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Kimberly Garrison: For a better lifestyle, weigh vegetarianism
DO CONCERNS about the economy, the environment or your health have you rethinking your lifestyle and eating habits?Is becoming a vegetarian one of your New Year’s resolutions? It’s a popular lifestyle choice, and many believe it is the optimal diet for human beings.

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Lots on tap this month at Warren Library
WARREN TWP . — Tips to have “healthy active minds,” to make a vegetarian diet work for a family, and to unclutter home and office are among programs offered for adults during January at the Warren Public Library, at the municipal complex, Mountain Boulevard.

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1. A Vegetarian Diet is generally a healthier diet – there is no vitamin or mineral that you cannot get from eating a vegetarian diet. Some people believe that meat and fish are a necessary part of a balanced diet, but this is simply not true. Vegetarian food is also lower in fat and cholesterol than meat, which helps to protect the heart and prevent many diseases.
2. Less exposure to chemicals – a lot of animals are given hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals. If you eat meat you have no idea what the animals you are eating were exposed to during their life.
3. Kinder to the Environment – eating a vegetarian diet puts a lot less strain on the environment. Production of meat requires huge amounts of water, grain and fuel to produce. This could be used much more efficiently to feed starving people in Africa. In addition to this a massive amount of the land on the earth is used for livestock, reducing the amount of land used for forests.
4. Eating a vegetarian diet is generally cheaper – meat and fish are generally a lot more expensive than vegetarian alternatives, so being vegetarian can help your budget as well as your health!
5. Eating vegetarian helps you to stay slim – vegetarians generally find it much easier to stay within their normal weight range as a vegetarian diet is typically lower in fat and calories than a meat eater’s diet.
6. Making a stance against factory farming and slaughter houses – hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in slaughterhouses every day. Many of these animals are kept in dreadful conditions, often in pain and have no quality of life. By eating only a vegetarian diet.
7. No nasty surprises in your food – meat products can include all sorts of nasty things, for example the animals’ tail, feet, rectum and organs. Yuck!
8. Less likely to get food poisoning – food poisoning is much more likely to come from eating bad meat or fish, compared to eating vegetarian foodstuffs.
9. Humans are not designed to eat meat – biologically, the human digestive tract is that of a herbivore. Biologists have compared the human digestive tract to that of carnivorous and herbivorous animals and found that the human digestive tract is more similar to herbivorous animals.
10. A clearer conscience – knowing that you are vegetarian or vegan and taking into account all the above reasons, you can feel better about yourself in the knowledge that you are healthier, helping the environment and not contributing to the pain and suffering of animals.

So if you are a new vegetarian and are feeling weak at the sight of meat, or if you are just wondering why you should consider being vegetarian, hopefully all these reasons will help you decide the best way forward for you.

Before starting any endeavor though, it pays to have some facts. Although I am not a vegetarian, here are some things that I learned through my research.

There are several types of vegetarians. First there is the vegetarian who adheres to a strict plant-based diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and grain. A vegan, whom I consider the hard-core vegetarian, is a vegetarian who doesn’t eat meat or seafood or use products tested on or derived from animals, such as honey, eggs or any type of dairy products.

A lacto-vegetarianism diet, however, allows for dairy products but does not include eggs, while the ovo-vegetarianism diet is just the opposite. Their diet allows for eggs, but not milk. If you decide to keep eggs and milk in your diet, than you would be considered a lacto-ovo vegetarian.

You can also become a semi-vegetarian. This type of diet allows for fish and some poultry. However, many vegetarians do not consider this a type of vegetarianism.

Planning
If you plan on becoming the type of vegetarian who gives up all forms of meat and do not plan your diet well, you run the risk of having some nutritional deficiencies. Although plant-based diets are more natural, they do not supply all of your nutritional needs. To avoid deficiencies, the following are a list of nutritional sources that you need to pay close attention to.

Protein
Protein intake is typically lower for vegetarians. This is not a problem for lacto and ovo vegetarians, but for strict vegetarians or vegans, the essential amino acids may be lacking in their diet. Food sources such as soy, hempseed, and buckwheat provide a complete serving of the eight essential amino acids. However, by combining foods such as brown rice and beans, the amino acids your body needs can also be obtained.

Iron
Iron in your diet typically comes from meat sources. Vegetarian diets usually have enough, but the bioavailability is lower, which means it absorption may not be as great. That being said, there are a wide variety of plant-based foods that are rich in iron including: oatmeal, raisins, soybean, black beans, cashews, chickpeas and whole-wheat bread.

Vitamin B12
When it comes to having enough Vitamin B12, lacto-ovo vegetarians can obtain theirs from dairy products and eggs. For the strictly plant based vegetarians, dietary supplements will be necessary unless you choose to consume fortified foods. This may not be a big concern for many though. An article in Vegetarian Nutrition reports that the body can preserve stores of the vitamin for up to 30 years without needing for its supplies to be replenished.

Fatty acids
Fatty acids play a critical role in brain function and other body functions. An excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids are fish. Instead of fish, many vegetarians prefer to supplement with sources such as flaxseed, pumpkin seed and/or canola oil. These supply the alpha-linolenic acid, but lack the necessary eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. However, some companies have been marketing seaweed extracts that contain these acids. Whole seedweed is not suggested because of their high iodine levels.

Calcium
Calcium deficiency, though not common, can occur if you do not consume enough green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin D
The lack of Vitamin D is mentioned because the general population as a whole does not get enough of it. Your Vitamin D needs can be met easily with soy milk or regular milk, and it also can be met with sensible exposure to the sun.

So after reading this and you still think vegetarianism is right for you, then I suggest you make the conversion gradually. Weening yourself off of meat may not me easy. But if you take incremental steps towards your goal, your conversion to a plant-base diet will become more easily achieved.

And one last point. Do not think that by just becoming a vegetarian that you’ll automatically start losing weight. I know of several people who are vegetarians and they are all overweight. Take this as a reminder that this diet does not give you a license to eat all you want. This is because with any weight loss diet you choose, the bottom line has to do with the amount of calories you consume. Period.