Becoming a vegetarian – Harvard Health

People become vegetarians for many reasons, including health, religious convictions, concerns about animal welfare or the use of antibiotics and hormones in livestock, or a desire to eat in a way that avoids excessive use of environmental resources. Some people follow a largely vegetarian diet because they can’t afford to eat meat. Becoming a vegetarian has become more appealing and accessible, thanks to the year-round availability of fresh produce, more vegetarian dining options, and the growing culinary influence of cultures with largely plant-based diets.

Traditionally, research into vegetarianism focused mainly on potential nutritional deficiencies, but in recent years, the pendulum has swung the other way, and studies are confirming the health benefits of meat-free eating. Nowadays, plant-based eating is recognized as not only nutritionally sufficient but also as a way to reduce the risk for many chronic illnesses. According to the American Dietetic Association, “appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. “

“Appropriately planned” is the operative term. Unless you follow recommended guidelines on nutrition, fat consumption, and weight control, becoming a vegetarian won’t necessarily be good for you. A diet of soda, cheese pizza, and candy, after all, is technically “vegetarian.” For health, it’s important to make sure that you eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It’s also vital to replace saturated and trans fats with good fats, such as those found in nuts, olive oil, and canola oil. And always keep in mind that if you eat too many calories, even from nutritious, low-fat, plant-based foods, you’ll gain weight. So it’s also important to practice portion control, read food labels, and engage in regular physical activity.

You can get many of the health benefits of being vegetarian without going all the way. For example, a Mediterranean eating pattern — known to be associated with longer life and reduced risk of several chronic illnesses — features an emphasis on plant foods with a sparing use of meat. Even if you don’t want to become a complete vegetarian, you can steer your diet in that direction with a few simple substitutions, such as plant-based sources of protein — beans or tofu, for example — or fish instead of meat a couple of times a week.

Only you can decide whether a vegetarian diet is right for you. If better health is your goal, here are some things to consider.

Can becoming a vegetarian protect you against major diseases?

Maybe. Compared with meat eaters, vegetarians tend to consume less saturated fat and cholesterol and more vitamins C and E, dietary fiber, folic acid, potassium, magnesium, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals), such as carotenoids and flavonoids. As a result, they’re likely to have lower total and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and lower body mass index (BMI), all of which are associated with longevity and a reduced risk for many chronic diseases.

But there still aren’t enough data to say exactly how a vegetarian diet influences long-term health. It’s difficult to tease out the influence of vegetarianism from other practices that vegetarians are more likely to follow, such as not smoking, not drinking excessively, and getting adequate exercise. But here’s what some of the research has shown so far:

Heart disease. There’s some evidence that vegetarians have a lower risk for cardiac events (such as a heart attack) and death from cardiac causes. In one of the largest studies — a combined analysis of data from five prospective studies involving more than 76,000 participants published several years ago — vegetarians were, on average, 25% less likely to die of heart disease. This result confirmed earlier findings from studies comparing vegetarian and nonvegetarian Seventh-day Adventists (members of this religious group avoid caffeine and don’t drink or smoke; about 40% are vegetarians). In another study involving 65,000 people in the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford), researchers found a 19% lower risk of death from heart disease among vegetarians. However, there were few deaths in either group, so the observed differences may have been due to chance.

For heart protection, it’s best to choose high-fiber whole grains and legumes, which are digested slowly and have a low glycemic index — that is, they help keep blood sugar levels steady. Soluble fiber also helps reduce cholesterol levels. Refined carbohydrates and starches like potatoes, white rice, and white-flour products cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, which increases the risk of heart attack and diabetes (a risk factor for heart disease).

Nuts are also heart-protective. They have a low glycemic index and contain many antioxidants, vegetable protein, fiber, minerals, and healthy fatty acids. The downside: nuts pack a lot of calories, so restrict your daily intake to a small handful (about an ounce). The upside: because of their fat content, even a small amount of nuts can satisfy the appetite.

Walnuts, in particular, are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have many health benefits. Even so, fish are the best source of omega-3s, and it’s not clear whether plant-derived omega-3s are an adequate substitute for fish in the diet. One study suggests that omega-3s from walnuts and fish both work to lower heart disease risk, but by different routes. Walnut omega-3s (alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA) help reduce total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol, while omega-3s from fish (eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA) lower triglycerides and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Cancer. Hundreds of studies suggest that eating lots of fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of developing certain cancers, and there’s evidence that vegetarians have a lower incidence of cancer than nonvegetarians do. But the differences aren’t large. A vegetarian diet can make it easier to get the recommended minimum of five daily servings of fruits and vegetables, but a purely vegetarian diet is not necessarily better than a plant-based diet that also includes fish or poultry. For example, in a pooled analysis of data from the Oxford Vegetarian Study and EPIC-Oxford, fish-eaters had a lower risk of certain cancers than vegetarians.

