Vegetarian Diets
People choose vegetarian diets for a number of reasons; an aversion to killing animals, a reluctance to eat meat, or a simple choice towards a different way of life.
There are a number of different vegetarian diets. Although it need not be a completely restrictive diet. The core theme across all vegetarian diets is the avoidance of all red meat (such as beef, lamb, and pork).
Types of Vegetarian
- Vegan – Eats no food sourced from animals
- Lacto-ovo – Includes milk and eggs.
- Lacto – Allows milk but will not eat eggs.
- Ovo – Eats eggs only – but no other animal foods.
- Pesco – Eats fish but no other animal foods (pescetarian)
- Pollo – Allows chicken
- Fruitarian (sub-set of vegan – includes only fruiting portion of plant).
As vegetarian diets are based on consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains, these diets are high in fiber. They have other health advantages in that they are normally lower in calories, saturated fat, and refined sugars.
With the correct understanding and careful planning, all types of vegetarian diet can provide adequate nutrition.
Nutrients to be aware of
The main nutrients that must be emphasized are; protein, iron, calcium, zinc, riboflavin, and vitamin B12.
Lacto/ovo diets provide protein by means of milk and egg white.
On a vegan diet, protein needs must be met by legumes (nuts, peas, lentils, beans, etc). Combining beans and other legumes with various dishes can provide the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein – normally a gram per kilogram of body weight. While Soy milk is an excellent source of protein, it has high estrogen levels which, being a factor in the physical maturing process, is undesirable for the vegan child. Calcium for vegans is available in vegetables like broccoli.
Popular Vegetarian Diets
| Plant Powered Diet | Highlights the health and weight loss benefits associated with eating more whole plant foods. This book offers a flexible approach that does not require becoming a vegan or giving up meat completely. |
| 30 Day Vegan Challenge | A practical guide to help you get started with a vegan diet. It provides tips and advice on subjects including meeting your nutritional requirements and dealing with the social challenges associated with following a vegan lifestyle. |
| MILF Diet | A Macrobiotic plant based diet designed for MILFS (sexually attractive older women) |
| Anne Collins Diet | 2 Vegetarian options available, complete with meal plans and recipes. |
| Beyond Broccoli: Vegetarian Diet Deficiencies | Highlights the potential problems with vegan and vegetarian diets, including the nutritional deficiencies that may arise when these diets are followed for an extensive period. |
| Bistro MD | They have a vegetarian option as part of their popular meal delivery service. |
| Cinch Diet | created by Cynthia Sass, co-author of the Flat Belly Diet. It is designed put an end to overeating by teaching you how to eat the right combinations of high-nutrient foods that enable you to feel full and satisfied. |
| Crazy Sexy Diet | A low-fat, vegetarian – or better yet, vegan – program that emphasizes balancing your body’s pH by eating more lush whole foods, low-glycemic fruits, raw veggies, alkalizing green drinks, and super-powered green smoothies. |
| Diet-to-Go | They provide a vegetarian option as part of their popular meal delivery service |
| Dietwatch | Online based dieting resource that includes a vegetarian option. |
| Dr. McDougall Diet | A low fat plant-based diet that has been used by many dieters with success to achieve weight loss and for the management of conditions including heart disease and diabetes. |
| Eat to Live | 6 week vegetarian rapid weight loss plan. |
| eDiets | They have vegetarian options as part of there extensive online dieting resources as well as vegetarian meal delivery. |
| Engine 2 Diet: 28 Day Firefighter Diet | Created by Rip Esselstyn, a professional athlete turned firefighter, who converted a firehouse full of committed carnivores to a plant-based diet, in the process improving their weight, blood pressure and cholesterol. It involves a low-fat vegan diet and includes lots of tasty recipes. |
| Food Revolution | highlights the negative effects of modern farming methods on our health and the environment and inspires the reader to take action by adopting a vegetarian lifestyle. |
| Forks Over Knives | A book advocating the benefits of a whole foods plant-based diet. It was written by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., who are both specialists in the prevention and reversal of chronic diseases through dietary adjustment. |
| Hallelujah Diet | Vegetarian diet 85% raw15% cooked. Biblical based. |
| Healthy Eating, Healthy World | Advocates at least 80 percent whole plant foods. |
