vegetarians, on average, consume more nuts (often as a supplemental form of protein). Nuts contain “good” fats, such as omega-3 and omega-6. This promotes good heart health by reducing “bad” cholesterol and unclogging arteries.

In addition to nuts, vegetarians also consume more soy based products like soy milk (often to replace cows milk) and tofu, which reduces “bad” cholesterol and has been linked to good heart health by medical studies.

Better Complexion and Skin Health

The second major advantage vegetarians enjoy is increased skin health. In addition to consuming larger quantities of nuts (which contain healthful oils), vegetarians tend to consume more fruit and vegetables, which are rich in essential vitamins, including A and E, which are linked to good skin health.

Fruits and vegetables also contain plenty of fiber, which helps flush toxins out of the body, further contributing to better skin health.

Less Likelihood of Becoming Obese

As a vegetarian diet is significantly leaner than that of people on a meat diet, and most of the fats consumed are “good” fats, your chances of becoming overweight are reduced.

Reduced Risk of Cancer

The last health advantage vegetarians enjoy is an increased natural consumption of antioxidants. Antioxidants are foods that help prevent cancer by destroying free radicals. Vitamin C and Vitamin E, two strong antioxidants, are commonly found in vegetarian meals.

Vitamin C can be found in berries, tomatoes, citrus fruit, kale, kiwis, asparagus and peppers. You can combine many of these by liquidising them together to produce a delicious smoothie. This applies even if you are still having some meat in your diet, as it is an easy way to get your recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables.

Vitamin E can be found in wheat germ, seed oils, walnuts, almonds, and brown rice. All of these foods are commonly a part of a well-balanced vegetarian diet.

So what does this all mean for you as a prospective vegetarian?

It means the popular mythology about vegetarian diets is false. Not only can a vegetarian diet be nutritionally sufficient, but it can also help reduce the risk of cancer, contribute to better skin health, and increase your heart health. You also have a reduced likelihood of becoming obese due to the leaner eating regimes associated with a vegetarian diet.

A common symptom of a poorly thought out vegetarian diet can be a lack of energy – and often accompanied by a significant loss in muscle mass. What they are actually experiencing is a form of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). PEM emerges when a person fails to consume enough protein, leading to muscle loss and ultimately results in feelings of weakness that are often accompanied by head and muscle aches.

Others observe a number of other more peripheral problems that go hand in hand with a vegetarian diet that has not been researched and planned properly.

These problems can be circumvented by a few simple changes to the diet. A vegetarian who is experiencing PEM should either:

a) Find out what foods contain what amino chains, so they can combine them to form proteins
b) Start consuming larger amounts and more diversified sources of protein, such as nuts, soy milk, and yogurt.
c) Take regular food supplements

People with PEM often suffer from some form of iron deficiency as well. Because vegetarians can only consume non heme iron, which is more sensitive to iron inhibitors, they often do not consume enough to maintain healthy blood-iron levels. This can cause pervasive weakness and even anemia. Eating citrus fruits, potatoes and vegetables from the brassica family (e.g., broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts) can help improve absorption of iron and counter these effects.

Most nutritionists suggest that vegetarian and vegan dieters consume roughly twice the recommended amount of iron while greatly reducing their consumption of iron inhibitors. (Such as tea, coffee, red wine and soy based foods – which, unfortunately are one of the main sources of protein for vegetarian diets).

People in the second group who suffer from a range of other peripheral, diet-related problems are often not consuming enough of the nutrients that they would normally take in unknowingly on a diet that includes meat and dairy products. These nutrients include, for example, zinc, calcium, vitamin b, and riboflavin.

Some recent studies have suggested that vegetarians also process certain types of foods with less efficiency because they consume different amounts and varieties of absorption inhibitors and enhancers, however, there is also a suggestion that a vegetarian or vegan diet, when done correctly, is not only as healthy as a non vegetarian diet, but it is also much more heart-healthy – and usually contains higher amounts of antioxidants.
What does this all mean for you as a prospective vegetarian? It means that eating a healthful vegetarian diet is not only a good alternative to your current diet, but it can also lower your chances of getting heart disease and cancer.

If you are committed to eating a healthy vegetarian diet, you also need to dedicate enough time to research and plan it properly. If you don’t, there is a strong chance that you will end up in one of the two groups described above.

Consumption of animal proteins could yield close to a 1:1 absorption ratio, while consuming plant proteins, such as wheat, might only yield around half of the amino acids needed to build a “complete protein” or a protein that can readily be assimilated into the human body.

In order for vegetarians to absorb a healthy amount of protein, they must consume a variety of different plant proteins in order to form complete amino chains. By eating legumes, whole grains, vegetables, seeds, fruits and nuts, vegetarians can increase the amount of complete proteins they create by combining a number of varieties of amino acid chains.

