Is a Vegetarian Diet Right For You?

If you weren't born into a vegetarian way of life by means of religion, culture or family practice, eating the vegetarian way may not be as easy as you think. It's not that it's hard to do, but rather, that it takes some knowledge and skill to do it well, like memorizing the middle names of each of your sorority sisters.

The most valuable lesson all newcomers to vegetarianism must learn is that to be successful at it, they will need to focus on the fact that they must subsist on vegetables, or more accurately, plant-based foods, and not on the fact they don’t eat meat any more. So if you’re not a big fan of the grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables food groups, this probably isn’t the path to enlightenment for you.

It is also important to point out that declaring yourself a vegetarian will not automatically make you thinner or healthier. A slim body and great health can be achieved on a diet containing beef and pork if done properly. The problem is most people do not pay enough attention to what and how much they eat now and falsely believe that omitting meat will fix everything. It doesn’t. French fries and pizza is a meat-free meal, but it won’t get you into a bikini by Memorial Day.

For those who aren’t sure they’re ready to take the plunge into a totally vegan (animal-free) diet, especially since this group also askews animal byproducts like honey, leather, wool, silk and down feather pillows, there are alternative ways to tip-toe over to the tofu menu. See if one of the labels below is a better fit for you.

Types of vegetarian diets, all based on plant-based foods

Lacto-vegetarian – includes milk and milk-based foods like yogurt and cheese.

Ovo-vegetarian – includes eggs.

Lacto-ovo vegetarian – includes both milk and eggs.

Pesco-vegetarians (a.k.a. Pescatarian) - includes fish and seafood.

Fruitarian – eats only plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant, such as fruits, nuts, seeds and those “vegetables” that are really fruits, like tomatoes, squash and eggplant.

Lessetarian (a.k.a. Vegetarian Sympathizer) - focuses on reducing, not eliminating, the proportion of animal foods in their diet; may opt more for organically-raised and free range animals.

Flexitarian (a.k.a. Semi-vegetarian) - eats animal products occasionally.

Once you decide what type of vegetarian you, are or want to be, then you can create a spreadsheet to plot your meals around the foods that you do eat.

Good nutrition is more than the sum of its parts

Due to the success of nutrition education campaigns aimed at pairing certain foods with key nutrients, the first thing new vegetarians, or their parents, begin to worry about is how they will get enough protein if not eating meat. This strong association of meat with protein creates the false notion that there are no other good sources of protein in the food supply and even worse, no other value to eating meat except for its protein.

This lame logic leads me to wonder why most young women, or their parents, aren’t sitting up nights worrying how they’re going to get the calcium they need if they don’t drink the 3 servings of milk recommended each day, which most females don’t, or meet their fiber requirements if not consuming 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, which practically nobody does? Both are equally important nutrition concerns, but neither seems to get the attention that the declaration, “I’m giving up meat!” does.

Condensing volumes of nutrition knowledge into a single paragraph, here’s what you need to know. Many nutrients, like protein, vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fats, are needed over your entire lifetime to maintain good health and prevent disease.

All of the nutrients our bodies need can be found in a wide assortment of foods. Supplements cannot replace foods since there are still many valuable nutrients in food that have not yet been identified, so are not found in supplements.

Omitting any one food or part of an entire food group does not leave you destined to die of some dreadful, incurable disease. That can just as easily be accomplished by eating too much of all the wrong things.

Cornerstones of a “healthy diet”: Variety in the types if foods you eat from within each food group and throughout the year.
Interpretation: Don’t eat the same foods or brands day after day and vary your choices with the seasons.

Cornerstones of a “healthy diet”: Balance in the combinations of foods you eat throughout the day and week.
Interpretation: Nutrients work better when delivered together in a mixed diet, from minimally processed foods.

Cornerstones of a “healthy diet”: Moderation in the amounts of any one food, or type of food, you need to meet your energy (caloric) needs.
Interpretation: Eating too much of any food, no matter how wholesome, so that you become overweight, is not healthy.

So how should you begin to plan your meals, shop for food, prepare what you’re going to eat and select off a menu now that you’re a vegetarian? By first educating yourself. Read books, log on to blogs, meet with a dietitian, join a food co-op, take cooking lessons and find like-minded friends or get used to eating alone because this is a meat-eaters world and you’ll be harvesting against the herd.

But the true upside of this decision is that it may actually help you amend your careless ways when it comes to your “diet” so that you can have your meat and eat it, too.

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Robyn Flipse, MS, RD

Author, Fighting the Freshman Fifteen

Available at www.FreshmanFifteenBook.com