What is a Vegetarian?
A Vegetarian diet involves not consuming meat, fish or poultry. Â Some people start a Vegetarian diet for cruelty free, environmental, religious or personal reasons.
There are different types of Vegetarianism like:
- Lacto-vegetarian diet: this diet is about removing all meat, fish and eggs, but allows you to eat dairy products.
- Ovo-vegetarian: here you eliminate meat, fish and dairy products, but you are allowed to eat eggs.
- Lacto-ovo-vegetarian: this would be the most complete Vegetarian as is allows you to eat eggs, dairy products and eliminates meat and fish.
- Flexitarian: in this diet, you are allowed to eat meat only 2 times a week.
- Vegan: is considered a diet where you are not allowed to eat any animal products, like meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk or dairy products.
Â
How to start
If you are not sure where to start, we recommend you start by reducing and then giving up red meats at first, then poultry and then fish. Try to resist all temptations. Another trick is to swap ingredients, like swapping your normal milk to vegetable milk. Don’t be afraid to try different  options. Start reading the labels if you don’t tend to read them.
Another important thing is to maintain your daily intake of vit B12 and your Omega-3. For this you can start taking supplement until you manage to balance it with you food. Many advise also to make sure you maintain a good iron intake.
Pros
Having a vegetarian diet is considered to give many health benefits, there are studies that have shown an increase on quality diet than meat eaters, and to have an increase nutrient intake:
- Weight loss
- Reduce Cancer risk
- Stabilizes Blood Sugar
- Improves Heart Health
- Lowers Blood pressure
- Lowers LDL cholesterol
Cons
- Reduced intake of Omega-3 fatty acids
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Anaemia
- Bone Loss
- Thyroid Issues
- Needing to take Supplements
All these happen mainly because of a poor diet choice and not having much food variety.
Â
Side effects
- Reduced intake of Omega-3 fatty acids
- Reduced intake of B12 and Iron
- It may also decrease the intake of Vit D
Â
What to eat
It is advised to include on your daily diet:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Grains
- Legumes
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Healthy fats
- Protein
Â
What not to eat
For a full Vegetarian diet, you should avoid consuming:
- Meat
- Poultry
- Fish and Shellfish
- Meat based ingredients
Table of Contents
Suggested Books
Related Posts
Keto Diet
One of the most popular diets of all times.
Known to be a low carb, high fat diet. It has been around for many decades, but has just in the recent years become more popular.
Calorie Deficit
As by its name, it is all about reducing calories. Basically consuming less calories that your body needs.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is more focus on when to eat and not so much on what to eat.
It is an way to alternate the eating period and the fasting period.
5:2 Diet
The 5:2 diet is a combination of eating normal and having fasting periods, great to start in the fasting world.