Eating Tips for Vegetarians – Health and Vitamins
| January 27, 2012 | Posted by Alex under Lifestyle |
Vegetarians, like myself, usually have to be a bit more careful with what we eat than the average person.
Vitamins like iron and protein are harder to come by in meat-free diets, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of sources out there. We just have to know where to look and how to get the most out of what we eat.
The big question we always find ourselves being asked is “what do you do for protein?”, as if protein was only found in red meat and chicken nuggets. Well, for starters, nuts and beans are incredibly protein rich, as are eggs and even milk. Tofu and meat alternatives made from soy are just as loaded, if not more, with protein and vitamins than their meaty counterparts. As well, you can pretty much use tofu to replace any meat, and have it taste just as flavourful provided you know how to cook it.
Vitamin B-12 is one of the harder vitamins to get, considering that it’s found almost exclusively in seafood and beef. It can, however, be found in milk and yogurt. As well, fortified cereals often have them added in. Worst case scenario, it’s possible to find B complex supplements at the pharmacist.
Iron is the other one that I find I get asked about all the time. However, there’s just as much iron in beans and tofu as there is in meat. Spinach and raisins are equally rich. The only problem here is that these sources are harder to break down. Luckily for us, Vitamin C helps break down iron, so the next time we dig into a bean salad it wouldn’t hurt to add a slice of grapefruit or a glass of orange juice to go with it.
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