If you stop eating red meat (whether or not you become a vegetarian), you’ll eliminate a risk factor for colon cancer. It’s not clear whether avoiding all animal products reduces the risk further. Vegetarians usually have lower levels of potentially carcinogenic substances in their colons, but studies comparing cancer rates in vegetarians and nonvegetarians have shown inconsistent results.

Type 2 diabetes. Research suggests that a predominantly plant-based diet can reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. In studies of Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarians’ risk of developing diabetes was half that of nonvegetarians, even after taking BMI into account. The Harvard-based Women’s Health Study found a similar correlation between eating red meat (especially processed meats, such as bacon and hot dogs) and diabetes risk, after adjusting for BMI, total calorie intake, and exercise.

What about bone health?

Some women are reluctant to try a vegetarian diet — especially one that doesn’t include calcium-rich dairy products — because they’re concerned about osteoporosis. Lacto-ovo vegetarians (see “Varieties of vegetarians”) consume at least as much calcium as meat-eaters, but vegans typically consume less. In the EPIC-Oxford study, 75% of vegans got less than the recommended daily amount of calcium. But vegans who consumed at least 525 milligrams of calcium per day were not especially vulnerable to fractures.

Certain vegetables can supply calcium, including bok choy, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, collards, and kale. (Spinach and Swiss chard, which also contain calcium, are not such good choices, because along with the calcium they have oxalates, which make it harder for the body to absorb calcium.) Moreover, the high potassium and magnesium content of fruits and vegetables reduces blood acidity, lowering the urinary excretion of calcium.

People who follow a vegetarian diet and especially a vegan diet may be at risk of getting insufficient vitamin D and vitamin K, both needed for bone health. Although green leafy vegetables contain some vitamin K, vegans may also need to rely on fortified foods, including some types of soy milk, rice milk, organic orange juice, and breakfast cereals. They may also want to consider taking a vitamin D supplement.

What about the health risks of being vegetarian?

Concerns about vegetarian diets have focused mainly on the following nutrients:

Protein. Research shows that lacto-ovo vegetarians generally get the recommended daily amount of protein, which is easily obtained from dairy products and eggs. (Women need about 0.4 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. Because the protein in vegetables is somewhat different from animal protein, vegans may need 0. 45 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.) There are many plant sources that can help vegans meet their protein needs, including peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, seeds, nuts, soy products, and whole grains (for example, wheat, oats, barley, and brown rice). Vegetarians used to be told that they had to combine “complementary” plant proteins (rice with beans, for example) at every meal to get all the amino acids contained in meat protein. Now, health experts say that such rigid planning is unnecessary. According to the American Dietetic Association, eating a wide variety of protein sources every day is sufficient.

Vitamin B₁₂. Vitamin B₁₂ is found only in animal products, but those products include dairy foods and eggs, so most vegetarians get all they need. If you avoid animal products altogether, you should eat foods fortified with vitamin B₁₂ (certain soy and rice beverages and breakfast cereals) or take a vitamin B₁₂ supplement to avoid a deficiency, which can cause neurological problems and pernicious anemia.

Iron. Studies show that in Western countries, vegetarians tend to get the same amount of iron as meat eaters. But the iron in meat (especially red meat) is more readily absorbed than the kind found in plant foods, known as non-heme iron. The absorption of non-heme iron is enhanced by vitamin C and other acids found in fruits and vegetables, but it may be inhibited by the phytic acid in whole grains, beans, lentils, seeds, and nuts.

Zinc. Phytic acid in whole grains, seeds, beans, and legumes also reduces zinc absorption, but vegetarians in Western countries do not appear to be zinc-deficient.

Omega-3 fatty acids. Diets that include no fish or eggs are low in EPA and DHA. Our bodies can convert ALA in plant foods to EPA and DHA, but not very efficiently. Vegans can get DHA from algae supplements, which increase blood levels of DHA as well as EPA (by a process called retroversion). DHA-fortified breakfast bars and soy milk are also available. Official dietary guidelines recommend 1.10 grams per day of ALA for women, but vegetarians who consume little or no EPA and DHA should probably get more than that. Good ALA sources include flaxseed, walnuts, canola oil, and soy.

