What Is Vegetarianism?
Vegetarianism refers to having plant-based foods without animal meats, poultry, or seafood. The word vegetarian comprises vegetables, and Arian describes an individual’s characteristics. Many people follow the vegetarian diet for health concerns, poverty, religious beliefs, and dislike of the taste of meats, poultry, and seafood. A well-planned vegetarian diet provides a healthy life by giving enough nutrients, reducing the risk of getting any diseases and treating several diseases.
What Are the Types of Vegetarian Diets?
People have varied vegetarian diet patterns, including and excluding certain foods.
The types of vegetarians are
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Vegans: Vegans do not consume meat, including poultry, animal meat, or seafood, nor animal products like eggs, dairy products, or gelatin.
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Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians: Lacto-Ovo vegetarians eat animal products like eggs and dairy but avoid meat, poultry, or seafood.
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Lacto Vegetarians: Lacto vegetarians consume dairy products but do not eat other meats. seafood or eggs.
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Ovo Vegetarians: Ovo vegetarians eat eggs but do not consume any other meats, seafood, or dairy products.
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Partial Vegetarians: Partial vegetarians include pesco-vegetarians and pollo-vegetarians. If vegetarians eat fish alone, referred to as pesco-vegetarian and eat poultry alone as pollo-vegetarian.
What Is the Impact of a Vegetarian Diet on Health?
A properly planned vegetarian diet has several benefits, including:
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Provides a Balanced Diet: A vegetarian diet provides sufficient nutrients based on the body’s needs by containing essential minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. A well-planned diet provides the complete nutritional needs required by the body.
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Improves Digestion: A vegetarian diet is mainly composed of dietary fiber that may enhance digestive functions, thereby promoting digestion, and it is easier to digest than other foods.
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Reduces the Risk of Obesity: Regular diet intake helps reduce the risk of obesity by maintaining BMI (Body Mass Index) and avoiding junk foods.
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Helps to Manage Heart Diseases: The vegetarian diet helps prevent cardiovascular diseases and reduces the mortality and morbidity rate of heart diseases. This diet also helps to keep cholesterol and blood pressure at a normal level. Taking high potassium, high fiber, low sodium, and low saturated fats is recommended, which can reduce the risk of heart disease.
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Reduces Cholesterol Levels: This diet helps to reduce the overall cholesterol level in the blood by taking foods containing low saturated fats.
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Reduces the Risk of Diabetes: This diet helps to regulate insulin levels in the body and also foods containing high fiber, minerals, and antioxidants, thereby reducing the risk of diabetes.
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Improves Mood: This diet helps to improve mood by having foods containing lower levels of arachidonic acid, which regulates mood.
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Reduces the Risk of Cancer Development: This diet helps reduce the risk of cancer development by providing essential nutrients.
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Increases Life Span: This diet helps improve the life span by reducing the risk of several systemic diseases compared to others with a non-vegetarian diet.
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Prevents Cataracts and Kidney Stones: This diet helps prevent cataract formation and kidney stones by making urine alkaline, compared to non-vegetarians.
What Are the Tips for a Healthy Vegetarian Diet?
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Avoid Foods Rich in Sodium, Saturated Fats, and Sugars: Foods containing high sodium, saturated fats, and sugars, like processed and junk foods, tend to cause high blood pressure and cholesterol.
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High-Protein Foods: Vegans usually take less protein than other vegetarians, as protein content can be obtained from eggs and dairy products. High-protein vegetarian foods include beans, lentils, peas, soy, seeds, nuts, whole grains, eggs, and dairy products. Vegetarians must incorporate high-protein foods into each meal throughout the day, which helps to attain good protein for the body’s needs.
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Calcium-Rich Foods: Vegans tend to take less calcium when compared with other vegetarians, as calcium can be taken from dairy products. Calcium-rich foods include broccoli, tofu, almonds, blackstrap molasses, kale, and green leafy vegetables.
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Avoid Eating Too Many Carbohydrates: Too many carbohydrates result in gaining weight, increasing blood sugar levels, and causing health problems. Vegetarians can replace refined carbohydrates with whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, or quinoa.
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Iron-Rich Foods: Iron in animal meats can be absorbed more easily than in non-heme iron foods, i.e., plant foods. The absorption of iron in plant foods can be increased by vitamin C, so adding vitamin C to the diet helps to improve the iron absorption of plant foods. Iron-rich foods include green leafy vegetables, beans, lentils, soybeans, blackstrap molasses, and spinach.
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Vitamin B12 Supplements: Vitamin B12 is usually found in animal products and is not present in plant foods, so it is necessary to take vitamin B12 supplements, vitamin-enriched cereals, and fortified soy products. But in some cases, folate replaces the need for vitamin B12 and thus prevents anemia. Vitamin B12 helps in producing red blood cells and its deficiency causes anemia.
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Vitamin D-Fortified Foods: Vitamin D is usually obtained from sun exposure. It can also be obtained from foods incorporated with vitamin D, like orange juice, cereals, and milk.
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Zinc-Rich Foods: Though plant foods have higher amounts of zinc, it is difficult to absorb from them as they have phytates that resist zinc absorption. Zinc-rich foods include oatmeal, tofu, cashews, sunflower seeds, beans, and lentils. Zinc helps to grow cells and make proteins.
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Iodine-Rich Foods: Iodine plays a vital role in thyroid functions, thereby regulating the body’s metabolism. Iodine-rich foods are salt, seaweed, and dairy products. Its deficiency causes goiter, where the thyroid gland grows big when trying to fulfill the body’s requirements.
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Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Vegetarians should take fortified omega-3 fatty acids in their diet as vegetarians do not fish, which is a rich source. Omega-3 fatty acid-rich foods include chia, flax, walnuts, soybeans, soy, canola, tofu, and tempeh.
Conclusion
A planned vegetarian diet promotes overall health by enriching plant-based foods with essential nutrients like fiber, folic acid, magnesium, vitamins C and E, unsaturated fats, and so on. This diet helps prevent and reduce the risk of several systemic diseases compared to non-vegetarians.