| Kind Diet | Alicia Silverstone’s vegan diet. |
| The Lean Diet | 30 day plan for gradually going vegan |
| Low Fat Vegan Recipes | Appetite for Reduction will appeal to vegetarians or those interested in eating a plant-based diet. |
| Nu Kitchen Meal Delivery | Offers fresh vegetarian meals as part of their delivery service to the NYC area. |
| Nutrisystem | They offer a vegetarian option for their popular meal delivery service. |
| Ornish Diet | Mostly vegetarian except for eggs and some dairy. |
| Quantum Wellness | A program created by the New York Times bestselling author, Kathy Freston and includes the Vegan 21-day detox diet that was followed by Oprah. |
| Quick and Easy Vegan Cookbook | The 30-Minute Vegan is a quick and easy vegan cookbook that includes over 175 recipes that can be prepared in half an hour or less. |
| The Remedy | Supa Nova introduces readers to the benefits of a healthy diet with an emphasis on a high intake of raw foods and green juices. It includes a five-day cleanse and a five-week program that allows for a gradual adjustment from a standard way of eating to a raw vegan diet. |
| Rice Diet | Very low Calorie vegetarian diet. |
| Self Healing Colitis and Crohn’s | This vegan diet show’s how these conditions can be treated with diet. |
| Spectrum Diet | Lacto-vegetarian plan that gradually helps people transition into a healthier way of eating. |
| Super Immunity Diet | Dr. Joel Fuhrman offers readers a scientifically supported program to boost the defenses of the body by eating a high nutrient plant-based diet. |
| Starch Solution | Dr. John McDougall outlines the scientific research in support of the health and weight loss benefits of a starch-based diet. |
| Thrive Foods Plant Based Recipes | A cookbook created by professional Ironman triathlete, Brendan Brazier. The book provides dieters with options for meals that are high in nutrients in relation to their calories. |
| Thrive: Vegan Triathlete Diet | A vegan diet with a high percentage of raw foods that is specifically targeted towards athletes and physically active individuals. |
| Veganist: Kathy Freston | Includes step-by-step instructions that will allow you to gradually adopt a vegan diet to improve your health and support the environment. |
| Vegetarian Pregnancy Diet | Highlights the importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy and provides women with the information they need to create a nutritionally balanced vegetarian diet. |
| Weight Loss Kick Start Diet | Provides day-by-day instructions on how to transition to a low-fat vegan diet. This approach has been clinically proven to be effective for long-term weight management, as well as for the management of cardiovascular disease. |
| World Peace Diet: Green Peace | Puts forward the premise that what we eat has an impact on our spiritual awareness as well as the health of the planet. A vegan ‘green’ diet is emphasized because it is beneficial for the planet and supports an attitude of non-violence through compassion towards animals. |
| Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods | The authors state that the natural diet of human beings was composed of raw fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts and as such they advocate a diet composed entirely of raw plant foods. |
| You Are What You Eat | Strictly vegetarian for first 8 weeks then some fish and organic chicken can be added. |
Typical Vegetarian Eating Plan
| LACTO-OVO | LACTO | VEGAN |
| Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
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| Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
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| Dinner | Dinner | Dinner |
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| Snacks | Snacks | Snacks |
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Veganism
There are many processed foods that are made specifically for vegans: hot dogs, burgers, taco filling, ground beef,
chicken strips, mayonnaise, sour cream, ice cream, chili (Hormel). These products are made with meat substitutes – such as soy.
More sample vegan menus
Breakfast: Rice krispies with soy milk.
Lunch: Vegetable soup with crackers.
Dinner: Fajita salad with veggie chicken strips (by Morningstar Farms).
Snack: Peanut butter with carrot sticks.
Or
Breakfast: Apple cinnamin oatmeal.
Lunch: Baked potatoes with Smart Balance.
Dinner: Spaghetti.
Snack: Tortilla chips and salsa.
Look for other tasty vegetarian meals here.
See Also
VegSoc.org – The Vegetarian Society
Vrg.org – The Vegetarian Resource Group
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I would like to congratulate you on your civilized comments compared to what I read last nite in the Madison WI newspaper on Feingold campaining for the Milwaukee Mayor to be the next governor.
