Vegetarian Awareness Month: Different Types of Vegetarianism

Posted By Ingrid Turner on Oct 1, 2013 in Featured, Fruit & Vegetables, Healthy, Holidays & Events, Vegetarian | 0 comments

Vegetarian Awareness Month is an opportunity to not only brush up on our knowledge about being a vegetarian, but to eat some great vegetarian dishes too!

Worldwide, there are millions, maybe even billions of people, who adhere to a vegetarian diet and sometimes not through choice, but because meats aren’t available to them.

Others choose vegetarian or partially vegetarian diets for health, religious or philosophical reasons.

Some people who are partial vegetarians, cut out red meats, and others don’t eat any animal products at all (veganism).

Yet, others will eat chicken, eggs, fish and dairy. It is called ovo-lacto vegetarianism when a person includes eggs & dairy into their vegetarian diet.

My daughter, Kimberly, upon return from her year-long stay in Australia, voluntarily became an ov0-lacto vegetarian, as she felt overloaded by the amount of meat consumed over the past year in an Aussie diet. This lasted a few years until she felt prepared to include meat into her diet again.

It is a good idea in this day and age of prepackaged, refined, heavily salted, prepared foods to make a point of eating vegetarian 2 or 3 times a week, and include fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Even in our home, where we are not vegetarians, we eat at least one night a week where our meal is meatless.

This will offer you a variety of essential nutrients & needed proteins. It is important to find other ways to ingest vitamin B12, which is found in soy milk, tofu or B12 vitamin supplements.

A vegan diet requires a bit more planning & organization, but the benefits of cutting back on red meat and increasing plant foods are well worth it for overall health.