Focusing on a vegetarian diet? Here’s how to stay healthy & stay in shape

With all of the praise being given to vegetarian and vegan diets in the movies and media, let’s explore the upsides and the downsides of these diets, and how you can maintain a healthy lifestyle on a vegetarian and vegan diet…
Vegans and vegetarians have usually chosen this way of life for one (or more) of three reasons: animals rights concerns, environmental concerns, or health concerns.

Whatever path led you to this choice, you can’t live a healthy life while just eating pasta and tomato sauce. This is also NOT a good idea if you’re planning to lose weight or stay trim on a vegetarian diet. Researching your meals, counting calories, and making sure that you get all your essential nutrients is just as important for vegetarians as it is for meat-eaters.

If you’re used to eating meals that contain a lot of meat and animal products, you might be stuck for some good ideas on how to eat a healthy, balanced diet, and still lose weight, or maintain your figure.

What are vegetarians and vegans?

A ‘vegetarian’ is someone who does not eat red meat, white meat, fish, pork, or any other kind of dead animal.

Some vegetarians eat eggs while others do not, some eat dairy while others do not, but no vegetarian eats meat.

A ‘vegan’ is someone who does not consume or use any animal product. This includes all of the things that vegetarians don’t eat plus a few more. They avoid dairy, eggs, and many even avoid clothing and cleaning materials that have been obtained from animal products.

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