A vegetarian diet must also include more foods containing proteins due to the fact that plant proteins are, in general, much harder for the human body to digest. While a nutritional label may suggest that a food type has 5 grams of protein per serving; you may only be able to digest 2-3 grams of that protein, which means it needs to be complemented with additional sources of protein.

Those following a vegetarian diet should also seek out foods that are “protein-fortified”, i.e., artificially infused with protein, in addition to natural sources of protein. For example, many supermarkets now offer a variety “protein-fortified” pasta and bread. I have seen pasta that contains as much as 12 grams of protein per serving.

Soy milk is also a good source of protein for vegetarians. Studies on isolated soy protein show that it can be absorbed nearly as well as animal proteins, yielding close to a 1:1 protein absorption ratio.

For non-vegan vegetarians, dairy products like yogurt, milk, and eggs (which contain complete proteins) are all excellent sources of protein.

As a vegetarian you have a number of options to boost your protein intake – and you should consider taking advantage of all of them. You should diversify your food selections, drink more soy products, and eat “protein-fortified” breads and pasta. By consuming different types of plant protein, you will be getting sufficient protein in your diet for your body’s needs.

While it might be true that a single vegetarian is unlikely to make huge statistical difference in a world of meat-eaters – and while it could also be said that one more vegetarian probably isn’t going to turn the tide in the movement – you can do a lot as an individual that will be good for both yourself and good for hundreds of animals during your lifetime.

As one example, let’s examine the number one cause of death in the United States and other countries where the majority of the population eat a meat based diet: heart disease.

The three largest sources of cholesterol in the food chain are meat, eggs, and dairy products – if it weren’t specifically for these three food groups, heart attacks and other heart and circulatory problems would be much less prevalent. According to EarthSave, the average vegetarian has about 75 percent less chance of suffering from a heart attack as the average meat eater. If we look at the statistics for people who are pure vegans, the risk reduces still further to 90 percent less chance of having a heart attack compared to non-vegetarians.

In addition to improving the health of your heart, there are a number of other health benefits from becoming a vegetarian. For instance, you wont be exposed to nearly as many preservatives, which are common in meat and are linked to cancer. You won’t be exposed to the hormones that are often packed into animal feed and can disrupt normal hormonal processes in the body. Also, you are likely to consume much less lactose, which most people cannot digest properly, and which some dieticians have suggested can be a cause of digestive problems.

As much as you will personally benefit from an improvement in overall health, you will also reduce your share of the suffering human beings inflict on animals used for producing food and milk. According to veganoutreach.org, the average American consumes 2,714 land animals within their lifetime. If you stopped eating meat now, you could literally prevent the suffering and death of hundreds of animals over the course of a couple decades.

In addition to the above, if you stop eating eggs and drinking milk, or significantly reduce the amount you consume, you will also reduce your share in the suffering and death of battery hens and their offspring, as well as dairy cows and their offspring, too. If you feel this is a step too far for you, then why not consider buying from suppliers who only source free range and organic products.

So, does it really matter if you become a vegetarian? The short answer is yes – it does matter whether or not you become a vegetarian. It matters to the thousands of animals you could potentially save and it matters to you as an individual because you can greatly reduce your chances of suffering from serious illness such as heart disease and cancer.

Three Reasons Why People Become Vegetarians or Vegans

1) The number one reason most vegetarians claim to have been the catalyst for their lifestyle change is that they have a serious ethical problem with consuming meat. Many are appalled at how battery chickens have their beaks clipped, are forced to live in small cages with little or no access to natural light, and are then slaughtered when they do not produce eggs fast enough. Or the chickens produced for meat, which grow so fast that their leg bones are not strong enough to take their weight and spend their short lives suffering.

Most vegetarians also disagree with the crowded and stressful environments larger animals are forced into, and how they are fed hormone-laden feed used to make them grow faster and produce more meat or milk. Those who become vegetarians for this reason often draw ethical boundaries in different spots, depending on their personal beliefs. For instance, some staunch vegans refuse to consume yeast, wear wool, or at the most extreme, will not eat certain vegetables, such as carrots, that require killing the plant in order to harvest them.

Some people who refer to themselves as vegetarians will actually eat fish and chicken on a regular basis. This class of vegetarian is sometimes referred to as “pseudo-vegetarian.”

2) The second biggest reason vegetarians claim for not eating meat is that it conflicts with their dietary preferences. Some of these vegetarians simply do not like the texture and taste of meat, whereas others do not eat it because it contains high levels of cholesterol and often contains high concentrations of preservatives and hormones too.

3) The third (and smallest) group of vegetarians cite environmental reasons for not consuming meat. They complain that consumption of meat causes farmers to continually deforest land in order to create grazing land for sheep and cattle.

