Vegetarian Foods Powerful for Health
A vegetarian diet is a powerful and pleasurable way to achieve good health. Vegetarian eating is based on a wide variety of foods that are satisfying, delicious and nutritious.
Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish or poultry. Those who include dairy products and eggs in their diets are called lacto-ovo vegetarians. Pure vegetarians eat no meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy product. While there are considerable advantages to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, pure vegetarian diets are the healthiest of all, reducing the risk of a broad range of health concerns.
Heart Disease
Vegetarians have much lower cholesterol levels than meat eaters, and heart disease is uncommon in vegetarians. The reasons are not hard to find. Vegetarian meals are typically low in saturated fat and usually contain little or no cholesterol. Since dietary cholesterol is found only in animal products such as meat, dairy, and eggs, pure vegetarians consume a cholesterol-free diet. The type of protein in a vegetarian diet may be another important advantage. Studies have shown replacing animal protein with plant protein lowers blood cholesterol levels – even if the amount and type of fat in the diet stays the same. Those studies show that a low-fat, vegetarian diet has a clear advantage.
Blood Pressure
An impressive number of studies, dating back to the early 1920s, show that vegetarians have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarians. In fact, some studies have shown that adding meat to a vegetarian diet raises blood pressure levels rapidly and significantly. The beneficial effects of a vegetarian diet occur in addition to those caused by reducing the sodium (ie. salt) content of the diet. When patients with high blood pressure begin a vegetarian diet, many are able to eliminate their need for medication.
Diabetes
The latest studies on diabetes show that a diet high in complex carbohydrates (found only in plant foods) and low in fat is best dietary prescription for controlling diabetes. Since diabetics are at high risk for heart disease, avoiding fat and cholesterol is an important goal of the diabetic diet, and a vegetarian diet is ideal. Although all insulin-dependent diabetics need to take insulin, plant-based diets can help to reduce insulin needs.
Cancer
A vegetarian diet helps to prevent cancer. Studies of vegetarians show that death rates from cancer are only about one-half to three-quarters that of the general population. Breast cancer rates are dramatically lower in countries where diets are typically plant-based. When people from those countries adopt a Western, meat-based diet, their rates of breast cancer soar.
Vegetarians also have significantly less colon cancer than meat eaters. Meat consumption is more closely associated with colon cancer than any dietary factor.
Why do vegetarian diets help protect against cancer? First, they are lower in fat and higher in fibre than meat-based diets. But there are other important factors too. For example, vegetarians usually consume more of the plant pigment bete-carotene which is associated with lowered cancer rates. This might help to explain why they have less lung cancer. Also, at least one study has shown that natural sugars in dairy products may raise the risk of ovarian cancer in some women.
Some of the anti-cancer aspects of a vegetarian diet can not yet be explained. For example, researchers are not quite sure why vegetarians have more of certain white blood cells, celled “natural killer cells”, which are able to seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Gallstones, Kidney Stones, And Osteoporosis
Vegetarians are less likely to form either kidney stones or gallstones. In addition, vegetarians may also be at lower risk for osteoporosis because they eat much less animal protein. A high intake of animal protein (eg. Cows milk) encourages the loss of animal from the bones. Replacing animal products with plant foods reduces the amount of calcium lost. This may help to explain why people who live in countries where the diet is typically plant-based have little osteoporosis even when calcium intake is low.
Planning Vegetarian Diets
It’s easy to plan vegetarian diets that meet nutrient needs. Grains, beans and vegetables are rich in protein and iron. Green leafy vegetables, beans, lentils and nuts provide calcium.
Dairy products and eggs are not necessary in a vegetarian diet. In fact, they suffer from similar nutritional problems to other animal products – being rich in cholesterol, saturated fat, animal protein and devoid of fibre. This booklet focuses on planning vegetarian meals without the use of any animal products. This may seem difficult at first, but will prove very rewarding with a little effort and time experimenting with exciting new foods and tastes.
Vitamin B12 is found, though unreliably so, in some traditional Asian foods such as miso and tempeh. However, because of modern processing, the vitamin is not found in plant foods to any reliable extent. Although vitamin B12 deficiency is uncommon, pure vegetarians should be sure to include a source of this vitamin in their diet (see Vitamin B12 on p12)
