Katherine McCune
Health Columnist
No doubt about it. Vegetarianism is IN. Just check out popular restaurant menus. Even fast-food chains like Subway, McDonald’s and Wendy’s have surrendered to the trend of “going veggie.”
Vegetarian diets have been around since the beginning of time. There are many reasons why people practice vegetarianism, including religion, health, concern for the environment, compassion for animals, ethical principles, economics and just to try another way of eating. The word vegetarian generally is used to describe people who avoid food from animal sources, but it’s helpful to be more specific to accurately describe the varieties of foods people many choose to include.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians include milk, milk products and eggs in their diets but exclude other animal products like fish, poultry and meat. Zinc and iron could be low in these diets. One easy and reliable way to get enough iron and zinc is through fortified breakfast cereals, dried beans, dried fruit, seeds and prune juice.
Vegans (pronounced VEE-guns) exclude all animal products from their diets and eat only plant-based foods. Some vegans also exclude honey. A vitamin-B-12 supplement is often mandatory to prevent deficiency in those who avoid all animal foods. Some fortified foods like soy milk, may contain vitamin B-12. Dark-green vegetables and calcium-fortified foods need to be included daily in order to supply sufficient calcium.
Health Benefits. A vegetarian diet can have many health benefits. As a group, vegetarians have lower incidence of obesity and maintain a healthier body weight than nonvegetarianists. Vegetarians also have lower rates of heart disease, hypertension (high-blood pressure) and cancer. However, unless properly planned, the diet may be unbalanced and lacking in certain critical nutrients. In some people, adopting a vegetarian diet is used as a way to mask an underlying eating disorder. Deciding to become a vegetarian becomes a good excuse to eliminate entire food categories. Generally the eating-disordered vegetarian is very rigid and excludes not only animal products, but other high-calorie or high-fat foods. The really committed vegetarian is willing to include a wide variety of animal-free foods, even those that may be high in fat and calories.
Complete Protein. You may have heard that vegetarian sources of protein are “incomplete” (like peas, beans, and wheat) and need to be combined with another type of plant protein (like nuts or rice) in order to be “complete.” A complete protein is considered all animal proteins, including dairy, eggs and cheese and contain all nine of the essential amino acids. However, in recent years, the protein-combining myth has been dispelled and vegetarians everywhere are free, for example, to eat rice without beans. We now know that a vegetarian just needs to eat adequate calories and a variety of food throughout the day in order for the body to get all the essential amino acids it needs.
Making your Food Choices. Our cafeteria provides vegetarian entrees. However other choices are pasta, meatless chili and soups, stir-fry dishes, veggie burgers (usually made from textured vegetable protein), eggs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vegetarian burritos and wraps and pizza. Soybeans (edamame), cereal and milk, string cheese and fruit make good snack choices. I like to encourage non-vegetarians to add at least one vegetarian meal a day of either a fish entrée or an all- vegetable entrée such as meatless chili with vegetables, cornbread and a green salad.
As with all diets, what you choose to eat and how much you eat are key to a balanced food plan. We are fortunate to have such an abundant variety of food to choose from. Following a vegetarian diet will require a little extra effort, but it can be very healthy and above all delicious.
02-17-05
