The Lamplighter: Being Vegetarian: A Healthier Choice
“That’s impossible.”
“I could never do that.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
These are just a few of the most popular responses I receive when I first tell people that I do not eat meat. Ever since the fourth grade I have maintained a completely vegetarian diet.
Despite popular belief, choosing tofu instead of ground beef is not the most difficult decision in the world, especially when considering the positive effects that vegetarianism can have on your overall well-being.
Junior Venecia Proctor has maintained a vegetarian diet for the past nine months.
“I first became a vegetarian because I didn’t like the idea of eating animals,” said Proctor.
Although she did not originally become a vegetarian to improve her well-being or health, ever since she has began her new diet she has noticed some positive changes in her mental health.
“I can last longer without sleeping and I’m in a better mood most of the time,” said Proctor.
Along with improving your mood and energy levels, vegetarianism also significantly reduces your chances of getting heart disease, some types of cancer, high cholesterol and more.
Most high school students do not consider these problems to be important in their life now, but being a vegetarian may help prevent these health issues in the future.
Everyone wants to have a low chance for life threatening health concerns, but many people could never imagine giving up their favorite meat.
However, there are multiple ways that you can be some form of a vegetarian and still incorporate your favorite foods into your diet.
There are four main types of vegetarians; vegans, lacto-vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians and flexitarians.
Vegans follow the strictest form of vegetarianism by eliminating all animal products from their diet, which includes all meat and dairy products. They exclude anyfoof prouduct that comes from an animal.
The second strictest form of vegetarianism is lacto-vegetarianism. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products like milk and cheese. However, they do not include eggs or any meats into their diet.
Lacto-ovo vegetarianism is the most common form of vegetarianism. It is also the type of vegetarian that I classify myself as. Lacto-ovo vegetarians are fundamentally the same as lacto-vegetarians with the addition of eggs into their diet.
Flexiterians follow the most flexible form of vegetarianism. They are considered semi-vegetarians who consume only a limited amount or certain types of meat. Flexiterians have the ability to customly create their vegetarian diet.
A popular form of Flexiteriamism is pescetarianism. Pescetarians eat fish but exclude all other meats from their diet.
With so many forms of vegetarian to choose from, it is easy to custom create a diet that will be perfect for you.
Although following a vegetarian diet is usually beneficial, it can entail some health problems if it is poorly planned.Vegetarians often neglect to incorporate calcium, omega 3, iron and the vitamin B12 into their diet.
However, these nutrients can be found in plenty of vegetarian friendly foods such as nuts, beans, soy, tofu and supplements. All of these nutritious substitutes can be found can be found at most grocery stores.
As long as you remember to include these healthful ingredients into your diet, any form of vegetarianism will more than likely be beneficial to your life.
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