There are, of course, a number of other smaller groups of vegetarians who have cut out meat from their diet for entirely different reasons (for example, religious beliefs). Like any other choice in life, the decision whether to eat meat or not is entirely up to you as an individual, and for the reasons you feel are right.

And you are right! The distinctions between these sub-categories of vegetarian are actually very small, but each is very important to members belonging to the individual groups. For them, these distinctions aren’t arbitrary lines – they are important dietary or ethical decisions that have not been made lightly.

Let’s examine these groups in a bit more detail:

SEMI-VEGETARIAN:

The term semi-vegetarian is usually used to describe someone who is not actually a vegetarian. Semi-vegetarian generally implies someone who only eats meat occasionally or doesn’t eat meat, but whose staple diet includes poultry and fish.

VEGETARIAN:

“Vegetarians” is the blanket term used to describe a group of people who do not consume meat, poultry, fish, or seafood. This grouping includes vegans and the various sub categories of vegetarian, however, it is generally acknowledged as the group who place fewer restrictions on their diet than vegans.

OVO-LACTO-VEGETARIAN:

Ovo-lacto vegetarians are vegetarians who do not consume meat, poultry, fish, and seafood, but do consume eggs and milk. This is the largest group of vegetarians.

OVO-VEGETARIAN:

Ovo-vegetarian is a term used to describe someone who would be a vegan if they did not consume eggs.

LACTO-VEGETARIAN:

Lacto-vegetarian is a term used to describe someone who would be a vegan if they did not consume milk.

VEGAN:

Vegan is the strictest sub-category of vegetarians. Vegans do not consume any animal products or by-products. Some even go as far as not consuming honey and yeast. Others also choose not to wear any clothing made from animal products such as leather and wool.
Take some time to figure out what group you think will suit you best when you decide to take the next step towards becoming a vegetarian. You will want to consider both the dietary and ethical reasons for choosing this lifestyle, as it takes a certain level of commitment to adhere to the stronger belief levels.

Before you decide to jump in and adopt a vegetarian diet, it is essential you research and learn how you can increase your intake and absorption of these nutrients in order to avoid short-term and long-term health complications resulting from an unbalanced vegetarian diet.

Here are some things you can try to help you assimilate larger portions of these nutrients into your regular diet on a regular basis:

Improved Protein Intake

Different types of protein are made up of different permutations of amino acid chains. Meat is the only true source of “complete” protein. In order to simulate a “complete protein” (In other words, a protein that can be assimilated into the human body as tissue), you must consume foods that contain complementary chains of amino acids to replace the proteins your body would normally take in from a meat based diet.

Wheat, nuts, and legumes (beans) are three types of vegan-friendly incomplete proteins; however, wheat is hard to digest and loses up to half of its protein content during the digestive process.

Isolated soy protein, which you can get from a number of sources (including soy milk and tofu), can be digested efficiently enough to match the animal protein yields.

Maintain Good Levels of Iron, Zinc and Calcium

1) Iron. Plant sources contain a significant amount of iron, but in non heme form, which is more sensitive to inhibitors than iron that comes from animal products. You should do two things to increase your blood-iron levels: 1) consume more plant iron; and 2) avoid absorption inhibitors, such as red wine, tea, coffee, and fiber.

2) Zinc. Whereas non-vegetarian diets seem to enhance the absorption of zinc, vegetarian and vegan diets do the exact opposite–they inhibit it. Nutritionists suggest that you can overcome this by consuming more foods that contain zinc, such as soybeans, cashews, and sunflower seeds while reducing your intake of inhibitors by washing vegetables and grains.

3) Calcium. Vegetarians can easily consume an adequate amount of calcium without any dietary additions, but it is also important that vegetarians avoid consuming certain foods that are high in oxalates, which inhibit calcium absorption. There is a suggestion from some dieticians that vegetarians should not consume spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard as the calcium component of a meal plan. While they are rich in calcium, they also contain high amounts of oxalates.

Rather than consuming those foods for calcium, vegetarians should consider other options, such as soy yogurt, tofu, beans, almonds, and calcium-fortified foods.

Vitamin B-12

Many vegetarians lack vitamin B-12, simply because it does not exist naturally in any non-animal forms. Vegetarians should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods, such as certain soy milks and cereals to supplement what they lack.

As outlined earlier, there are a number of essential nutrients vegetarians can overlook of they do not research and plan their diet properly. This information is not meant to discourage you from considering becoming a vegetarian, but instead to encourage you to spend a little time planning a healthy approach to your vegetarian diet before starting it.

If properly thought out and planned adequately, a vegetarian diet can not only make up for what it lacks from animal products, but it can far exceed the healthfulness of most non-vegetarian diets.