Nutritional Guidelines for Vegetarians

It is very important for people to understand that being a vegetarian can be quite a healthy life style, but only if your diet is well balanced. In order to keep your diet balanced you have to make sure you are eating a variety of foods, such as grains, fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds and a small amount of fat too. In this article we are going to present a few nutritional guidelines for vegetarians that will definitely help them to keep a more balanced diet. The vegetarian food pyramid has been proven to be one of the best diet plans that offer optimum nutrition for vegetarians. The pyramid says that you should eat eggs and sweets occasionally and in small quantities, you should eat nuts, egg whites, soy milks dairy, and plant oils on a daily basis and every meal should contain fruits or vegetables, whole grains, soy, beans, peanuts and other legumes. It is important for any vegetarian to know that each of these food groups will provide them with some but not all the nutrients they need. All the groups are important if you want to be healthy. Vegetarians should pay more attention to their intake of vitamin B12 and vitamin D by eating fortified foods or even taking supplements.

In the following paragraphs we are going to offer some nutritional guidelines for vegetarians concerning the nutrient that are necessary for their health. One of the most important nutrients of a vegetarian diet is protein. The protein needs can be completely fulfilled from plant sources provided that a considerable quantity of plant foods is consumed. There is no need for complementary protein intake if they regularly appear in the diet. Another important nutrient that should be present in any balanced vegetarian diet is iron. Vegetarian diets actually have higher levels of iron content than non-vegetarian ones. However, it is important to note that vegetarians have trouble with iron reserves because the iron provided by plants is harder to be absorbed by the body. Thus, iron deficiency anemia is as common at vegetarians as it is at non-vegetarians. The best thing you can do is to try to eat the iron provider foods with other foods that contain C because iron is much easier to absorb this way. The best way to do this is to have a fruit or vegetable with your meals, or just a simple glass of fruit juice.

Vegetarians should also always pay attention to their vitamin intake. Next, we are going present some nutritional guidelines for vegetarians concerning vitamins. One of the vitamins that usually lack from the vegetarian diet is vitamin B12. This happens because plant foods are not a reliable source of this vitamin. It has been demonstrated that the vitamin B12 found in spirulina, sea vegetables, tempeh and miso is an inactive analog of the active vitamin. Even though dairy products and eggs are known to contain this vitamin, research has demonstrated that lacto-ovo-vegetarians have quite low levels of vitamin B12. Thus, it is recommended that vegetarians should try to increase their vitamin B12 intake by eating more fortified foods or even taking supplements. Another vitamin that may cause problems for vegetarians is vitamin D. This is quite poorly supplied in vegetarian diets, thus it is important for vegetarians to eat a bigger amount of fortified foods, such as soy milk and cereals. Also, the sun light is a great source of vitamin D, thus exposure to sun for 15 minutes per day may provide the necessary amount of this vitamin. Also, as a vegetarian you should make sure that you include in your daily diet calcium food sources.