My thanks
Go and check your bible and read Gen 6 and 7. GOD Himself told Noah that apart from the fruit and seeds they have been eating , He then gave them permission to eat animals. Before the Flood the people were vegans
Yeah, it would be too much for me too!! I would give it about a week or so after you eat it in the fridge. You can use it in so many ways toss a bit into a salad, in a sadinwch, in soup I’m sure you’ll find ways to use it up! And if you don’t feel like getting tempeh, you can also make this pizza with some seasoned black beans or something like that. Hope you enjoy it!
Am I the only vegetarian that doesn’t preach to people about eat meat. Everyone has there own belief it doesn’t mean we have to pressure ours on others.
This is why everyone is scared when I say i’m vegetarian because you all make meat eatters out to be nazi’s.
Every vegetarian use to eat meat once in their life so all you guys are doing is insulting yourselves.
So STFU from a fellow non-meat eater
.. how can you say they’ve been put on the earth to eat?! -.- ive been a vegetarian since i was 5 and have had no health problems what so ever. im not religious, but i believe an animals life is as important as ours. If vegetarians can live on just non-meat related foods, why cant everyone. its selfish to think we have the right to eat anything we want, especially with such great meat substitutes.
I love animals, but god put them on this earth for us to eat them. Hello people!! No wonder you are all skinny and weak beings.
I have been a vegetarian for just over a year and 3 months. I am only 12. Hooray for all the people out there who can be vegetarians and proud of it!
For a majority of vegetarians, it isn’t the fact that we never liked meat. We just feel a close connection with animals and want to be healthier :3.
you guys are all so annoying about arguing what a vegetarian is and isn’t.
bottom line: they don’t eat cows, chikens, all that crap.
the pesketarians still puke and everything if they have any real meat, face it: fish doesn’t really count. so shut up.
they live longer, since they aren’t clogging up their systems with yummy fat and cholesterol from cute little farm animals. plus, they are skinnier. sure, eat your “lean beef” and everything, but it’ll still hit your love handles. <3
Haha, the suggested menu makes me feel like a fat you-know-what. PETA and their “accidentally vegan” list totally ruined any chances of veganism equating to weight loss for me. Fruity pebbles … oreos … chips … oh my!
Interesting site, but ‘Vegetable’ has no scientific meaning. It is a culinary and cultural term. By the way mushrooms, being fungi, are scientifically closer to animals.
Hey Vegans, I really don’t have a problem with you feeling superior to us BBQ loving meat eaters and saving the world. It is a noble gesture in today’s world.
However, I prefer a balanced diet and nothing goes better with smoked BBQ than a good coleslaw and beans.
Regards.
Today It’ll be 5 months of being vegetarian. I know its not long but im proud of myself. and im only 13
oh, cool. I’ve been a vegetarian for almost three years now. What type of vegetarian are you– like, I eat dairy products and I eat fish, but I don’t eat animals. What about you?
Becoming vegetarian is so, so healthy.
I am an ovo-pescetarian, and I have never felt better in my life. Becoming vegetarian requires a lot of research, but it’s worth it.
The last time I checked vegetarian meant one who consumes vegetation. If you are consuming eggs, milk or any other animal products, you are not a vegetarian!
Uhm. I just decided that I wanted to become a pescetarian(for those who may not kniw what this means: its someone who eats fish and veggies, fruit, dairy; no other animals) and yea I know it’s not a vegetarian. That’s why it’s NOT called a vegetarian. So calm down people.
I have been a lacto ovo vegetarian for 38 years and always laugh at the absurd concept when someone calls themselves a vegetarian but still eats flesh. Chicken and fish have to be killed for consumption and violates the basic premise of why people are a vegetarian after all. A carnivore is a carnivore, there is no kinder and gentler meat eating vegetarian. Let’s get real.
To be a vegetarian you cannot eat flesh — any creature that has a face or has babies. Period. Eating fish, fowl or any other flesh automatically disqualifies you as a vegetarian because you are consuming flesh.
I’ve been a vegetarian since 1986, am in good health and get plenty of protein. Vegetarian and vegan sources of protein include legumes, nuts & beans (for both) and milk & non-fertile egg products (vegetarians). The fallacy of becoming weak & diseased by a vegetarian or vegan diet is an antiquated notion that continues to be perpetuated by those who profit from selling and serving corpses as food.
What we today call “meat” was, in days of yore referred to as “flesh” and what, in days of yore was called “meat” merely meant “food” — going all the way back to the time of Pythagoras.
In 1924, Archibald Henderson, asked of the then 68-year-old George Bernard Shaw:
“So be a good fellow and tell me how you succeeded in remaining so youthful.”
