Learn how to make a simple transition to a healthier lifestyle, with healthy and delicious vegetarian meals and finally eliminate animal by-products from your life forever. Our simple guides will help you make the transition to a vegetarian lifestyle in just a few easy steps.
Vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular as people want to adopt healthier and greener lifestyles. However, may fear making the switch as they assume that there will be nothing good left to eat. Many cultures have lead vegetarian based regimens for hundreds of years and would most likely beg to differ.
There are many different levels of vegetarianism, and the first step is to decide just how extreme you want to be. Vegetarianism is the practice of following a diet based on plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds, with or without dairy products and eggs. Vegetarians do not eat meat, game, poultry, fish, crustacea, shellfish, or products of animal slaughter such as animal-derived gelatin and rennet. A vegan diet is a form of vegetarian diet which excludes all animal products, including dairy products, eggs, and honey. A lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy products but excludes eggs, an ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs but not dairy, and a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet includes both eggs and dairy products.
A semi-vegetarian diet consists largely of vegetarian foods, but may include fish and sometimes poultry, as well as dairy products and eggs. A pescetarian diet, for example, includes fish but no meat. The association of semi-vegetarianism with vegetarianism in common use has led vegetarian groups such as the Vegetarian Society to note these diets are not vegetarian.
For someone who is just getting started, it’s probably best to take baby steps, and start omitting things a little at a time. Maybe start by cutting out red meat, then all meat. Once your body makes that adjustment cut down on dairy and then eventually cut it out entirely and so on. There may be some foods that you don’t want to cut out at all, but again it’s up to you to make that decision, as you have to do what feels right to you. There are no rules when it comes to your own diet. Cutting out everything all at once will most likely leave you frustrated and lead you to returning to your previous carnivorous based diet, so moderation is key when just setting out.
Once you decide which foods you want to start dropping, the next step is to start gathering up some new recipes. There are several vegetarian cookbooks on the market, as well as online resources. You can even switch out the ingredients of some of your already favorite recipes. Instead making meat lasagna, make a veggie one, and peppers to your homemade pizza instead of pepperoni. If in the past you have relied on meat as your main source of protein, you will need to find substitutions. A simple of dish of rice and beans is a great vegetarian source of protein, will also cost less and won’t raise your cholesterol. There are other foods that are also high in protein such as tofu, soy and nuts. Dark green vegetables are a great source of iron such as spinach, and kale. Worried about not getting enough calcium? There are several different options such as broccoli, almonds, oranges, turnips and okra as well as calcium-fortified grains and cereals.
After a while all of this will become easier to you. You may even start to notice some benefits now that you are no longer buying or eating meat. Veggies typically cost less than meat and you can even grow your own. Animal based products contribute to higher cholesterol levels, and some studies suggest that they are also cancer causing. Since you will also be eating a diet lower in fat, you might even fit into your jeans better. You might also find that you are becoming more creative in the kitchen and even enjoying vegetarianism.
Not to mention you will also be doing the planet a huge service. Yes, that’s right vegetarianism is green. Raising cattle takes up thousands of acres of land, requires gallons upon gallons of water, produce thousands of pounds of fecal waste and greenhouse causing methane gas. Cattle raised by conventional farms (non-organic) are loaded up with growth hormones and antibiotics, both of which trickle into the human food chain posing potential harm to humans. The water run-off from cattle farms is polluted with fertilizers and waste and is not longer potable. Without going into detail, slaughterhouses aren’t exactly humanitarian either. It was Paul McCartney who said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”
In conclusion, take small steps to becoming a vegetarian and take one large step toward a healthier, greener more humanitarian lifestyle.