Planning Your Vegetarian Diet

Whether you’re on a vegetarian diet for moral reasons, to lose weight, or for a different reason, sticking to a vegetarian diet can be part of a very healthy lifestyle. In general, all vegetarian diets omit red meat, fish, and poultry. Some vegetarians (vegans, to be more precise) also eliminate milk-based foods and eggs, essentially avoiding any food that has any relationship to an animal. Regardless of which type of vegetarian you are or want to become, there are a few rules to follow in your vegetarian diet.

First, it can be helpful to keep certain substitutes in mind. When you’re cooking or baking, recipes will often call for ingredients which you may not want to use because they are either animal products or made with animal products. You can use soymilk or almond milk in place of cow’s milk. Instead of butter, you can use olive oil, wine, or non-fat cooking spray when you’re sautéing. When you’re baking, canola oil is almost always a good choice. Eggs can be the most difficult to replace, but most grocery stores carry some sort of commercial egg substitute. For baking purposes, these will suit you fine. However, these products rarely taste like real eggs and most people don’t enjoy eating them as a substitute for eating eggs.

Subscribing to a vegetarian diet can also mean that you’re more likely to be missing certain important aspects of a healthy diet. One way to avoid this is to be aware of and adhere to the vegetarian food pyramid. This is a lot like the food pyramid you learned about in elementary school, except that it lacks certain categories and makes up for them in others. There are a few different versions of the vegetarian food pyramid.   Instead of servings per day, most vegetarian food pyramids break down your intake into foods you should at every meal, daily, and weekly. Although they differ, most advise you to eat fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and beans at every meal. They suggest that you eat nuts and seeds, soy or dairy, and plant oils every day. Finally, they suggest that you eat eggs or sweets on a weekly basis, and also suggest that you drink at least 40 ounces of water every day.

Lastly, protein and certain vitamins are often left out of vegetarian diets and must be compensated for. Most meat eaters get a high percentage of their protein from red meat and poultry, so you should be sure to eat plenty of soy products, nuts, and whole grains. You should also be sure to get enough calcium, vitamin B-12, iron, and zinc. Although these can be taken as supplements, it is usually more effective to find an alternate source of these vitamins in a natural food that is compliant for a vegetarian’s diet.