It is common knowledge that vegan or vegetarian diets are the healthiest. They are nutritious and help one to live longer. A vegan or a vegetarian diet also helps in preventive a lot of diseases. It is a common misconception for several meat eaters to presume that vegetarians or people who follow a vegan diet and a vegan lifestyle are frail, wiry and unhealthy and believe that they suffer from nutrition deficiencies like anemia. But those are just two of the several misconceptions or myths that people who are not used to incorporating a vegetarian or a vegan diet. Like stated before, vegetarian food or vegan food is plant based and this is extremely nutritious, fibrous, have low calories and does not help you gain uneven weight.
Plant based diets offer several benefits from boosting your immunity to preventing adverse health risks and reversing health hazards. They are preventive in lowering the risks of acquiring several forms of cancers, health risks, diabetes etc. Studies have proven that vegetarians and vegans weight 30 pounds lesser as opposed to their meat-eating counterparts.
The following myths and facts throw light on the actuality of a vegetarian or vegan diet. Here are some myth busters that will show you how healthy and good of an option vegan or vegetarian food is.
Myth 1:
Vegetarian or vegan diets are not nutritious and hence lack important like Iron and this leads to people who follow this lifestyle to be anemic
Fact:
Vegetarian or vegan food is very iron rich. Examples of iron rich food for vegetarians or vegans are spinach, jaggery, broccoli, beans, apricots, peas, mushrooms, and pomegranates among the others.
Myth 2:
Since it is a plant based diet vegetarians and vegans do not get enough protein
Fact:
Beans, pulses, legumes, apricots, soy, and quinoa are all very rich in protein. In fact, the protein that comes from the entire vegetarian and vegan sources are fat free or have very little fat, which makes it even healthier.
Myth 3:
Vegetarian diet is something that is not advisable for pregnant women
Fact:
Vegetarian or vegan food is the best food for pregnant women. Vegetarian food being fibrous helps in the digestion of food and avoids any digestive problems, which come with pregnancy. It also enables in less weight gain. Food such as spinach, legumes, fruits, vegetables and cereals are nutritious providing ample essential enzymes and vitamins and minerals.
Myth 4:
Vegetarian or vegan diets make it very hard for you to be a sports person
Fact:
Vegetarian diets are actually excellent for athletes; it helps in keeping their body lean and developing firm muscles. Food such as soy products, tempeh, grains, beans, fruits and vegetables provide protein and calcium. Nuts, dried fruits, seeds like pumpkin and sesame seeds, cheese and lentils and chickpeas are other sources that can keep the person fit and healthy and able.
Myth 5:
Children dislike vegetarian or vegan food
Fact:
This is actually not true because some of the vegetarian or vegan foods are delicious and are consumed in large quantities like popcorn, strawberries, kiwi, pears, tacos, smoothies, peanut butter and other delicious fruits and nuts. Children are likely not to reject these and a key to making children eat is to make the food tasty and fun to eat. It is useful to check for recipes and various ways on cooking such food to ensure it is very tasty. You can also provide for your child by giving him or her veggie burgers or veggie pizzas instead of meat burgers and meat pizzas. You can also give them smoothies and soy based foods.
Myth 6:
To alternate to a vegetarian or vegan diet after being a meat eater is difficult
Fact:
It is very difficult to completely eradicate meat in one go but taking one step at a time will help you. Start with making few changes and then slowly progressively eradicate animal products from your diet. You can start slow by cutting down meat in small quantities. Opt for veggie burgers instead of meat ones, use bean tacos as opposed to meat ones, try vegetable noodles over non vegetarian noodles, use vegetable stir fry than chicken stir fry. This way you can eliminate non-vegetarian food slowly but surely. The key is to take things slowly and eliminate one by one and not entirely all at once.
Myth 7:
Vegetarians do not take part in using any animal products
Fact:
Veganism is a form of lifestyle and they do not consume any animal product or animal by products like wool, honey, silk, leather, and diary products like cheese, milk, cream and so on. Vegetarians on the other hand just avoid consuming animal products. They use animal by products like leather, wool, dairy, and honey among the others.
Myth 8:
Due to plant based vegetarians and vegans require huge amounts of supplements
Fact:
Vegetarians and vegans generally get abundant vitamins and minerals and other important enzymes such as calcium, iron and potassium, protein among the others from fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, grains and lentils. However vegans would require vitamin B-12 as a supplement as this is only found in eggs, fish and diary and red meat. Vegetarianism on the whole is very useful in eradicating a lot of diseases and most the nutrients, which are found in plant based products are higher in content.
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