Don't Meat Your Maker - be Healthy, be a Veggie!!! (Health Issues for Vegetarian)

Name: crystalclara

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Health Issues for Vegetarian
Date:	15/11/01 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty, Healthy

Disadvantages: None

What can I tell anyone about being a veggie? I’ve been vegetarian for 28 years now (since I was six). Whoops, given something away there! I’ve been a veggie for so long, that I don’t really think about it much anymore. Everyone knows I’m veggie, and I don’t have to inform too many people these days. When I go for dinner/lunch at a friends house, they know what not to feed me. These days it’s easy.
It hasn’t always been that way. When I was first out there in the big wide world, socialising and dining out, things were different. To start with sixteen years ago veggie food in restaurants, amounted to an omelette. Or just potatoes and peas if you were really unlucky!
In every house I went into (friends, boyfriends, their friends/ relatives-there were lots of new people popping in and out of my life in my younger day!), I would have to explain that I didn’t eat meat, and list the reasons why ( without sounding too sanctimonious!), let them know how long I hadn’t eaten meat, and on occasion explain why, then, I was wearing a watch with a leather strap!
Going back to when I was six, I have to admit to not actually remembering why I wanted to stop eating meat. I know it was for the right reasons,( I didn’t like the fact that animals were killed for us to eat), but I can’t recall ever coming to that conclusion. It’s been so long now that its an excepted fact that I feel like that. My mum allowed me to finally become a veggie,( apparently I’d been asking since I was four!), at Christmas (must have been 1973!). My German grandma, had just dished up her favourite Xmas meal, of duck and vegetables. My mum watched me pale, and attempt gallantly to pick my way through this horrendous meal, and she finally caved in.
Over the years, despite having eaten healthily when I was a child-after all my mum took care of my diet, and was very thorough in her research. Myself, and my brother who
joined me three years later, and is still now a veggie, were fed a diet high in nuts and pulses, with plenty of protein , and abundant quantities of fruit and vegetables. I was a healthy (flushed, not pale), energetic child with more than my share of surplus poundage (and they say veggies are skinny!)
As an adult things changed. The pulses disappeared ,as did much of the fruit and veg, and my diet became a convenience diet. My vegetarianism had basically just become a poor diet (but one without the meat). This as you can imagine led me to become quite unhealthy. Anaemia is common among vegetarians who do not supplement their diet with iron, and can lead to feeling extremely unwell, and can in extreme circumstances be fatal. We all know that red meat eaten by carnivores is high in iron, so this is something we loose out on as soon as we give up meat.
I didn’t really want to bore people who probably know alot about a vegetarian diet with too much info on the foods to eat, but I figured that as I had now got my diet back on track, and feel so much better for it, I would give a brief summary of some important foods for us to eat. A veggie diet , if taken correctly is very healthy – after all, we don’t consume as much fat as meat eaters, which has got to be good for our hearts!
I’ll start with fruit and vegetables .These raw ,frozen or even at times out of tins are good for you, regardless of how you get your protein. Eating a varied selection of these, more than the recommended 5 portions a day, if you can, will ensure you get your minerals and your vitamins (even from the B complex of vitamins, found in bananas and potatoes). As so many of the B complex of vitamins are needed for a healthy nervous system, and digestive system, it’s essential to include dairy products and eggs too, for good measure. Vegans, who eat no food with has come from an animal, need extra supplements and a very careful diet to ensure they have a correct
balance of vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin D is to be found in very few foods; eggs and oily fish( some veggies, including myself just recently, do eat some fish – it is fantastically good for you, and makes going out a lot easier!).Otherwise, as most of us already know, get some sunlight ( not too much mind!) on your body!
Protein can be obtained from cheeses, eggs, beans (yes, baked beans!) and a variety of extremely good soya and quorn produce. Soya is thought now to reduce the risk of some cancers!
Rice, lentils and other pulses are an important part of a veggie diet. These starches are an important form of carbohydrates, needed by our bodies for energy. Try to avoid too much fat, and refined food ( good advice for everyone).
Do not forget calcium, found in milk ,pulses, bread and flour to name but a few; and lastly and very importantly iron, as already mentioned. This is needed for healthy blood and muscles – a deficiency in this can leave you very run down and tired. Iron is found in lentils, eggs(again – they’re great aren’t they ?), dried fruits, such as apricots, whole grain cereals and CHOCOLATE).
So to any would veggies out there – I’ ld just say that a diet without meat can be full and varied, and very interesting – it’s not all lentils and cabbage, you know. Go for it!!

Summary: