I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this question, when the fact that I’m a vegetarian is revealed to someone. Choosing to become a Vegetarian is a choice that more and more people nowadays are considering for themselves. A Vegetarian diet is often linked with a healthy lifestyle, for one! I’ll try my best, but I can’t pretend not to be a little biased- I am a strict vegetarian, after all! This article will showcase a few different diet options and their relative benefits. There are a number of reasons that you may choose to change your diet.
Health: As I mentioned before, a vegetarian diet, along with regular exercise, is known to improve health. A balanced vegetarian diet promotes a long term healthy lifestyle and can greatly improve overall wellness in the body.
Ethical: There are those people that just can’t handle the thought of nonviolence. Many people also have a problem with animal rights issues- they don’t want to support the factories and living conditions that most of the animals are raised in.
Religious: Many people are either brought up in or choose to become part of a religion that doesn’t endorse a non-vegetarian diet, many times for the ethical reasons stated above.
There are a few different diet options other than vegetarianism. Pescetarianism is a diet that excludes animals other than seafood. Some people choose this diet because they don’t want to give up the nutritional value of protein rich fish, and want to eat more vegetables and greens, while avoiding red meat and poultry. Others may use pescetarianism as a transition diet to vegetarianism or veganism. Still others may just enjoy seafood too much to give it up!
Veganism is another option- a more strict form of vegetarianism. A vegan diet involves not eating any kind of meat or animal product. This includes eggs as well as dairy, such as milk and cheese. People that choose this diet may be due to ethical reasons, their own personalities, and overall feeling extreme compassion towards living creatures. On the other hand, I know people that have become vegan gradually, as their stomachs have been increasingly sensitive towards dairy products, simply due to consuming them less regularly as they get older.
Most people are content with their diet, but do prefer to ensure that the food they are eating is healthy. To do this, you may switch to organic foods- whether it’s organic veggies or meat. Regardless of whether you favor a change in your diet or not- adding a few more greens and vegetables here and there won’t hurt any type of diet!