For more on eating for optimum health, buy the Harvard Special Health Report  Healthy Eating: A guide to the new nutrition .

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Is it Better Than Eating Meat?

By Diana Kelly

The Rumor: Vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters

You’ve heard buzz over the years that following a vegetarian diet is better for your health, and you’ve probably read a few magazine articles featuring a celeb or two who swore off meat and animal products and “magically” lost weight. So does ditching meat automatically equal weight loss? Will it really help you live longer and be healthier overall?

The Verdict: Vegetarian diets can be unhealthy if you’re not careful

First of all, what exactly constitutes “vegetarian”? There are two basic kinds of vegetarian diet: lacto-ovo and strict (vegan). Most vegetarians fall into the lacto-ovo category: They eat only non-animal products (fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, soy, etc.), but do eat animal byproducts, such as yogurt and eggs. In terms of nutritional requirements, being a lacto-ovo vegetarian isn’t all that different from being a meat-eater, according to Katherine Tallmadge, RD, LD, past media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Vegans, however, don’t eat any animal products whatsoever — and as a result, “they must be very careful in their selection of foods so that they get all the nutrients they need,” says Tallmadge. (Potato chips are vegan, after all.)

That said, following a vegetarian diet “can be nutritionally superior to any other way of eating,” says Tallmadge. “It can be one of the healthiest ways to eat, because we know plant foods are loaded with nutrients to protect our health.”

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an evidence-based review showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Vegetarians appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than meat eaters. Vegetarians also tend to have a lower body mass index, lower overall cancer rates and lower risk of chronic disease.

But if your vegetarian co-worker is noshing greasy veggie burgers and fries every day for lunch, is he likely to be healthier than you, who always orders the grilled salmon? Definitely not!

“A vegetarian diet doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss — especially if you eat out at restaurants often,” says Tallmadge. “A lot of times, the only vegetarian dishes on the menu are cheesy and fattening.” It can be hard to find restaurants serving soy burgers or beans and rice, and eating restaurant-size portions of pasta, rice, nuts and cheese could quickly add up to weight gain. According to Tallmadge, the desire to eat lighter meals that provide adequate protein is what makes many vegetarians change their minds and start eating fish.

The most important thing for vegetarians of all kinds to remember is to make sure they are getting key nutrients, including protein, fatty acids, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium and vitamins D and B-12. Protein is essential for building muscle mass, amino function, fighting disease and healing, according to Tallmadge, so make sure you’re getting protein in each meal throughout the day for optimum absorption. “In order to get essential amino acids and nutrients,” says Tallmadge, “vegans must eat soy protein — the only vegetable protein which is as complete as animal protein. Or they must mix beans with grains.”

If you’re considering going vegetarian, keep these tips in mind:

1. There are numerous research-proven health benefits to following a vegetarian diet, but only if you’re doing it properly and not substituting meat with processed or high-fat vegetarian products.
2. Both lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegans need to make sure they are getting adequate nutrition. It’s a good idea to purchase a book on how to follow a vegetarian diet, or to meet with a nutritionist to outline what a few days of meals looks like.
3. Be aware of how much of your diet is made up of nuts as a source of protein, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. An ounce of nuts is about 180 calories and 5 grams of protein. You should be getting between 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. So: You’d have to eat thousands of calories worth of something like nuts in order to get the amount of protein you need to be healthy, according to Tallmadge. They’re a healthy food, but high in fat and calories — so be sure to round out your diet with a variety of vegetarian proteins.

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How to become a vegetarian (and not break loose): 5 important steps

We do not know for what reasons you want to stop eating meat and adjust your diet in general (and in no case do we impose this idea on you). But if you are determined to become a vegetarian, here are the instructions from The Challenger and Olesya Besperstova, project manager at No Plastic. It’s Fantastic, will help you not to break loose and not to abandon your idea halfway through.

1. Do not change your diet abruptly

If you’ve been eating meat, fish, and dairy products all your life, cutting them out sharply and restricting your diet is unlikely to make you happy. Often the results of this approach are stress and breakdowns. It is better to play it safe and turn vegetarianism into your lifestyle gradually.

Olesya Bespertova

CEO of the No Plastic project. It’s Fantastic

– I highly recommend that when switching to vegetarianism, veganism does not impose severe restrictions on the diet right away. This can cause extreme stress. Eat more vegetables, try to learn more about a varied diet and healthy foods. Be patient, it takes years for many to transition to a vegan or vegetarian diet, and that’s okay.

