Many of us today are becoming interested in vegetarianism and are eating less meat or none at all. We may do this to reduce our exposure to saturated fats and/or cholesterol, which may reduce our risk of heart diseases and certain cancers; to eat more cheaply; to stop killing other living beings; and for other environmental and religious reasons. There are essencially three types of vegetarians:


Ovo-lacto vegetarians- includes dairy products and eggs in there diet.
Lacto vegetarians- includes dairy products in there diets.
Vegans- no animal products at all.

If you are a vegan, you should be specially careful to get enough protein, calcium, zinc, iron, B12, and perhaps enough calories to stay healthy. Be aware of Anemia due to insuficient Iron or B12.

If in a daily basics, you eat one or more of the follows:
- soybean products such as tofu, soy milk, soy immitation meat
- sea weed such as nori, dulse, kelp, spirulin, kombu
- dryed fruits such as raisins, prunes, dry apricot
- certain fermented food like tempeh or miso
- herbs such as alfalfa, bladderwrack, hops
- brewer's yeast
you may not need to eat any animal product.

In order to stay healthy, vegans must know how to use plant proteins. Proteins are made up of amino acids. Some your body cannot make and these must be eaten.

Getting the right kind of protein: Food that contain all the essencial amino acids are called complete proteins. These foods include beef, chicken, eggs, fish, milk and just about anything else derived from animal sources. Incomplete proteins do not have all the essencial amino acids and generally include grains, legumes (beans), nuts and vegetables. If you are vegetarian, simply choose and combine food from two or more of the columns to get your complete proteins.


Grains Legumes Seed & nuts Veggies
barley beans sesame seeds Spinash
corn meal lentils sunflower seeds broccoli
oats peas walnuts
pastas hummus peanut
rice soy/tofu cashews
whole grain cereal other nuts and seeds

Ref: The New Our Bodies, Ourselves