I’d like to dive deeper into this topic that often gets misunderstood. I was talking to my friend recently who is vegetarian and she made a point that some vegans or vegetarians (especially who just started) seem to follow a path to exclude meat from their lifestyle without replacing it with food that has similar nutrients.
You’ll likely need to add some additional products to your pantry that you might have not eaten before.
It’s very important to have the balanced diet! You’ll need more protein if you stop eating meat let see how can your diet might change:
Foods to include:
- Fruits: Apples, bananas, berries, oranges, melons, pears, peaches
- Vegetables: Leafy greens, asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots
- Grains: Quinoa, barley, buckwheat, rice, oats
- Legumes: Lentils, beans, peas, chickpeas.
- Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, cashews, chestnuts
- Seeds: Flaxseeds, chia and hemp seeds
- Healthy fats: Coconut oil, olive oil, avocados
- Proteins: Tempeh, tofu, seitan, natto, nutritional yeast, spirulina, eggs, dairy products
Food to avoid:
- Meat: Beef, veal and pork
- Poultry: Chicken and turkey
- Fish and shellfish: This restriction does not apply to pescetarians.
- Meat-based ingredients: Gelatin, lard, carmine, isinglass, oleic acid and suet
- Eggs: This restriction applies to vegans and lacto-vegetarians.
- Dairy products: This restriction on milk, yogurt and cheese applies to vegans and ovo-vegetarians.
- Other animal products: Vegans may choose to avoid honey, beeswax and pollen.
The life changing device we just bought is an air fryer. It’s very good for quick, hot veggies so you won’t get tired of your fav veggies and fruits. You can even bake with it!
Being a vegetarian can be limiting at times. I personally can’t live without fish or seafood (for now at least) which is what they call being a pescatarian. Living this lifestyle gives you an extra source of protein and Omega -3 fatty acids. Seafood is rich in several other nutrients as well, for instance oysters are extremely high in vitamin B12, zinc and selenium. Just one oyster delivers 133% of the RDI for vitamin B12 and 55% of the RDI for zinc and selenium.
The most common types include:
- Lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet: Eliminates meat, fish and poultry but allows eggs and dairy products.
- Lacto-vegetarian diet: Eliminates meat, fish, poultry and eggs but allows dairy products.
- Ovo-vegetarian diet: Eliminates meat, fish, poultry and dairy products but allows eggs.
- Pescetarian diet: Eliminates meat and poultry but allows fish and sometimes eggs and dairy products.
- Vegan diet: Eliminates meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy products, as well as other animal-derived products, such as honey.
- Flexitarian diet: A mostly vegetarian diet that incorporates occasional meat, fish or poultry.
My top products excluding different types of fish and seafood:
- hummus
- nuts
- tzuzuki / guacamole with chips or corn tortilla
- black beans dip
- shirataki noodles
- oat milk ice cream
- cauliflower rice
- veggie burger from trader joes
- sweet potato fries
- airfryed veggies with seasonings
- saurkraut salad with sweet pea/corn, canned tuna and cherry tomatos
- seaweed salad
- soups
- sushi/rolls
- carry
- banana+egg pancake
- green yogurt+pickl+dill+cherry tomato
- olives
Look for more of my recipes on my Eats page!