Start small, such as eliminating only red meat from your diet. Leave chicken and turkey on your daily menu. Try following this principle for a month or more. Take your time, but if you feel comfortable, move on to the next step.

2. Avoid all meats

And again, act consistently, but do not rush. For example, start with one meat-free day per week. You can join the international movement Meatless Monday (“Monday without meat” – English) – people around the world are sure that in this way they strengthen their health and take care of the planet.

When you feel ready to completely cut meat out of your diet, do it. But let all kinds of fish remain on your menu.

Olesya Bespertova

CEO of the No Plastic project. It’s Fantastic

— In my case, giving up meat was very easy and natural. I was on vacation in Asia and I practically didn’t eat meat there, just because hearty and hard to digest food is not what you need in the heat. At first I stopped eating red meat, and after a couple of months, white meat. Left in the diet only fish and seafood. I haven’t eaten meat for more than three years, and I don’t feel like it.

The practice of yoga greatly reinforced my rejection of meat – I became interested in ashtanga yoga, and non-violence became an important principle of life for me. After that, I also gave up unnecessary use and disposable items.

3. Gradually eliminate fish from your diet

First, the one that resembles red meat in structure, such as tuna. Then all other types of fish. Many people who later became vegans or vegetarians spent months or even years in the first or second stage.

If you don’t feel ready to give up fish, take a step back. Perhaps you need more time.

4. Leave your favorite foods in the diet

If you feel like eating eggs or drinking milk, keep those foods in your diet. Gradually look for an alternative. For example, instead of cow’s milk, try rice, pumpkin or almond milk. A healthy and uncomplicated substitute for cow’s milk can be an oatmeal drink (how to make it at home – read this material).

You may eventually like the taste of plant-based milk even more than the taste of an animal product. By the way, you can cook delicious smoothies and even coffee with vegetable milk (here you will find a recipe for coconut cold brew).

Olesya Bespertova

CEO of the No Plastic project. It’s Fantastic

— How we eat, what foods we choose, greatly affects the resources of our planet. The production of meat and milk requires a huge amount of resources, these products have a high carbon footprint.

I try to choose products with a low carbon footprint – local seasonal vegetables, berries, fruits.

5. Diversify your menu

It would be a mistake to perceive vegetarianism only as a dietary restriction. Use the opportunity to expand your palette of tastes, try new products that you did not notice before, discover new dishes.

Olesya Bespertova

vegan, CEO of the No Plastic project. It’s Fantastic

— High-protein cereals helped me diversify the menu (by the way, they turned out to be very tasty): quinoa, green buckwheat, as well as chickpeas, lentils, mung beans. Previously, all this was not on my menu, now it is part of my daily diet.

I love raw pressed oils, my favorites are hemp and avocado oil. Plant milk is just a discovery for me, almond and rice-coconut are the most delicious. I am looking for products with Organic certificates (there is a note about this on the packaging), I am glad that now it is not a problem to find such products in Russia.

Now my menu has become really diverse, I try new foods and dishes, and before that I mostly ate only meat with side dishes. There are a lot of fruits, berries and greens in my diet. And since , the highlight of the vegan menu is aged cashew cheese. I tried it in Bali and in Europe – incredibly delicious!

Learn how to make hummus, add it along with pomegranate and mint to cauliflower, make crunchy vegetable chips, or make a veggie kebab. Make sure that the diet is varied, rich in vitamins and useful trace elements, protein and fiber, so that the calorie content of the daily menu is sufficient.

And if people start asking annoying questions about your menu, we know how to answer them.

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10 tips for those who decide to become a vegetarian

March 20 is International Meat Free Day. The Challenger tells you what you need to know before you decide to completely eliminate this product from your diet.

1. Take your time

Of course, there are those who find it easy to make the decision to switch to an unusual diet, but not everyone can do it. Lack of thought can only harm and delay the day when you can finally give up meat.

To begin with, it is better to set yourself quite achievable goals, for example, do not eat meat and fish during the day or a week, and then completely switch to vegetarianism. It is equally important to consider your options and ask yourself: Do I really want to become a vegetarian? Sometimes such a desire passes quickly, which is why it takes time for the final decision to mature.

2. Make your transition plan

Refusal of meat, like any other restriction in food, requires careful study. First of all, you need to know what useful substances contained in meat you will lose – and look for a replacement for them. At first, it is even important to calculate the required rate of consumption of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, calcium, iron and, based on this, draw up a nutrition plan for the day, and then simply focus on it. Vegetarianism is not a diet, but a worldview, so you need to take this decision seriously, and not just exclude meat and fish from the diet, but try new foods.

