Vegetarian Diet For Beginners, Guide and Meal Plan

What is a vegetarian Diet About?

The vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry. People often follow a vegetarian diet for religious or personal reasons, as well as ethical concerns such as animal rights.

The most common types include:

• A lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry while allowing eggs and dairy products.
• The Lacto-vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, poultry, and eggs while allowing dairy products.
• Ovo-vegetarian diet avoids meat, fish, poultry, and dairy products while allowing eggs.
• Pescetarian diet excludes meat and poultry but allows fish, eggs, and dairy products on occasion.
• Vegan diet tries to avoid eating meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, as well as other animal-derived products like honey.
• Flexitarian diet a mostly vegetarian diet that incorporates occasional meat, fish or poultry.

Benefits For Healths

1.Increases lifespan

Though there are many factors that contribute to a longer life, adopting a vegetarian diet is one of them. The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the less toxins and chemicals build up in your body, allowing you to live a longer and healthier life.

2.Lower cholesterol levels

Whether you believe it or not, there is no health benefit to eating animal fat. Because cholesterol is only found in animal foods, vegetarian diets are cholesterol-free. Although cholesterol is an essential component of every human cell, vegetarians do not need to worry about not getting enough cholesterol because the body can produce all of the cholesterol it requires from vegan foods. After studying the long-term effects of following a vegetarian diet, Korean researchers concluded that vegetarians had lower body fat and cholesterol levels than omnivores.

3.Reduces risk of diabetes

Non-vegetarians typically experience extreme blood sugar levels, sometimes very high, shortly after consumption. If nonvegetarians switch to a vegetarian diet, this can be avoided and a constant flow of blood sugar maintained. A healthy vegetarian diet is easy to digest, nutritious, and has fewer fatty acids.

Replace Meat With Vegetables

FOODS TO EAT

A vegetarian diet should consist of a variety of fruits and vegetables, grains, healthy fats, and proteins.

A few healthy foods to eat on a vegetarian diet are:

• Fruits: Apples, bananas, berries, oranges, melons, pears, peaches
• Vegetables: Leafy greens, asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots
• Grains: Quinoa, barley, buckwheat, rice, oats
• Legumes: Lentils, beans, peas, chickpeas.
• Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, cashews, chestnuts
• Seeds: Flaxseeds, chia and hemp seeds
• Healthy fats: Olive oil, avocados
• Proteins: Tempeh, tofu, seitan, natto, nutritional yeast, spirulina, eggs, dairy products

FOODS TO AVOID

There are many variations of vegetarianism, each with different restrictions. Lacto-ovo vegetarianism, the most common type of vegetarian diet, involves eliminating all meat, poultry and fish.

Depending on your needs and preferences, you may have to avoid the following foods on a vegetarian diet:

• Meat: Beef, veal and pork
• Poultry: Chicken and turkey
• Fish and shellfish: This restriction does not apply to pescatarians
• Meat-based ingredients: Gelatin, lard, carmine, isinglass, oleic acid and suet
• Eggs: This restriction applies to vegans and lacto-vegetarians.
• Dairy products: This restriction on milk, yogurt and cheese applies to vegans and ovo-vegetarians.
• Other animal products: Vegans may choose to avoid honey, beeswax and pollen.

Sample Meal Plan

Monday

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with fruit and flaxseeds
• Lunch: Grilled veggie and avacado wrap
• Dinner: Mushroom Sandwich

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms
• Lunch: Brown rice with bean curd soup
• Dinner: Chickpea salad

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Greek yogurt with chia seeds and berries
• Lunch: Vegetable spaghetti with lemon juice
• Dinner: Grill eggplant with stir fry broccoli

Thursday

• Breakfast: Tofu scramble with sauteed peppers, onions and spinach
• Lunch: Vegetable curry noodle soup
• Dinner: Cauliflower rice with mashed potato

Friday

• Breakfast: Whole-wheat toast with avocado and nutritional yeast
• Lunch: Vegetarian Lasagna
• Dinner: Vegetable soup

Saturday

• Breakfast: Smoothie of kale, berries, bananas, nut butter and almond milk
• Lunch: Salad Burger
• Dinner: Mushroom soup with garlic bread

Sunday

• Breakfast: Kale and sweet potato hash
• Lunch: Brown rice and stir fry vegetables
• Dinner: Black bean tacos with cauliflower rice