Healthy Eating for Vegetarians and Vegans

If you're a vegetarian or vegan, you should eat a wide variety of foods and have a healthy balanced diet to ensure you get all the nutrients your body needs.

I'm a Vegetarian

Defination

• Vegetarians and vegans don’t eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea (such as crab or lobster) or animal by-products (such as gelatine).

• Vegetarians eat a diet of grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables,dairy products and eggs. 

• Vegetarians who also don’t eat eggs and dairy products are called Vegans.

Some people who call themselves vegetarians may eat different combinations of these foods. For example, some may consume milk but not eggs, while some may eat fish but not meat.

Some may confuse what to eat, what not to eat

Type of Vegetarian

There are five types of vegetarian:

• Lacto vegetarians - Lacto vegetarians eat dairy products but not eggs, poultry, meat or seafood. 

 

• Ovo vegetarians - Ovo vegetarians eat eggs but not dairy products, poultry, meat or seafood. 

 

• Lacto - ovo vegetarians - Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat both dairy products and eggs, this is the most common type of vegetarian diet.  

 

• Pescetarian - Eat fish, eggs and dairy products but not poultry or meat  

• Vegans - Vegans don't eat dairy products, eggs or any other animal product. 

 

A vegetarian or vegan diet can be suitable for everyone, regardless of their age. However, you may need to consider specific needs at different stages of life, for example if you're pregnant.

Healthy Eating

As long as a varied diet is consumed, vegetarian and vegan diets can provide all the nutrients needed to be healthy (with the exception of vitamin b12 in strict vegan diets). However there are some nutrients that are harder to get from a vegetarian or vegan diet, either because plants foods contain smaller quantities than animal products or because they are less easily absorbed by the body. The main nutrients to consider for vegetarians and vegans are iron, selenium, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Most vegans and vegetarians get enough protein from their diets. However, it is important to consume a range of different proteins to make sure you get enough of all of the essential amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and essential amino acids are those that the body cannot make itself and so are needed from the diet. 

A good source of protein

Vegans and ovo-vegetarians may also need to make sure they are getting enough calcium, especially when breastfeeding as requirements for calcium increase during this time. Non-dairy sources of calcium include calcium fortified soya, nut, rice and oat drinks, bread, dried fruit, dark green leafy vegetables, pulses and sesame seeds.

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