Alfiya Aminova

gastroenterologist at the clinic “K + 31”

– There are essential amino acids that come into the body only with meat or fish food, and it can be difficult to replace them. Vegans who do not consume any animal proteins even have to get the missing amino acids and vitamins in the form of dietary supplements or drugs. Vitamin B12, for example, is found only in meat, and a deficiency of this vitamin can lead to the development of multiple sclerosis, a very severe systemic connective tissue disease. A small amount of this vitamin is found in seaweed, but to meet the daily requirement, their need to eat a huge amount.

Young women often have a latent or latent iron deficiency (this can only be determined by a biochemical blood test), and therefore vegetarianism is contraindicated for them. It is possible to expand the diet with plant-derived proteins, but they completely do not replace the amino acids found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.

Many vegetarians are aware of this – they deviate from vegetarianism during pregnancy and lactation and do not involve children under five or six years of age in such restrictions. If a person really cannot transcend his principles, you can use milk, eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, which simplifies the diet and compensates for the lack of vitamins and many other substances.

3. Start with your favorite dishes

It may seem that preparing a vegetarian dinner requires some special culinary skills, but in fact it requires only the imagination. Remember your favorite dishes and think about how you can transform them. For example, replace meat with cheese or add legumes or soy instead of the usual source of protein. You will be surprised how easy it is to go without meat, if you do not just get rid of all the dishes with it, but come up with an equivalent and just as tasty replacement.

4. Invent new things

When you learn how to adapt old dishes, you can begin to get acquainted with new ones. Look for the simplest recipes based on familiar products or try something that is not yet known. For example, from chickpeas, couscous, and quinoa, beloved by many vegetarians, you can easily and quickly prepare new dishes.

To impress your guests or simply not to let even these products bore you, try to look for something unusual in recipes from different countries. In the cuisine of many of them (mostly Asian) you can find vegetarian dishes that are not so difficult to prepare.

5.

Change familiar dishes

Many believe that the only meat replacement for a vegetarian is soy meat, which looks the same and tastes similar. To adapt to a new diet, this can be a good option, but it’s easier to invent your own way to avoid animal protein. Even those dishes that are prepared according to the original recipe with meat, such as bolognese or stuffed peppers, can be changed in your own way and add vegetables or mushrooms instead of meat and minced meat.

6. Come up with a replacement for meat dishes

You may just not realize how easy it is to give up meat, even if you often eat away from home. In almost every restaurant you can find vegetarian dishes – and not two or three, but often a whole section on the menu! If you try to cook yourself, various types of cheese can serve as a substitute for meat, and then try to discover dishes with tofu, chickpeas, nuts.

7. Use soy

Of all the typical vegetarian foods, soy is preferred by many – in ready-made dishes, tofu, for example, becomes an excellent substitute for meat, especially in terms of protein content. To begin with, it is better to use a marinade or sauce when cooking, so that soy products acquire a richer and more familiar taste. Recipes for the most unusual and delicious dishes with tofu can be found at this link.

8. Find vegetarian recipes

At first, when giving up meat still seems something unusual and frightening, you can calm down and diversify your diet with new recipes. If you suddenly get bored with meat dishes, you can always buy soy meat or wheat sausage and cook something special. In specialized stores, you can even buy vegetarian pate and seaweed caviar, and cook chickpea cutlets at home.

9. Feed your loved ones with your food

To make it easier to master the new menu, try to cook not only for yourself, but also treat your friends and relatives. Sometimes it is important to show that food without meat is even tastier and more satisfying – for this you can cook the usual dishes for everyone, but according to vegetarian recipes. This will keep you from alienating loved ones because of your diet and will only help dispel the myth that vegetarians eat only vegetable salads.

10. Find your company

Even if no one in the family is ready to switch to non-meat food, do not despair – find interesting blogs about vegetarianism, look for vegetarians among your friends and invite them to cook together according to the recipes you find. And don’t forget to treat everyone with your new favorite dishes. Giving up meat can often be difficult because of the sense of isolation, so going vegan, like anything else, will definitely need support.

Alfiya Aminova

gastroenterologist at the clinic “K + 31”

— Vegetarianism also has a positive effect. Its adherents have fewer problems with the gallbladder, liver, cholesterol levels, that is, they have a low risk of developing atherosclerosis. One of my patients, aged 75, had a severely deformed gallbladder and only found out about it in his eighties.