We are all different with individual needs. Just as there is no one type of meat eater, there is no one type of vegetarian. Some meat eaters eat pork, some don’t. Some vegetarians eat dairy, some don’t. Vegetarians eat a variety of different foods for a variety of reasons.
8 Reasons Why People Become Vegetarians
1. Health concerns:
A vegetarian diet can be a balanced diet filled with nutritious vegetables which can be alkaline-forming and health-building. Harvard researched the eating habits of 110,000 adults for over 20 years found that a one 3-ounce serving of red meat daily was associated with a 13 percent greater chance of dying over the course of the study. A vegetarian diet can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
2. Spiritual reasons:
Commitment to non-violent food; not supporting the killing and suffering of animals. Hinduism and Buddhism hold vegetarianism as an ideal way to promote nonviolence and spiritual fulfillment. Seventh Day Adventists and Jains are vegetarians. Seventh Day Adventists are among the healthiest people in the world today.
3. Personal choice:
Sometimes for no explainable reason, a person just finds that they simply do not want to eat meat. Whenever they see it they have no interest in eating it so they never include it in their meals.
4. Food safety:
Close to 5,000 Americans die of food-borne diseases every year. Food poisoning is mostly from animal products. Factory farms, slaughterhouses, and meat packing plants are extremely unsanitary places.
There Are Eight Types of Vegetarians:
- Vegan: Eats only plant products; does not eat any animal products at all, not even honey.
- Lacto-vegetarian: Eats all fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy products.
- Ovo-vegetarian: Eats eggs along with a plant-based diet.
- Lacto-ovo vegetarian: Eats both dairy products and eggs.
- Fruitarian: Eats a vegan diet that is mostly raw fruit, grains and nuts. They believe only plant foods that can be harvested without killing the plant should be eaten.
- Macrobiotic: The goal is to create a balance between ying (positive) foods and yang (negative) foods. There are ten levels of diet; not all levels are strictly vegetarian. Macrobiotics perceive meat as highly yang, which most people try to balance with a highly yin food like sugar – a terrible combination.
- Pesco-vegetarian (or pescetarian): Eat fish with a diet that is primarily vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts.
- Semi-vegetarians: Eat fish and a small amount of poultry with a diet that is primarily vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts.
Are you one of the above?
What Do Vegetarians Eat?
Contrary to what most meat eaters think, vegetarians don’t just eat salad or simply eat the meat and potato meal with out the meat, or the hamburger without the bun.
A wise vegetarian eats a wide variety of vegetables with lots of whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds and maybe a little dairy and egg.
1. Where am I going to get my iron?
Dried beans, lentils, spinach, Swiss chard, molasses and dried fruit are especially good sources of iron and better on a per calorie basis than meat. Iron absorption is increased when iron foods are combined with foods containing vitamin C. Do note: vegetarians do not have a higher incidence of iron deficiency than meat eaters.
2. How about calcium?
Green vegetables are filled with calcium (spinach, kale, okra, broccoli, green beans, collard greens), and so are almonds, sunflower seeds and dried beans. Two tablespoons of black strap molasses has 400 mg of calcium. You get as much or more calcium in 4 ounces of firm tofu or 3/4 cup of collard greens as you will in one cup of cow’s milk.
How much calcium is needed?
- Adults 19-50 years and men 51-70 need 1,000 mg of calcium per day.
- For women over 51 and men over 70, 1,200 mg of calcium per day is recommended.
Keeping a balance in the acid/alkaline department will help keep your calcium in your bones. When we become too acidic, the body steals the calcium and other minerals from the bones. Meat is acid-forming and vegetables are alkaline-forming. So there we have another good case for not eating too much meat.
3. Where will I get my protein?
Often people think that plants are devoid of protein and even many vegetarians believe that they have to eat eggs, cheese or beans to get enough. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds, and nuts all contain essential and nonessential amino acids. Here is a fact: all plant foods have protein in them. Even fruit has protein in it!
How much protein is enough?
The amounts established by the National Academy of Sciences are:
- A 160-pound man needs about 58 grams of protein a day
- A 120-pound woman needs about 43
Eat 2 – 4 servings of fruits, 3 – 5 servings of vegetables, and 6 – 11 servings of whole grains and your diet will include substantial amounts of vegetable protein.
So you decide to be a vegetarian
There is a whole arena of foods that you probably have not yet discovered that will fill the gap that may be left by meat. For instance, there are dozens of varieties of grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. Also, there are things like tofu and tempeh and a whole vast range of vegetables that perhaps you have yet to discover.
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