How to Follow Strict Diets Such as Vegetarian
Among the strict diets, vegetarian is one of the most popular. The vegetarian diet is a healthy food regimen with a lot of benefits for your body. If you’re thinking of changing your eating habits, we recommend that you learn more about how to follow strict diets such as vegetarian.
Next, we are going to tell you everything that you need to know about vegetarianism. The foundation of this diet is each person’s ethical principles. But besides that, this is an interesting diet with many benefits that we think you should know about.
What does it mean to be a vegetarian?
Generally, vegetarians are those that don’t eat meat or animal products. But, the reality is a lot more complex than that. There are different ‘levels’ within vegetarianism depending on which food items are included in the diet.
These are the main types of vegetarian diets:
Vegan
Among all the vegetarian types of diet, the vegan diet is likely to be the one you have heard the most about. The people that follow this type of diet don’t consume any type of animal products or their derivates. Meaning, vegans besides not eating red or white meat, fish or shellfish, also don’t eat any animal by-products such as honey, milk or eggs.
Fruitarianism
This diet is among the most limited. The list of permitted food items is very shot. The only food items that are allowed in this diet are seeds, nuts, and fruits. Vegetables and tubers are prohibited. Even though there aren’t any studies to support this, the people who decide to follow a fruitarian diet claim that they feel more focussed, happy and creative.
Lacto-ovo vegetarian
In this type of vegetarian diet, people do eat eggs and milk. However, they don’t eat white or red meat, fish or any product of direct animal origin, but they do eat some of its derivates.
Raw vegan
This diet is similar to the regular vegan diet, except people don’t cook their food. Raw vegetarians eat their vegetables uncooked, just as they were harvested. Supposedly, uncooked vegetables are healthier since they maintain all of their properties.
Why vegetarian?
The reasons why people choose to stop eating animal products are varied. But something is clear, and that is that this type of diet has many supporters worldwide. And, if you are careful while following it, you can have a perfectly balanced and healthy diet.
You must keep in mind that each person’s reason to follow this type of diet is totally acceptable. According to each person’s beliefs and ethics, they can decide to stop eating animal products.
Some of the many reasons to start a strict diet such as a vegetarian one are:
- Animal respect: the main reason why people follow this diet. They claim animals were born to be free, not to live in cages, to die and then be eaten.
- Environmental respect: not eating animal products is also a way of taking care or our environment so future generations can also enjoy it. Meat production is one of the main causes of deforestation and pollution, besides huge water and land consumption.
Following strict diets is becoming easier
Years ago, following a strict diet and then trying to find a restaurant for dinner was extremely hard. Thankfully, nowadays this has changed. Most bars and restaurants offer vegan and vegetarian alternatives on their menus. Meaning, you won’t have any problem with being a vegetarian and going out to eat.
The same happens in supermarkets. There are now more and more substitute products that allow vegetarians to make almost the same popular dishes that non-vegetarians enjoy.
Now that you have more knowledge and information about vegetarianism and its principles, all you need to do is reflect upon it. Think and make the decision if this type of healthy diet is one that you would like to follow.