To which Shaw replied:
“I don’t. I look my age; and I am my age. It is the other people who look older than they are. What can you expect from people who eat corpses and drink spirits?”
Shaw lived to the ripe old age of 94. Albert Einstein worked until the day he died at age 76 (literally, since he took a draft of a speech to the hospital to work on). A pretty good run for someone born in 1879.
And consider this… in addition to the above-named folks, other bright, significant minds in our history were vegetarians — including Socrates, Plato, Da Vinci, Tolstoy, Tagore, Buddha, Rousseau, Shelley, Thoreau, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer.
Yeah… what a pack of weak, soft, disease-ridden do-nothings.
Of course, vegetarians eat NO animal, fowl, or fish flesh.
If you eat flesh, you are no vegetarian.
brian, exactly why do you make such a generalized, false statement concerning ALL vegetarians??
I could counter with an equally false generalization, “all carnivores have plaque-packed arteries, and are heart attacks waiting to happen.”
vegetarians are weak, will acquire diseases such as rickets, iron deficiency anemia, have decreased energy levels, loss of skin pigment and overall become soft if they do not eat meat. if you are concerned about the welfare of animals buy from local farms that do not mistreat animals with small living conditions, chemically induced fattening agents and other inhumane variables. it is part of evolutionary nature to consume animals
Uh, as has been mentioned by others, you CANNOT be a vegetarian and still eat chicken and fish – since when did chicken and fish become fruits and vegetables? They are animals, not plants! I repeat, you CANNOT be on a vegetarian diet or be a vegetarian and still eat animal flesh!
thanks , best search all day
I want to know which vegetable contains protien
Thank you for including a vegan diet. It’s becoming more popular and much easier to sustain than people think. http://www.veganeatingout.com
I’ve been vegetarian for 3 yrs this week. I stopped eating meat while pregnant with my second child. I chose this way of living for many reasons, but mainly for my own preference. I don’t like eating meat. My meals sound a lot like the vegan menu. I have not lost weight, in fact I’m about 60 pounds overweight (and now pregnant with my 3rd child, but have not gained any weight yet). Most unhealthy foods are meatless-potato chips, homemade cookies and french fries are my downfall. I still believe that this is the most wholesome way of eating-no chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, etc in the food-esp if you include whole grains and lots of fresh fruits and veggies.
I agree with Moogy. It’s easy. You don’t miss what isn’t there. My food tastes like food (which is why I eat too much of it. YUM!) You don’t need degree in nutrition or a lot of complicated menus, recipes exotic ingredients or cooking techniques. Just get a simple cookbook with recipes that use fresh veggies and whole grains and start cooking.
i like this diet it helped me alot
I am looking for a vegetarian diet, where I can eat eggs, fish, vegetables and fruit.
Is it possible that you can give me an example of a free menu diet.
Many thanks
i have been a lacto ovo vegetarian for like two months, but i didnt do it for the the diet benefits. I did it for the animals.
but yes the diet benefits are a bonus!
The listed food list seem alittle diff from what I’ve been eating ;Am from Asia thus the above menu seem like western. Moogy’s comments are very useful and encouraging esp the part whereby it says “you’ll learn to love food as its supposed to taste”. And that’s what I’d experienced after I’m on such diet. But am lazy to learn nutrition thus am now a lacto-ovo at times and a vegan at other times. Well as i worried i’ll be mul-nutrition. But i’m definetly against eating animals and its any product; too cruel!
i never been a vegitarian but i might try it now….
I have been a vegetarian for 14 years and a vegan for the last 4. It is EASY. To do it properly you have to pay attention to your body – eat whole foods in their natural form as much as possible and stay away from anything that is processed with copious amounts of bleach (white bread, bagged salads), sugar (white bread again, packaged cereals and granola bars), salt (canned foods, most frozen and otherwise packaged foods).
Again, you’ll learn to love food as its supposed to taste, your body and digestion will reward you. It’s easy, just learn a little about REAL food and nutrition.
IVE TRIED GOING VEGAN I ONLY LASTED 6 DAYS.. I WAS CLOSE TO A WEEK!! BUT ON THIS MONDAY IM GOING VEGAN FOR SURE. SILK LIGHT VANILLA WITH WHEATIES.. IS THE BEST BREAKFAST !!