Vegetarian Diets Can Improve Your Health
They happily munch on carrots, chew on celery sticks, eat tofu, and throw veggie burgers on the grill. People decide to give up meat, and become vegetarians for a number of reasons, including medical issues such as allergies, or high cholesterol. They change their way of life for nutritional reasons, such as food safety, weight loss, or general health improvement and most commonly, because of their determination to not consume living animals.
Animal products contain fat and cholesterol, which is what many of today’s health conscious people try to avoid. Chickens, pigs and cows are often fed growth hormones and injected with antibiotics, which ends up in meat bought at the supermarket, or served in restaurants.
A healthy, sensible vegetarian diet consists primarily of plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes like soya beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. Because the emphasis is on nonmeat food sources, a vegetarian diet typically contains less saturated fat and cholesterol, and will usually incorporate more fiber. Medical studies have shown that individuals following a vegetarian regimen seem to have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease (which causes heart attack), high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and some forms of cancer.
A well-planned vegetarian diet is loaded with nutritional values. Plant proteins can provide enough essential and non-essential amino acids a body needs, as long as the sources of the dietary protein are varied and a caloric intake is high enough to meet the individual’s energy needs. Soy protein, for example, has been proven to be equal to proteins of animal origin, and can, in some cases, be a sole protein source.
When following
